Birdsville Track

15th April - 18th April 2016

300 odd kilometres on day one.  Very gravelly  and in many places comprised of gibber. Gibber are small polished fragments of the original dura crust that covered the plains around 65 million years ago. Like driving on marbels. 

Not far out of Birdsville we say goodbye to Queensland and hello South Australia.

The gibber plains. Stunning. The red are the gibber stones.

Overnight stop at the Mungerannie Hotel. $20. Brilliant hotel and facilities. Just pull up anywhere along the tree line!  There was a "plunge pool" of sorts behind the trees fed from the artesian bore. Tempting if I could have seen the bottom. Also a bit hot. Temperature like a hot bath. I think not. So we just sat and enjoyed the view and the serenity after a day of bumpy driving.

The day spa!

Birds everywhere.

Dezzi soaking up the serenity!

The sunset was stunning.

Beers and sunset. Loving it.

Got our hopes up driving down the track to the Hotel.  Yeah....coffee and raisin toast thanks......NOT.

Just a crazy sense of humour from the publican!

Waiting, waiting, waiting....

I give up! The trucks in the background have been waiting in the park up area for a while. Victoria Point not so bad after all Rebecca Young ha ha ha!

Dez trying the drive through!

The Mungerannie Hotel

These prickly little shrubs are everywhere.

Next stop at the end of the Birdsville Track - Marree. The home of the Lake Eyre Yacht Club. Only another 211 klm of gravel and gibber to go.

We came across the Mulka General Store and Homestead ruins. The store was built in the 1920's. Love some good ruins!

Stop to top up on fuel.

Bit scary when one of these comes hurtling towards you kicking up rocks!

This silly grasshopper hung on for miles.

DAMAGE TOLL FROM THE BIRDSVILLE TRACK:

Broken junction piece to one of the water tanks. Of course Dezzi had a spare. So fixed that.

Job one done.

Both the Anderson plug and seven point trailer plug disappeared somewhere along the track! Once again Dez had spares. He brought a bag of Anderson plugs, and happened to throw in the multi plug connector for the trailer, so managed to use that.

On the job.

Job two done.

Next job, fix the hinge on the wardrobe. I actually damaged that!

Also replaced a fuse, and needed two bolts in the bash plate because they had shaken loose and it was barely hanging on! Also lost one of the stone guards from the camper shocky. 

I think the Birdsville Track won that round!

Made camp for a few days behind the Maree Pub. A lovely patch of dirt with a carport type shelter for a communal area. As dodgy as it was we had a great time here and met some terrific people. The evenings were very social!

The Maree Hotel. Beautiful old pub. Much better looking out the front and inside.

Stunning sunset over our deluxe accommodations!

We took a little 150klm round trip out to Farinya Ruins (towards Innaminka). A whole ghost town. Right up my alley. Plenty of ruins. This was a thriving community when the Ghan Railway ended here. Unfortunately when the Ghan was extended to Maree that was pretty much the death knell for Farinya.

All that is left of the general store.

The old post office.

Hospital.

Remnants of yesteryear.

Keeping watch.

Underground bakery.

Love a look at an oldcemetery. So many unmarked graves.

 

This spooky. One hundred years to the day that we were there!

This is just half the list of those buried here. Heart wrenching to see the infant mortality rate.

There are a few decendents of the Afghan cameleers in Maree. The outback would not have survived without them in the late 1800's to early 1900's. They were integral in bringing goods from Adelaide to this area.

Now you can't go to Maree without visiting the infamous Lake Eyre Yacht Club! We were lucky enough to strike a day that Bob was there. He actually lives in Melbourne. What a great bloke. We spent ages chatting about the Lake and the area in general.  I told him I was goi g to have him for false advertising, as the water is nowhere near the Yacht Club!  Anyhoo he gave us a secret map, to a secret spot, that we could get to the edge of the Lake. Albeit just the salt crust. (Pretty sure he gives this map to everyone)! 

Aforementioned secret map!

Nope....no water!

So off to takckle the Oodnatta Track and find the secret location........