Oodnadata track part 1 and Coober Pedy

Beginning

Let's just start by saying that this part of the world has some of the most bleak and miserable landscapes I have ever seen. I'm sure I should have found it beautiful in some way but I didn't. Charlotte gave the most profound assessment when she said "the sky seems very low here". Yes indeed. Because there was nothing marring the horizon in every direction.

"the sky looks very low here"

And the flies drove us all crazy. We took to wearing fly nets (thanks for the tip Daniel!):

Ed and I are both a bit perplexed about why it is a tourist destination, particularly when we met people who had driven the track repeatedly! Having said that it was very interesting and there were some lovely moments.

First win was finding a lovely little campsite by a natural little wetland. We had a yummy dinner then lit a campfire and decided to give the camp oven a try. I looked up a recipe for a self saucing chocolate pudding and it turned out amazingly well! The unintended secondary gain was that we spent an hour or so by the campfire watching the stars. One might think that we have been doing this every night but in fact by the time we have our meal and wash up the kids are all a bit ratty and we get them off to bed and in the interest of minimising disturbance in the camper, we go to bed too and read then sleep. So we have done very little lazing by the campfire and it was just lovely. The kids have never spent such a long time just focussed on the sky and they were all cuddled up on a rug by the fire. There were only 2 other camping couples and they were 50-100m away so we felt really alone looking up at the universe. Of course the sky was brilliant in the desert. So we'll add that to the "pros" list for the Ooodnadata.

We saw Lake Eyre. That hell hole. It wasn't difficult to imagine how early white explorers might have felt on reaching it. The endless scrub slowly gives way to many kilometers of sand dunes and it seems that over every one there MUST be a sea! And of course there isn't. Ed got a couple of drone pics that show how desolate this place really is. The salt crust was interesting though and we enjoyed cracking off large chunks and karate kicking them. They are actually really hard. It hurts if you catch your toe rather than the sole of your shoe. Top tip. Lake Eyre has lots of water in it at the moment but it is not full so the perimeters of the lake are as dry as ever. The water is only visible from the air.

Ed did use the moment to grab some lovely portraits of the kids:

The other big pro was learning about the Artesian Basin: the underground water source that takes up a huge area under Australia's central deserts. The water is under pressure and at various points bubbles up to the surface as springs. They are true oases, as opposed to the mirages! Charlotte was very convinced we were going to drive into a big puddle at one point but then it melted away as we approached it! This string of tiny springs dots a course through the desert and it was by (finally) tapping the indigenous knowledge of these that white explorers were able to get through the salt lake region to the centre of Australia.

We detoured off the track to Coober Pedy. Ed was keen to see it and I remembered it distinctly from my own childhood trip through the centre so though it might strike a chord with our kids. It did. A very strange town. Piles of dirt in the middle of the desert. We did a tour with a lovely guy who included his own home in the tour, then a thorough explanation and tour of a working mine then a drive through of the few other interesting sites in town including their famous golf course.

We're heading back across the painted desert to Oodnadata tomorrow then onto more springs. We expect to be uncontactable for up to a week until we reach Yulara.