gravel road | Chaos roaming the world

It was the first really warm night we had. Too warm for a sleeping bag in fact. Getting up, however, we noticed that it is significantly cooler than yesterday. A southerly brought colder air and made the whole affair much more bearable.

Rocinante seen through a burnt out truck at the road side

We continued on the Oodnadetta track for another 6km before taking a turn onto the gravel road to Coober Pedy. With the wind being fresh and cool and not a blow dryer to the face, I enjoyed the 166km much more than yesterday.

Also, for quite a while, we followed the bed of a creek which meant trees and much more vegetation than yesterday. Flo even mentioned that he’s a bit disappointed with how green the desert is.

Part of the scenery was covered in stones. It’s a weird event that happened just naturally: Soil kept flying away until a layer of stones emerged which now stops any further erosion.

Huge fields of these red rocks cover sections of the desert

We still had a couple of fun stops at the road side to rehydrate and take pictures of burnt out trucks.

Around lunch time we arrive at tarmac. Flo felt the need to kiss the first strip of proper road after 450km of gravel. Coober Pedy is a real town but completely depended on opal mining. Coming into the town we took the obligatory “Cooper Pedy” picture. We also got the information that it was only 22 degrees in Coober Pedy which is really not hot.

Since it felt as if we had been out of civilization for a while, it was pizza for lunch. Flo, again, didn’t feel too happy to be in a town and around tourists again. We checked out a church which has been hewn into the earth which was quite cool. After that we pressed on.

Clearing from the opal mines

Coming into or leaving Coober Pedy shows you the mining aspect of the city. There are dig sites everywhere. It looks like big mole hills; one right next to the other. The picture doesn’t show it too well, unfortunately.

About 25km north of Coober Pedy is a lookout over a very cool valley. Breakways is a valley that has a lot of meaning to the local tribe. It has many different colours which makes it significant in the dreaming but European came in and named the place ‘salt and pepper’ because it looked most like spices to them. If you are a fan of Mad Max III or Pricilla Queen of the Desert, you might recognize the place.

Stuart Highway was a nice change of pace for the first while. Cruising along at 110kmh is different to the bumpy ride over corrugation we had for much of the day. But then, it is still about 2000km up to Darwin so I might get sick of it again. 😛

We had one more pause along the way before calling it a day at Cadney Homestead. Off to new adventures tomorrow.

: Huge fields of these red rocks cover sections of the desert

: A last little lake in the riverbed

: not much longer …

: Ah, it’s an old truck …

: Rocinante seen through a burnt out truck at the road side

: Our constant companies. I hate them.

: Road sign at the gravel road

: Mines South of Coober Pedy

: wohoo, black top.

: tourist shot, check.

: this is a church

: just under ground

: icons carved directly out of the walls

: the way to daylight

: Hopper sans grass

: Clearing from the opal mines

: Salt and pepper and Rocinante

: 12 seconds, don’t run too far …

: You could get quite close to the edge

: Flowers along Stuart Highway

I-i-i-i-iii ha-a-a-a-a-te co-o-o-or-r-r-r-r-ugati … oaaah, sand!

Look at those craters! Corrugation, about ankle-deep. Nina for scale is missing. 🙂

We did about 280km today, from Lyndhurst to Williams Creek. That leaves only ca. 170 km of gravel, minor excursions not included, of course. The road was tough to do on a motorcycle. About 30-40 km were either deep gravel, deep corrugation or nasty boulders half buried. The absolute priority for me was to get through undamaged. There were still one or two situations that got the adrenalin rushing.

There were stretches of hard packed soil were we could comfortably travel at 80km/h and within 15 m it would turn into something that would make walking speed an issue. At least with our bike. A dirt bike with a day pack and knobblies would probably fly right over. Twice it was touch and go. When we hit loose gravel and the bike just stated rolling out of control. I caught it both times. Riding with that level of concentration for hours is exhausting, though.

The one cloud of the day

And then there were the 1000s of hard hits and constant vibration. The check up in Darwin needs to be thorough, and I will do a minor check in Coober Pedy. For once, I admit that traveling in a tin would have its advantage. All the other tourists waddled out of their AC’ed Utes in jandals and shorts and did not seem to mind the road at all …

Nina’s comment: Today, I struggled. I struggled with the gravel which made for a more than bumpy ride. I struggled with the heat and the utter lack of shadow. I also struggled with my mood and Flo’s mood. 280km seem too long now. It is called a desert for a reason. This place is very inhospitable with the sun scorching down at 33 degrees in winter. I don’t think human beings are meant to be here.

Now it was not all pain and suffering. There were some cool things to see along the road and having made it so far is a bragable offence in its own right.

A locomotive of the old Gunn Line in Marree

First stop was Marree, an old cattle and railroad town. We met a bunch of other bikers who have done our route in reverse on GSs, and their tales about the road were encouraging. The local shop was particularly well stocked as well, so we sailed past the warning sign for the Oodnadatta track well prepared.

Along the way we stopped at “plane henge”, a peculiar sculpture park whose main attraction is a pair of planes bolted upright into the soil. The landscape kept changing constantly but subtly. Stony desert, plant cover, sand dunes and then soon enough the salt plane of dry southern Lake Eyre. White as far as the eye can see.

Lunch at the Oasis in Coward Spring

Probably the nicest stop along the way was Coward Springs, a campground at the heart of a wetland created by a leaking borehole. It had shade, lovely little campsites and a “spa”, filled with the water from said borehole. We were tempted to stay, but it was too early to call it a day and we kept it to a lunch break.

After probably the worst bit of road during the day, we made camp in Williams Creek. It has it all, quirky bar in the hotel, with travel memorabilia from all over the world. We had a Callipo Ice there and reminisced about our childhoods. We also met the first bunch of “serious” travellers like us. A German couple on a tandem push bike and swapped some route planning anecdotes.

Oh, one last thing … a small mishap … I’ll leave it to the photo to tell the story.