Heading Northwest along the corrugated Oodnadatta track towards William Creek a
brown and white sign marks the turnoff to lake eyre national park
I'll have another sixty kilometers to go before finally standing at the shoreline
of Lake Eyre I'm amazed by the dozens of weary eyed cattle they call this almost
barren rocky landscape their home I've seen so much footage from documentaries
and news clips of this place raving about the abundant bird life which arrived after
rains
I've pulled up here on the track into northern lake eyre at the memorial to
Caroline GrossMueller who perished here the 11th of the 12th 1998 now I can't
remember all the exact details but I remember seeing a documentary on this
woman they were a pair of backpackers who came out here they hired a 4wd
camper van and went out camping at the campsite on the lake they ended up
getting their 4wd bogged in the soft sand there and because they weren't
really experienced 4wdrivers they didn't really know how to get it out
they didn't have any recovery gear with them they tried reducing the tyre
pressures but they didn't know how by how much to reduce them so they didn't
reduce them enough the car got stuck they stayed there a few days waiting to see
if anyone come to rescue them no one ended up coming so the woman Caroline
decided to leave her partner behind and try walking back all the way to
William Creek Hotel which is the nearest town basically anywhere near here it's
at least a 70 kilometer hike and I'm assuming must have been a fairly hot day
maybe they were out here and in summer and yeah she took some water supplies
with her didn't end up making it this is probably a site where she was found this
goes to show you know if you're really not prepared places like this it may not
seem very fast 70 kilometres but when it's really hot out here it's hot you
know if we can get 40 degree days out here and trying to walk 70 kilometers in
that kind of heat you know you got no chance in the end the partner was found
alive he stayed in the car he still had plenty of water there so there's really
no reason to leave your car and try and find help it's probably the best thing
you can do is just stay out of the car out here there's nothingness your're not
gonna find a single person like me you just look at the clothes I'm wearing so
it's just a shame you know you you really got to remember to stay with your
car and you've a much better chance of being found at least you got shelter and
any water supplies you may have. The winding track
continues rising upward until a bend in the road reveals an expansive Martian
landscape. I feel this was surely a horrid sight for the first European
explorers to set eyes upon this harsh desolate void.
You could almost swear you're on the moon right now that's just insane a very
lunar landscape all this Gibber rock just gives it such a wild feel desolate.
this is ABC Bay it doesn't look that much like a bay but I guess they had
water in it it would have the correct shape otherwise it's not much here to
see
now I've pulled up here in the middle of the road just to show you what I mean by
corrugations each of these humps here is the corrugation you'll be driving along
your tyres will be pounding into each of these so just shakes the whole car like
it's insane. The bigger they are the worse the corrugations and the more chance you are of
losing control of your car if you go too slow you're basically driving in and out
of each of these the idea is to drive somewhere around
about 70 or 80 km/h so that you're skimming on the surface of each of these
and the tyre doesn't have time to get into the dips. Unfortunately the faster you
go the more chance you are losing control as well as the steering is
really only touching a small bit of surface at the crest of each of these
corrugations so we'll have a quick look here this direction I'll show you
I reach the Halligan Bay campgrounds they are humble with posts and wires
delineating the camping and parking areas pit toilets and a colorbond shed
are the closest thing to luxury out here the ground has morphed into sand with
low-lying salt tolerant shrubs of green and grey providing habitat for the
local bird life which chirp in the distance.
Good morning and welcome to Lake Eyre North this is the largest salt lake in
Australia. It's dry most the time fills up maybe on a sporadic occasion
every 50 or so years very fine salt layer out there on top you can see on the surface some
places is up to about five meters deep.
Now Lake Eyre has filled only three times in the last 150 years it's a very
highly saline environment all the surface here has a fairly hard crust on
top made of salt and other silts but underneath once you push down into
it it's just a very moist bog hole of black muck and ooze if you drive a car
out on to it or something like that you'd break through the top surface
you're basically dropped down to that and you might never get It'll trap
you
yeah it's very very oozy stuff.
Well I get to make some lunch by Lake Eyre. Plenty flies around so
see how I go with trying not to eat any flies Just be a simple Jatz with
tomato chili tuna onion cheese and cucumber it's fairly healthy.
there we go a beautiful meal
hope they won't find me
the sun sets on my second night the colours stretching up into space
these are the magical nights which draw me to the outback
where no other soul or the sight of bright city lights can be seen.
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