Day Five - Heading Bush

The very pink roadhouse in Oodenatta
see all photos »

Once again we awoke to a colorful sky out in the middle of nowhere in the painted desert, at this point I seem to have the routine down pretty well as to what to do in the morning, or I'm at least adjusting to it!

On the way to the town of Oodnadatta we stopped at a place named Hookey's Waterhole to check out a desert oasis. There were tons of birds and I learned another lesson, always watch where you are standing as I stepped into the path of some marching ants and was quickly covered in them, it was only when one of them bit me on the ankle that I became a bit concerned about getting them off.  For such a tiny thing they have quite a noticable bite! The name Hookey's waterhole came about from the local children skipping out on school to go for a swim, the waterhole is a bike ride away from the nearby town of Oodnadatta.

Heidy in her new pink roadhouse cowgirl hat
see all photos »

The first stop in Oodnadatta was the VERY pink roadhouse. I am not a fan of this color but many of my tour mates were really excited about this, Heidy even bought a pink cowgirl hat with the name on it, check out the photo! Oodnadatta was gearing up for their annual race weekend so I think that there were more people around than usual for the big event. The reason I know that it was race weekend was because we paid a visit to the local school where the children were busy writing stories about the events from last years race. The school is mainly Aboriginal children and surprisingly once they reach high school age they are sent off to boarding school in Adelaide to complete their education. I haven't been in a school in quite some time and it was strange to stand in a classroom and watch children at work. The town has a really informative museum that we visited next where I learned about the settlement of Chinese in the area. There were two brothers that settled in the area and had a garden out at our first stop, Hookey's Waterhole, and they sold their produce at a store in town. I would have never expected Chinese immigrants in the middle of the outback so this was a story that stuck out in my memory.

Me learning how to throw a boomerang
see all photos »

We stopped off to make a delivery at Mount Sarah station, our tourmate Sarah had to jump out and get a photo opportunity. Stuart let her back into the car and I guess he thought she was moving much faster than she was because he head-butted her in the butt right in front of me, it was so funny that I laughed for a LONG time afterward and just the other day I had a flashback memory of the event and started laughing again! Definitely one of those things that you had to see to find the humor in, but an image I'll never forget!

Pedirka, a very deserted rail station in the middle of nowhere
see all photos »

Lunch was memorable because our food was just overwhelmed with flies. I'm sure that I must have consumed at LEAST 4 of them, possibly many more that I was unaware of. Gross. I'm trying to learn how to eat with my fly net on keeping my hand with my food inside but the files are quite industrious little bastards and inevitably they figure it out and then it's all over!

After lunch we  made a stop in the middle of a dried clay field (also the road at that point) to learn how to throw a boomerang. I think that I tried out one of these when I was a kid and if my poor memory serves me correct I lost the boomerang by throwing it onto my neighbors roof. So I was surprised at the fact that I didn't do as bad as I thought I would. My first attempt didn't come back to me but it was close. I had learned from Talc Alf that the boomerang actually came about from the shape of the kangaroo's leg bone. Aborigines used these as hunting weapons, they would throw them to take down prey. I am sure that if you were to be hit by one of these at full force it would hurt quite a bit.

The ruins at Dalhousie Springs
see all photos »

Our fun outing over we headed further out into the middle of nowhere, stopping off at Hamilton Station to deliver some more goods and then on to Pedirka Station, a very deserted settlement that was kind of eeriely beautiful. Check out the photo. The surrounding landscape added to the beauty but it seems that although the settlement is deserted the locals must use it as a place to drink alcohol as the surrounding area was filled with broken glass.

After passing the warning sign that we were entering the Simpson desert, which listed all of the provisions we should have if entering, we passed through a gate and began a very bumpy ride to Dalhousie Springs. Along the way we stopped off at the original settlement, which is in ruins at this point having been deserted years ago. There are natural springs occurring here but they were largely inaccessible due to the surrounding reeds. Well, at least I didn't want to venture in. It was definitely a desert oasis and when we drove up the first thing I noticed were the palm trees. Obviously these were not native to this area and the ever informative signs told the story of how these were planted here but have quickly become an invasive species, crowding out the native plants. It explained that once these are introduced they are extremely difficult to get rid of and to stop from spreading.  Not only did I learn about invasive palm trees I also learned that there are different types of flies, what we call horse files in the states, and they pack quite the bite! All it took was one of them biting my hand and I was very observant as to which type of fly was on me. This was difficult as at any given time there could easily be 50 (or more) flies on you but you could hear the horse flies, thankfully.

Sunset at Dalhousie Springs
see all photos »

It wasn't far from the ruins to reach the Dalhousie Springs campground. There were lots of people at the campground and I think that people looked upset to see us pull up as they were probably expecting us to be loud or something. The campground was nice and we set off to see the natural spring and take a walk before setting up camp. After we got back from a short walk around the area we all changed into our swim suits and headed into the main spring. The water is surprisingly warm and it was such a relief to be able to stretch out and move a bit after being in the cramped car all day on some very bumpy roads. The water was super warm and you could only stay in for a limited amount of time or you would start to feel lightheaded. The only unfortunate thing was that the bottom of the spring was quite muddy and stepping in the muck kind of grossed me out a bit. I like to see the bottom of what I am swimming in, thanks. On the short walk back to the campsite I witnessed another amazing sunset., check out the photo!

I guess they figure that since you are coming from the very hot spring you don't need a hot shower so they don't even offer hot water, it was quite the shock stepping into a cold shower after being nice and warm! After dinner we hit the hay kind of early as everyone planned on getting up early and heading in for another swim in the morning before we hit the road.