We were up with the sun today, going to be a long day. A quick breakfast and hot chocolate for the kids, after checking out the sun on the high clouds. Very spectacular.
We managed to get away by 7:45, looks like about 90 mins is how long it takes us to get up and going.
We filled up at William Creek, just up the road, then headed towards Oodnadatta. $2.00 per litre at William Creek, and we had to get the backpacker girl at the bar to press the button so we could fill up. The road North of William Creek was quite good, but for a long way there was a set of ruts in the road that looked like it was from a vehicle towing while the road was still wet.
There was some traffic after William creek, until we turned off towards Oodnadatta, then we saw almost no one. As we got further North the dips and floodways got worse so we had to slow down below 60 to avoid bottoming out.
The long flat straights changed to gentle rolling hills with the road winding around, then long straights with hills and dips, followed by long flat plains with no hills as far as the eye could see.
We got to Oodnadatta around 12:15, just as Waren was leaving, apparently he arrived just as Brad was leaving. We had some burgers after filling up, rechecked fluid levels then headed off. When I checked the oil and coolant in the morning the oil was below half and so was the coolant. I topped up the coolant but at Oodnadatta the oil level was higher and the coolant was over full. Interestingly we also had Optus service only. Just before Oodnadatta we came across some graders, after which it was like a dirt highway. north of Oodnadatta though it started to deteriorate again.
On the road between William Creek and Oodnadatta we passed Anna Creek, the world's largest cattle station. We saw cows, horses, and then camels behind the fence.
Also as we headed North we saw ruins and other reminders of the old Ghan line.
North Oodnadatta we turned off towards Hamilton Station, then came to a junction where the Northern track was signposted "Mount Dare 132" but we had to negotiate a muddy section to get through. a little too much momentum unfortunately and spent the next few kilometres cleaning the windscreen and headlights of mud.
We came to a fork which had one track marked as the detour, in the region on the Hema marked as "Mount Sarah". Thinking that there was a creek crossing we kept on the main track to see, it turned out to be Fogarty's Clay Pan. Fortunately it was dry or it would have been quite different.
Past Hamilton Station, Eringa Waterhole and then Bloods Creek before getting to Mount Dare.
Mount Dare is just a property belonging to the pub, not a town, and we had to dodge around some boggy sections to find the way in.
We fuelled up and decided to stay in the cabins rather than in tents. We'd been watching some rain clouds as we headed North, and thought we'd prefer not to have to setup when it could be raining and unpleasant. As we got there at 16:45 it would have also made it quite late by the time we were setup.
We opted for dinner in the pub, which was quite relaxing, listened to some fat raindrops which made the ground quite greasy very quickly, then hung out at the washing and retired to the cabin. Just a demountable with 4 single beds, electricity and a fridge, but still preferable to a greasy camp site.
Tomorrow we'll buy some bread, water and beer, then head to Dalhousie Springs.
We also got some advice about the conditions through the desert. The Eastern sections of the WAA line are impassable due to a lake, so we can only do the first half, and when we get to Poeppel's Corner we should take the detour to the North around the lake.
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