0024 Marree to William Creek July 13th.

Janet woke first and set off on her flight over Lake Eyre, while I eventually roused myself and started to pack up everything so we would be ready for off when she returned.  She said it had been incredible – Seeing the vastness of the land from up there it looked just like the dot paintings done by Aborigines !!   We soon got away, up the usual straight dirt road with not a lot to look at.  I think it was an hour before we saw our first vehicle travelling it either direction !!   Busy road !

As the traffic slowly became more frequent, two consecutive vehicles threw up stones that smacked into our windscreen giving us lovely “stars” !!    Right in front of Janet !!!      Basically they are just one of the regular occurrences on these kind of roads, but it was just weird that the only stone chips on the entire trip came from two consecutive vehicles !! 

We crossed the famous Dog fence that supposedly keeps dingoes in the north, so sheep can be raised in peace in the south !!  More details of this later when we crossed it again near Coober Pedy.  The old Ghan tracks were running along beside us – now of course unused as they found a shorter route for the new rails, but many of the old wooden trellis bridges are still in place.    The next thing to catch our attention were these weird statues beside road – Old planes, old buses, all sorts of unexpected things to help alleviate the boredom of the long drive !!   Next, we had South Lake Eyre beside us, with water (albeit very shallow) stretching as far into the distance as we could see.  Soon after we went offroad to explore some ancient geothermal springs that have been here for centuries, and whose water played an important role in enabling early travellers and explorers to cross this arid part of the country.  The Bubbler, and the Blanche Cup were the main ones, and were really incongruous out there in the middle of nowhere.  Then Coward Springs which is an oasis in the middle of a desert, and has a great camp site where you can also take 3 day camel tours. It was also originally a siding for the original Ghan railway, and the old station buildings now form an interesting little museum.  
Finally, after more miles of nothing, we arrived in William Creek - Population 2 !!  But they have a great pub, a campsite, and some interesting items outside - Old rockets which landed nearby, and even a parking meter stolen from somewhere !!  After setting up camp, we went to the pub for a beer or two and a try at their wifi (so sloooooow !!), and then headed back to the van.  There was a fierce lightening storm in the darkening sky, and, totally unexpected in an area where the annual rainfall is miniscule, we had a big storm with heavy rain that pelted down, and unfortunately also found a few new leaks in Troopie that need to be fixed !!   This meant shutting the roof to keep dry, and a very squished night in the lower section !!!    Whoever would have expected rain in William Creek ??!! 

Pics are here :- https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0024MarreeToWilliamCreek?authkey=Gv1sRgCM2lv7mz1p7-mwE#