Distance- 410km (6734km)
Weather - Sunny 30 degrees
Day 13 of the Long Ride was essentially a day to explore some of the most inhospitable land on Earth, it became one of the most informative and enjoyable days I have ever had.
We started early with a quick trip to the BP servo to refuel the Love Bus and try to get me a belt. I'd only brought one and that had been cut off me when I was admitted to Charleville hospital, now I was forever having to hitch up my shorts.
Picked up at 8:30am by Wayne from Arid Areas Tours we set off down the William Creek road to the iconic town although, I use that term very lightly.
The William Creek Road is a dirt track of around 170 kilometres, in relatively good condition however it was being graded at the time.
We passed bizarre looking homes dug into the side of hills, the residents of more miners as we drove further into the desert, and don't get wrong, this is very much desert, almost entirely devoid of life.
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| Our deadly meeting |
A species of animals that do survive quite well out here at the reptiles and it wasn't long before we saw the first one - a brown snake around a metre long. Said to be the world's second deadliest snake we were told to stay in the vehicle, I was happy to oblige. Wayne said that he had handled these before however, with great caution, I wasn't going to challenge him.
The snake kept a watchful eye as it made its way off the road.
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| The truck that seems at home. |
Shortly after we reached an intersection in the road, where the ruins of an old truck was firmly implanted in the landscape. It turns out that this was the scene of an accident a number of years ago, where a couple of road trains came together and left the road. To honour the accident locals left an old truck and added trailers to it. It remains to this day as a reminder that these desolate roads can be very dangerous. In a remarkable way the ruins actually seem to be a part of the natural landscape.
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| Bloody feral cats, even out here. |
While exploring this area I noticed a few strange tracks. There were certainly bird feet imprints in the dry creek bed but something seemed to be following them. Having two dogs I knew that these weren't dingo prints, they were large yet seemed gentle or agile.
Asking Wayne I was informed that these were feral cats. Bloody hell, I thought, these were large and must've been a big cat ... maybe Victoria's mysterious black panthers do exist.
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| The William Creek road. |
The road continued on as we passed the road crew responsible for keeping these tracks in good condition. There were two large excavating machines, a ute and a number of strange looking caravan type contraptions. Apparently this is all manned by just two men who spend 18 days out in the middle of nowhere together, there's no doubt these blokes must be good mates. I'd loved to have had a chat to them.
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| Looking for meteorites. |
Shortly after we stopped at a clay pan for morning tea and to search for the remnants of meteorite strikes. The flat lifeless land was amazing, perfectly flat yet strewn with the greatest collection of rocks I have ever seen. There was everything from exotic stones to those you would find in any suburban garden.
What we were looking for were rounded rocks called tektites. These are super heated pieces of glass that are thrown up from the earth when a meteorites strikes. This part of Australia is strewn with them and easy to find if you know what to look for as a meteorite strike at some stage threw pieces of the earths crust into the air and formed these 'rocks'. We found quite a few of them.
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| Where the bloody hell are we? |
A quick cuppa and we were on our way again. The next stop was the Anna Creek Station where Wayne and to drop off some medical supplies.
Anna Creek was founded in 1863 as a sheep station however, due to dingo attacks the station moved and switched to cattle.
The station is the largest in the world, over 7 times larger than the largest in the USA. In fact Anna Creek is as large as many European countries. To respect the station managers and their staff we were asked to stay in the vehicle, it was still an amazing experience.
The life at Anna Creek must be bloody hard as they start top restock their cattle numbers after years of drought, currently they run around 10,000 head, as opposed to their maximum of almost 17,000.
Anna Creek is so large that it actually engulfs the entire town of William Creek which is just a little way down the road.
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| Remnants of Australia's involvement in the space race. |
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| William Creek pub. |
Located halfway along the Oodnadatta track, William Creek has a population of just 6 people and is famous for it's pub. The 'town' offers the only petrol station between Marree, Coober Pedy and Oodnadatta on the Oodnadatta Track and has a campground, two motels and one of the world's most remote pubs.
The most interesting was a memorial to Gabriele Caroline Grossmueller, a 28 year old Austrian tourist who perished in the region in 1998.
