Following the old Ghan line

 

Monday 8 August 2022 – Following the old Ghan line

We had decided on a 9am embarkation time and it was pretty much that to the dot when we rolled out of camp.  Today was a slow steady drive through fairly featureless terrain with only the occasional cow or small mob of kangaroos (some of which were actually quite big Reds) to be seen in the countryside.  The main occupation was tracking the location of the old Ghan railway line which crossed the road occasionally but could always be spotted due to the long line of fairly level gravel and the occasional remains of a small bridge over a floodway.

Our morning tea stop was at Edward Creek which was quite a substantial siding in its time with water towers, water treatment towers (the bore water was too hard to put straight into the steam locomotives), stores and railway associated buildings and dwellings.   It was not clear exactly why they decided to put the siding here as it was a fair distance from the actual creek and was the most barren and exposed site that only some madman back in a city who had decided that every siding had to be exactly x number of miles apart would have chosen.  We spent a good 45 minutes exploring all the buildings and having our cuppas and then pushed on to William Creek.

We had a little win here as Larry had thought the lady asked if we wanted an unpowered site and thought he heard ‘powered’ cos the coffee machine was hissing in his ear and after he had paid and she told him where the unpowered sites were and we asked for powered and offered to pay the difference she couldn’t be bothered and waved us away with a ‘nah, don’t worry about it’.  As we had so many sites to choose from, of course it took us forever and, having forgotten how to hook up to power kept pulling up with the box on the wrong side of the van.  We eventually got it right and then set up and made toasted salami, cheese and tomato sandwiches for lunch.

We quickly accepted Hendrik’s offer of driving us the 60km plus out to Lake Eyre and hopped in the back of the trusty Landrover.  Having thought through the fact that we would be gone for well over 2 hours into a place with no facilities Jenny sent Larry back to the van to get more water and some snacks to see us through.  The road in was extremely rough and sobering when we passed a memorial to an Austrian tourist who ‘perished’ on this road in December 1998.  They had got their hire car bogged and had tried to walk back to William Creek.  The boyfriend had felt ill and gone back to the car whilst she had soldiered on.  The crazy thing was that she had plenty of water with her when she was found and had she kept drinking it she probably would have been okay .  The boyfriend was found alive in the car proving the theory that you should always remain with your vehicle.

We finally made it out to ABC bay where there was a whole lot of nothingness to be seen over the expanse of Lake Eyre.  The area around ABC  bay was the most barren and featureless surrounds we have ever seen and we though at that point that it would have been a great joke to have brought pool toys with us and stood on the edge of the lake looking out in despair for the promised water.

We drove around to Halligan Bay which at least had some toilets and picnic areas and also had a shoreline more likely to be found on the edge of a lake of coarse sand and dune vegetation.  There was still no water or birdlife to be seen but with the distant mirages you could fool yourself that there might be and you had to be satisfied with that.  However, Jenny was flabbergasted that we had travelled so far to see little and couldn’t agree more with Edward John Eyre when he wrote that “With bitter feeling of disappointment I turned from the dreary and cheerless scene around me’.  We did that by heading back to the Landrover and back to William Creek.  You know how sometimes when you head back down the same road you headed in on that it seems much shorter on the return journey?  Well this road was just as long and interminable as on the way in.  As Jenny was sitting behind H she past the time with “Are we there yet” and “How much further” until we had to start word games etc to pass the time and keep Jenny amused (and everyone else also which was Jenny’s intention all along).

Larry spotted the most useless sign that he has ever seen. No fire allowed at Lake Eyre, look at the below pic it is all rock and that doesn't burn !!!!

Back to the vans and it was still early enough to get a few days worth of catch up on the blog before we headed over to the pub for dinner.  It was a very nice in the old pub which has a bar and a dining area full of paraphernalia which makes it very characterful.  The old dining room used to be used by the train passengers on the old Ghan railway line who would alight here for a meal while the train was rewatered and coaled up.  The number of trains through William Creek increased significantly during World War II but I’m not sure how much longer it was after that before the line was discontinued and relocated further further west.  Probably after the next big flood that washed out a few bridges they couldn’t be bothered rebuilding.

L& H had yummy Outback burgers and I had a chicken scnitty with chips and gravy and M had a steak.  They were all super delicious and we were having such a nice time we even had dessert!  We had noticed that a lot of the staff were young guys with neat haircuts and we worked out they were all the young pilots training with Wright Air and flying over Lake Eyre and part of the deal for them getting their air time etc is helping out in the pub in the evenings.  There were also quite a nice group of backpacker girls waitressing there as well so I imagine they are all having a great adventure and making lots of new friends.  We walked briskly back to the vans for another early night as the temperature started plummeting back down.  Apparently it will be 2 degrees tonight.  So back in teh vans and using a bit of internet  whilst we have it.