Copley onto Lake Eyre and Oodnadatta Track

We filled in our afternoon at Copley by driving out to the Aroona Dam, where we were surprised at how picturesque it was there, especially with the afternoon sun shining on the rocks.

      

                              

It was sad to drive into Leigh Creek as it’s now virtually a ghost town since the mine closed. We came back, had a couple of drinks in the Copley Pub to continue our pub crawl and came back to sit around our campfire as it came in quite cool! I had a great night as Darryl got me a bottle of red from our supplies for a change and I thought it was particularly smooth and turns out it was a Port!! Needless to say, I slept very well. 😏

Our van was ready before lunch then we had to fill the water tanks and set off again! This chap was a marvel though - in this tiny outpost of a town, he was so knowledgeable and only charged $125 for a mornings work! Also amazing is the Quondong Cafe attached to the caravan park where they have home made pies and pasties ( we actually bought some frozen ones for later on) homemade quondong pies, sauces, jams, toppings as well as quondong jewellery!! Their coffees were pretty good too 😋😋. So we have very fond memories of Copley. 

 

  

We travelled northwards towards Marree again where we got a few supplies then we headed 54km northwest to Muloorina Station where we’ve camped alongside the Frome River.  By the homestead there’s a bore which feeds into a lagoon, creating a permanent waterhole which is a haven for bird life. It’s so surprising to find this oasis in the desert and the station owners are very generous to allow people to camp here for a donation - which goes to the Flying Doctors. Only one down side of this place is the return of flies - probably because this is a working cattle station and we share the lagoon with the cows!

We undertook the short drive to Lake Eyre and even though it’s dry, its still pretty spectacular and the enormity of it is hard to capture on camera.  As far as the eye could see was this Lake - absolutely huge! One of our ‘to do things’ is now to fly over Lake Eyre when it’s full!  We had thought there could have been a picnic table but as there wasn’t, we came back here to have our lunch. 

  

We had very fond memories of the Oodnadatta Track from 2 years ago but this time it’s very dry and the road was awful!! We took all day to get here to William Creek  from Marree - about 200km and we’ve had quite a shakedown I can tell you!! So now we think we’d prefer the Birdsville Track 😳. A beer and wine is very appreciated tonight - but we can happily say that we lost no beer cans along the rough road. 

 Well luckily the road today was a breeze and we were able to enjoy the trip (and keep our eye out for camels but none around - except for a truck load going on holidays!!) We, along with lots of other holiday makers, are squashed into this park - quite a change for us as we’ve usually got no neighbors and heaps of space. I’m sure we’ll find this a very interesting place with lots of things to do. Driving into Coober Pedy is an experience in itself with the hills and mines everywhere!!

                            

We trust everything is well with all our readers and next blog will be all about opals!! A big belated happy birthday wish to our grown up Ruby - 18 years old now 😘. 

Love from Darryl Marg Dennis & Tops xxxx