Strzelecki Track to Innamincka
Waking to a beautiful morning with a sunrise over stunted sand hills, we were again spoiled. It was just us for the night without visitors be they human or otherwise.
On the track again, it was not long before the geography changed lending itself to a road surface of clay cap over sand base. Consequently the corrugations dropped from the billions per kilometre to mere millions. The difference was incredible as our speed increased, the headwind vanished, and all was good in the world.
A morning tea break at another bore led us to believe the majority of them had been capped as all we encountered were dry. There is no doubt it saves water from the artesian basin. On the other hand it leaves the abundant bird life and odd skinny dingo without a drink every few days. There is a good debate in there somewhere.
A few kilometres south of the Moomba Gas Fields we saw, but could not get close enough to photograph, a massive flame fuelled by underground gas reaching for the sky. I have no idea why it works this way. It does however provide a brilliant point of interest to those of us who know nothing more about gas than it comes from the stove and makes the kettle hot.
A short time later we crested a hill to find what looked like an inland city. The Moomba hub is massive, literally stuck in the middle of nowhere. Even the most hardened greeny would have to acknowledge this is a pretty cool piece of engineering.
Turning right we were now on the last leg to Innamincka. And what a brilliant leg it was. We crested sand dunes, swept down through dune canyons snaking our way through an ever changing landscape. This short part was a highlight of the trip from Lyndhurst.
Arriving at Innamincka following the final few ks of bitumen, we noticed it had not changed at all since our 1999 visit. It was devoid of crowds, however. There was us, a few truckies involved in a gas rig shut down and three paramedics and pilot who had flown down in a chopper for a feed. Not a bad way to go to dinner if you can organise it.
We set up camp right beside one of the last remaining water holes on Cooper Creek before having a very decent chicken schnitzel for dinner courtesy of the seven-week Irish backpacker veteran of the outback.
Tomorrow we head homeward. With over 500ks to go we will have to leave early and keep our averages up.
