Gums, Wattles and Red Roads

This is the first of two posts about 10 days in the outback
What an experience this has been travelling in a 4WD Toyota Landcruiser with trailer for luggage, food, water swags and emergency supplies. We travelled 3500kms through arid bush and desert from Adelaide to Alice Springs, much of it on red dirt roads or stony tracks By paved road it is about 1200km. “We” were a group of 10, mixed demographic as our guide put it. Ages ranged from 20s to 70s, some European, mostly Australian and others like my friends Frances and Paul, global citizens carrying several passports and residency cards.
Our guide and driver Rick was a free spirit and photographer who started out at 14 racing motorcycles and playing in rock bands, then headed off to China for various entrepreneurial pursuits before returning to Adelaide and discovering a new passion for outback guiding.
Our first two days were in the Flinders Ranges, seeing Wilpena Pound, rock paintings at Arkaroo, our first campsite a bush camp near a camel farm, we rode the last two kms to the camp on camels. There were magical short walks and our first taste of the outback. If I came back to Australia, I’d want to spend more time in the Flinders, it is very beautiful and relatively accessible and not as daunting as the rest.
After a short stop to see the very rare yellow footed rock wallabies we headed north into stony deserts called gibber plains and after crossing a dune called Priscilla we camped on the salty shores of Lake Eyre south. Every night, we slept in our swags, heavy canvas bivvy bags, all with a name, mine was called Monica Lewinsky. It was cold, had to put on all my layers but the sky was a treat, satellites, shooting stars, the Southern Cross and Orion looking decidedly wonky, such is the southern hemisphere.
In the morning we headed along the old Ghan railway, ruins telling of broken settler dreams along the way and a visit to our first mound springs, bubbling up from the artesian basin and creating an illusion of lush possibilities in this arid land. Then it was on to the Opal town of Coober Pedy. We visited an opal mine, usual chit chat, enjoyed a shower and pizza in a restaurant and a night in an underground house which stays at about 22 degrees all the time. It rained a bit overnight, something to be celebrated in this dessicated continent.

A morning walk in the Painted Desert was one of the trip highlights then after a long rattling drive in dust and heat and a short stop for lunch at the Oodnadatta Pink Roadhouse, we came to the Dalhousie ruin on a palm adorned mound spring at sunset. Another broken dream, an Irish family called Bagot lived here from the 1880s to the early 20th century, hoping to make their fortune in cattle The interpretive sign told us that in spite of isolation and many hardships they had an enviable social life.
It was a hot day but bearable until Dalhousie Springs in Witjira National Park where the pool was 37, not cooling enough for me. Then the mozzies set in, not a good night, wore a net and used Deet. This experience spawned a bunch of limericks. There were dingos around the campsite, they stole a flip flop from a neighbouring camper. Rick warned us not to leave shoes outside our swags.


On the dusty rough road to Witjira The night spent at Dalhousie Springs
Our mission could not have been clearer Was tortured by creatures with wings
To jump in a pool It was such a pain
Far too hot, so uncool Don’t go there again
Not worth the diesel said Vera Cos everyone’s covered with stings

Escaping the mozzies we drove through part of the Simpson desert, very beautiful, saw the “mouth” of the Finke River, one of the world’s oldest rivers which of course is dry most of the time but supports magnificent Red River Gums spotted the scarlet Sturt’s Desert Pea, and camped in a magical spot at Kulgera, on sand but surrounded with red rocks and boulders. I am now more familiar with the trees, can tell a gum from a wattle. Most of the latter are in flower, yellow or creamy blossoms. The gums have magnificent bark, ghost gums, pure white are my favourites
We were coming to the end of our real outback experiences, approaching the more visited sites, Uluru (Ayers Rock) Kaja Tjuta (The Olgas) and Kings Canyon. More on that in my next post.