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After shuffling our
travel itinerary a bit around, due to 4WD tracks that were closed because of
heavy rainfalls, we were now travelling to Melbourne in order to catch our
ferry to Tasmania. The shortest path would have been to travel along some
bitumen Highways through South Australia and then into Victoria. After checking
in Marree, we found that the Strzelecki Track is an equally well built up track
as the Oodnadatta track these days. That means that one can drive 100km/h
almost along the whole track. So we decided to make a little detour of a few
hundred kilometers.
In Lyndhurst we started on the Strzelecki track
towards Innamincka. Along the track itself, there are no landmarks or sites to
be visited. The track starts out with a very brownish surrounding dominated by
the colours of the Northern Flinders Ranges. After roughly 70km we veered of
the track into the Northern Flinders Ranges. The chosen track makes a loop of
roughly 120 kms before joining the Strzelecki track again. The loop as well
gives access to Arkaroola, a beautiful Holliday destination in it's own right
(check the 1999 trip). The next morning we noticed that we had a slow leak on
our left rear tyre. After inflating it, it would hold sufficient air for
another 2-3 hours travelling. That meant that we would have to search for a
garage in Innamincka to get the tyre fixed.
Once back on the Strzelecki
track, the road leads through roughly 300 kms of almost featureless landscapes
with the odd sanddune that has to be passed. A number of waterholes and bores
give opportunity to camp or PicNic along the way. 90kms outside of Innamincka
lies Moomba. A petrochemical plant operated by South Australia and Northern
Territory Oil Search (Santos). Here quite a number pipelines from the different
Oil- and Gasfields in the Cooper basin collect the so one energies and pass
them through bigger pipelines to the users in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra and
Sydney. Oil, Gas, LPG and Ethane are exported as well via an additional
pipeline terminating near Whyalla from where the goods are loaded on ships to
reach their destinations.
After another 90 kms, we reached Innamincka.
The Township consist of a trading post, a hotel, a Ranger station and a
mechanical service plus a 5-10 houses where probably the people live.
Astonishingly we found that the Cooper Creek carried quite a lot of water
although it is surrounded by several hundred kilometers of desert on all sides.
Around Innamincka a lot of natural and historic sights can be found in the
Innamincka Regional Reserve. We first visited Lake Coongie, an amazingly
picturesque lake with almost greenish shining freshwater surrounded by white
and orange beaches and sanddunes. Here in this oasis in the middle of the
desert we found an intriguingly diverse birdlife. We spoted Herons, Igretes,
Pelicans, Ducks, Spoonbills and a number of Kites. Not to mention all the
smaller birds.
Back around Innamincka as well the story is told of
Burke and Wills, which lead an exploration party in order to become the first
european settlers to cross the continent from south to north. They actually
succeeded their quest and reached as the first european settlers the Gulf of
Carpentaria. Due to ill fate, they later perished on their way back south with
the exception of John King, who managed to survive with the help of Aborigines
until he was found by a search party.
After visiting the Dig Tree, part
of the Burkes and Wills history, we travelled on along gravelroads on station
property towards Tibooburra in New South Wales and from there via Broken Hills,
Mildura and Swan Hill to Melbourne. In Melbourne we stepped out into the busy
Citylife for a change. The Locals call Melbourne "the most liveable City in the
world". Which we dare to be of absolutely different opinion. Nevertheless, we
found a lot of beautiful sites and we enjoyed the beautiful restaurants that
let us forget about cooking and doing the dishes for a while.
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