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Again a fair deal of
driving in front of us this week. We started from Erldunda down the Stuart
Highway to Marla. Here we replenished our groceries and supplies and started
our journey on the Oodnadatta Track. It was a lonely drive for the next 3 days
thru the driest inhabited area of Australia. Oodnadatta is the city in
Australia with the least rainfall. Per year an average of about 14 mm of rain.
The landscapes were absolutely beautiful. The coulour richness in the
surroundings from white over yellow, all kinds of browne tones through to red
and even black along the coastline of Lake Eyre. The Oodnadatta Track follows
the tracks of John MacDouall Stuart who led the first expeditions to cross
Australia from South to North. Basically along the footsteps of his expeditions
the intercontinental telegraph line was built as well as the Old Ghan Railway
from Adelaide to Alice Springs. The Old Ghan line suffered a lot under the
influence of bad weather. Therefore a new, more direct line was built in the
1970's. Along this route as well the biggest salt lakes of Australia
can be visited. Lake Eyre is filled approximately every 8 years and will the
hold up to around 3 meters of water. This water evaporates usually within the
next few months. All that remains are the salt crystals. The salt layer can
rech a thickness of up to 50 cm. Further south we diverted into the
Gammon Range Nationalpark to
Arkaroola.
Arkaroola is a holliday resort offering stunning landscapes, demanding 4WD
tracks, a lot of beautiful walking trails many historic sites dating back to
the first settlers and not to forget a divers flora and fauna. especially to
mention the Yellow footed rock wallaby. From here we drove further
south into the Flinders Range Nationalpark. Brachina Gorge features a very
interesting Geological Trail explaining how these ranges came into existence.
We ended this Week by travelling through the Park to arrive Sunday evening in
Wilpena. |
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