Day 141 -147 Flinders Ranges & Oodnadatta Track

After a pit stop in the wine district Clare Valley, including a very delicious lunch under an olive tree, we continued our trip back to the Outback and towards the Flinders Ranges National Park.

We stayed two nights at the Wilpena Pound Resort (sounds fancier than it is). A lovely camping area nevertheless, with a little hill just next to it from where you could (kind of) see the sunset. There were also heaps of kangaroos. Doesn’t matter how long we’ve been in Australia, it’s always exciting to spot them (almost just as exciting as seeing the first snow, in Sweden, every year!).

Some of the walking tracks were closed due to the high summer temperatures, but we still got to do the lookout walk, about 7kms which was a good distance considering the heat. From the lookout you can see the cool natural amphitheatre that the Wilpena Pound mountains forms.

From Wilpena Pound we drove through the Flinders Ranges towards Blinman, but decided not to stay any more nights in the national park. Instead we were keen to get going on the Oodnadatta Track, a 600km dirt road with start in Maaree and that was going to take us to Coober Pedy (via Williams Creek and Oodnadatta).

The Oodnadatta Track starts in Maaree, where we quickly stopped to get some more information about the road conditions and the track itself (we didn’t know much at all to start with). Upon recommendation from the staff at Wilpena Pound, we tried our luck at the one and only pub to get some details. And we hit jackpot right away. The bartender gave us map covering all the things to see along the Oodnadatta Track and he pointed out some nice camp spots, too.

We started the drive and stayed our first night at the Coward Spring camping area. It was a great camping spot on its own, with beautiful views over the landscape. But the very best part was the “natural mineral spa”, a pool built in the 1880s something for when the Old Ghan was still in use. Back in the days, Coward Spring was a popular stop along the railway for two reasons – the pub and the pool. The pool is still there and good to use. And what a lovely feeling it is to go for a dip when it’s 35 plus outside.

Our second day we didn’t drive as far, instead we stopped at the Angebuckina bridge (where the bartender recommended us to camp). We stayed the night as it was very pretty, however, after a few hours the flies started to annoy us and even more so the morning after. We couldn’t even stand eating breakfast so we saved that for the Pink Roadhouse in Oodnadatta, which was only 1 hour or so away. The Pink Roadhouse was a pleasant stop and it gave us some nice Christmas vibes. We didn’t stay long, but we did visit the museum before travelling the last bit of the dirt road to Coober Pedy (about 200km).

Before reaching Coober Pedy, we drove through the Painted Desert, an anciant inland sea bed that through erosion and weather has taken its current form and colour. Can’t say it enough, the outback is truly amazing.