Lake Eyre

Thursday 3 September 2015
This morning we farewelled Barry and Jeanette as they were going ahead to Copley. It was an enjoyable drive today once again following the old railway. The road was undulating in places rather than the flat land that we have travelled across. Taller trees lined the empty creek beds and the sky was clear.  We had about 10kms of roadworks before we reached William Creek where we had lunch at another old pub. These country pubs certainly have a lot of character. Business cards, money, stickers etc from all over the world lined the walls and ceilings. The cafe and grocery store had closed down and food and groceries are now available at the pub.

We reached our overnight campsite at Beresford early in the afternoon so Gary, Hugh, Jim and I decided to travel on as we were going  to head home via Roxby Downs and  Woomera.  We said our farewells to our fellow trekkers and pressed on. The countryside became very barren and we could see why Bob chose Beresford ruins as a campsite. At least it had trees and a building for shelter and a dam with yabbies. The downside was that the flies were there too.  The highlight of the day was that we drove alongside the southern tip of Lake Eyre. We only saw a small portion of the lake but it was massive even though not completely full of water.  It would be magic to see when in flood. No camping is allowed in this area so we turned off the Oodnadatta track and camped about 90kms from Roxby Downs. It was difficult to find a suitable spot as there were no tracks on the side of the road and no trees for shelter. Eventually we found a spot alongside the road but there was just one truck all night so it was very quiet. Huge rabbit burrows were all around - the sand is very soft so good for burrowing.