Day 6 - William Ck to Oodnadatta

It was an hectic start for the guys taking the scenic flight over Lake Eyre and less so for me.  I'm not a good flyer, so I decided to have a look over the 4WD, pack up the campsite and be ready for the departure when the guys got their feet back on the ground.

Whenn they got back we said our goodbyes to the folks we had met the night before, fuelled up and set our sights on Oodnadatta.

Ready to head off from the William Ck Hotel, William Creek.

We really enjoyed the night here.  Lots of character in the pub itself, watching the State of Origin Rugby Leauge game was great fun, and our fellow travellers there that night we all chilled, full of great stories about their travels.

We were still considering whether we should go from Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy or whether we should head back down the Oodnadatta Track to Lyndhurst and then up the Strezlecki Track as we left that morning.

The debate was put on hold when we spotted what looked like smoke in the distance and we were discussing what it could be.  Given the shape of the smoke we doubted a grass fire and we had heard nothing on the CB or at William Creek about a fire so we continued.  As we got closer we thought that it more looked like steam than smoke and I said if it was a car that had overheated we should offer them some of the water we had onboard, and see if we could help out.

When we got further up the Track we saw where the smoke was coming from.  A fire had destroyed a camper trailer and a 4WD.  Folks from the station were on site with a water tanker putting the last of the fire out. The camper trailer was completely destroyed and the 4WD wasn't looking to good.  We stopped and offered what we could.

After stopping for a short while we decided that there wasn't anything that we could do to help these guys so we left.  Fortunately they were travelling in convoy so things were, as far as was possible, under control.

Further along we stopped for lunch.

the great thing about outback travel is that you can stop in a fair number of stunning places and have a cuppa, lunch or just a look around.

An awsome lunch stop...

A bit more driving and a stop to gather firewood saw us arrive in Oodnadatta later that afternoon.  It didn't take us long to set up camp, get a fire going and settle in for the night.

The obligatory pic of the Pink Roadhouse.  The Roadhouse staff are a wealth of local knowledge and it is worth stopping in for a chat.  You can make phone calls from the Roadhouse payphone and it stocks a variety of stock up items.

And souveniers.

They have a campground out the back with toilets, showers, fire pits, a camp kitchen and a laundry.  It was a great 'mid-point' stop.

It doesn't take long to walk through the Oodnadatta township, but it is worthwhile with a museum and a few other bits and pieces.

Sitting around the campfire with fellow travellers that night we decided that we would head back to Lyndhurst and head up the Strezlecki Track.  We were planning for a day trip down to Farina Station Campground and then a relatively early departure for the new track.  With that we hit the sack thinking about the big 'turn around.'