Into South Australia

We enjoyed our night at Birdsville in our secluded spot then set off bright and early heading south down the Birdsville Track. We had our passes ready expecting to be stopped at the border but there wasn’t a soul there so we entered SA passes unseen! 

    
We love these outback tracks and even though in some places it was pretty rough, on the whole it was good and we didn’t have any mishaps.  Last time we saw lots of wild life but we only saw one kangaroo this time. There were however lots of cattle - all in excellent condition. We nearly collected one young one who was reluctant to move out of the way - I could see this big rump ending up on our nudge bar!! ( I was too slow to get a photo) 

                                         
We met little traffic - except for three of these road trains - it pays to get off the road when they’re coming!

Our morning tea was on the northern side of a sand dune that indicates we’re near the Simpson Desert. Sturt’s Stony Desert also adjoins this track and the gibbers make interesting scenery -well we think so! You do get surprised though with these artesian water flows. 

    
We went onto Mungerannie where we’d hoped for a Father’s Day special cappuccino but the chef was sick so we had to be content with an icecream! The hills coming into here looked much like opal rich hills around Coober Pedy. 

We camped at the Cooper creek crossing last night and were the only ones there so continued our social distancing. It was another brilliant sunset and we once again enjoyed our campfire.

                                     

Today we ended the Track and at Copley spoilt ourselves with a cafe lunch as it was dusty and windy. Unfortunately today was a raised dusty day so we headed as far south as we could to avoid the dust. 

We just love seeing the Flinders Rangers and really could have detoured there if we didn’t have more important places to be! As we came south we could see the difference in crops - north of the Goyder line the crops were poor but we noticed how better they were as we travelled south. 

We love these tree lined water courses and the beautiful stone ruins which are common in this area.

Now we are in Melrose and I’d say our travel blogs are over. Tomorrow we’ll drop our van at Marg & Brians and spend a lovely evening with them, then head to Victor Harbor. So this will be the last of my travel blogs. We’ve had an amazing and very unexpected trip which has grown from the expected 2-3 weeks to 6 and we’ve enjoyed some wonderful times. We will love spending time with mum then getting home to tend to our garden which is no doubt out of control! We send our love to every one - keep safe ❌❌❌❌❌