Woke up early in the morning this time. Purposefully, as I had found
out the day before that they offer flights over Lake Eyre and the
Painted Hills. As I most likely will probably never come here again
(to far out) I thought that I should just do it. Bit of drama to
begin with, as I don't have the capital to pay for the flight in my
Australian bank account but I have a German savings account where I
could pull the needed money from. Due to bank reason (and it being
Saturday) they didn't transfer the money (haven't yet either) but I
managed to get bye with what was left in my wallet, what I had left
in my Australian account and using a MasterCard of my other bank.
Off in to the air we
went after that and the scenery is just spectacular from the air.
Taking off our pilot (a guy who his working up his hours to be a
pilot for the Flying Doctors Service) took us past Anna Creek
Homestead, the largest cattle station in the world. Being in the air
it's territory basically went from one end of the horizon to the
other and apparently it takes a week on horseback to cross it. With
me was a couple from Queensland, who were touring through Australia.
After the homestead we angled toward the Painted Hills and had a look
at their wonderful colours and the occasional stock at water holes
here and there. Then towards Lake Eyre, where a many a documentary
has been made. Apparently the company who owned the plane did a few
flight for film crews and similar. The lake was as expected, a
massive expanse of dry salt, where nothing lives at the moment.
Flying toward the lake we did see a few pelicans take of from a creek
bed. We flew over the lake for what felt like hours and visited a few
islands out in the middle of no where. Coming back after spending a
while out there we found some water in the middle of the lake, due to
a storm the night before. Predictions are it is going to be gone
shortly, due to the high temperature that was expected.
After landing back in
Williams Creek and saying goodbye to everyone I headed of along the
William Creek Track to Cooper Pedy. This one wasn't as straight or
long driving as the Oodnadatta Track, only about 160km until to
Cooper. Met a few cars driving the opposite way, but surprisingly
none of the massive road trains everybody was warning about. The huge
ones (with five trailers) have eluded me so far. The scenery turned
from the red sand dunes of Williams Creek back in to flat country
once I got closer to Cooper Pedy. Weirdly, a rain shower came through
the desert and I actually had to turn the windscreen wipers on.
Luckily it wasn't to much, so I wouldn't get bogged in my car.
Getting towards Cooper Pedy the landscape got weird. Holes and hills
everywhere, some with mining equipment in it. Driving around I
eventually found the town that wasn't 100% underground and booked in
at the local backpacker hostel (cheapest place to stay). I got a dorm
room underground in a section called the dungeons and it is
wonderful. Due to it being 6,5m underground, it is nice and cool
nearly all the time, perfect against temperatures in this part of the
world. Went up to the bar after some dinner and used the free Wi-Fi.
Met three English girls, a Dutch guy and a bloke from the US. Got
talking to them and it ended up with us all driving out to the
Breakaways (a geological formation about 30km out of Cooper Pedy).
Got some really good looking pictures and had a fun time with people
closer to my age. Had to stop shortly to refuel out of my jerry can,
as the last time I had filled up was ages ago in Marree and I didn't
want to end up with no fuel in the tank whilst they drove away in
their Patrol. Had a brilliant time and went in to a bar for the night
before heading back to bed and saying goodbye to the other five. They
are heading off to Alice Springs in the morning, but as I will
probably appear one day early to mum coming, I'll probably spend the
day with them.
Track at GPSies.
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