Ms Grossmueller was travelling with her boyfriend Karl Goeschka in December of that year. The pair visited the pub and let the young man running the place know they were heading to Halligans Bay on Lake Eyre, 65km to the east. If they weren't back in a few days someone should come for them.
Shortly after arriving at the dry lake, they got their campervan bogged. Karl let the tyres down and began to dig the sand away however, the camper wouldn't budge.
They had enough food and water to last for weeks, as well as water in a tank at the site they were at. Unfortunately after 2 days they panicked and thought no-one was coming for them. The couple decided they could wait no longer.
Carrying a tent and water they set off with the intention of walker the distance at night. Unfortunately the temperatures didn't drop below 35 degrees at night. After 5 hours they had drunk half of their water and needed to rest. After another hours walking Caroline left Karl who felt he couldn’t continue, taking his boots because her shoes had started to melt and most of their remaining water and heading on, alone about 4:00am on the 10th.
Karl stayed in the tent during the day and returned to the lake that evening. Caroline only covered half the distance to William Creek and was found dead five days later by two German tourists. Caroline had died next to the road, half way between Lake Eyre and the Hotel. She managed to walk about 30 km before collapsing. She still carried almost 2 litres of water on her and had walked past cattle troughs and dams containing water (and was only 700m from another one when she died). During the enquiry of her death, it was concluded her death was due to "heat exhaustion and exposure". Karl was rescued that same day.
The attending police officer later reported that the campers tyres still had 34 lbs per sq inch of pressure. He dropped the tyre pressure down to 24, spent 10 minutes removing sand from under the vehicle and "then drove the vehicle out of the bog with minimal difficulty"
The couple were carrying a desert pass pack with all the right instructions: Stay with the vehicle, Stay in the shade, Conserve water, Prepare signals - eg fire, mirrors, and ground markings. They were carrying no recovery gear – not even a shovel and the vehicle was not in an impossible situation as evidenced by the relative ease of the attending police officer in shifting the vehicle.
Such a tragic event highlights the deadly nature of the Australian desert and how being unprepared can have devastating effects. Very sad. There's another memorial were Ms Grossmueller passed away.
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| Lake Eyre - so vast |
After a quick lunch at the cafe that now sits across the road from the pub we set off for the lake, it was here that the land changed dramatically. At first it seemed that we really were on another planet as the ground took on a black appearance interspersed with red rust colours. This what happens when the stuff under the surface of the salt is baked in the sun.
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| The pubs ceiling |
Lake Eyre itself is amazing. It's larger than Belgium and so flat you can see the curvature of the Earth. Standing on its surface, knowing we were the only people there was daunting and yet inspiring - the only people in an area the size of Belgium!
We spent some time admiring the vast beauty and strange silence, when the wind dropped, I couldn't help think of poor Ms Grossmueller as well as Donald Campbell and his landspeed record breaking runs in Bluebird in the 1960's.
We returned to William Creek and over a beer spoke about the lake, photography and motorcycling, especially the Long Ride.
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| Even out here there's a parking metre. All proceeds got to the Royal Flying Doctors. |
The pub itself is an eclectic collection of visitors ID's, graffiti, money and other bits & pieces. It was a great place and I'd like to stay there some time.
The road home was much the same as the way we came except for a slight detour to Lake Cadibarrawirracanna, the place with the longest name in Australia. In the local indigenous language it means "place of the sparkling stars" and with water in the middle of this desert I can see why it was called this. It was actually quite beautiful.
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| Something had made its way to the water |
We had a quick look around here, I noticed what looked to be snake tracks on the lakes shore and quite fresh, so didn't hang around for too long. The day was actually starting to get quite late so we headed for home,
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| Bearded Dragon |
What amazed me was how our guide, Wayne spotted a Bearded Dragon off the road at around 100 kilometres per hour. We stopped to take a look and discovered that the poor thing was covered in ticks, one of them quite large. There was little we could do and didn't want to have any of the little buggers attach themselves to us so we let our little friend go on his way.
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| Dingo looking for food |
Before we reached Cooper Pedy we found a lonely dingo searching for food, she was on the 'bad' side of the dingo fence (the worlds longest man made structure).
It was a fantastic day that I learnt so much and can't wait to explore more of this area, I will be back.
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