Delica Diaries - Island Vide on Stradbroke: Day 3 - Flinders ranges to Oodanatta Track + Coward Springs

Waking up in the middle of the flinders ranges has to be one of the most devine things I have ever done. After setting off late from Broken Hill the day before we didn’t make it to the town we were hoping for so had pulled over and camped in the middle of no-where. And when I say the middle of no-where I really mean the middle of no-where. Surrounding us were only beautiful mountain ranges and all night it was just the two of us and the stars. It was exactly what I wanted to do this trip. Being completely away from everything… all other people, noise and traffic.

I had the biggest grin on my face that morning, it was Monday and yet for once I didn’t have to go to work and fight the traffic. Instead I got to enjoy a leisurely morning, driving through temperate Aussie bush, totally teeming with wildlife. Instead of stopping at traffic lights we stopped to let sheep or roos cross the road. It was so awesome. We saw so much wildlife as we made our way out to Hawker. Every five minutes one of us would be yelling out “Emu!”, “Roo’s!”, “look look look!”. I even caught some on the camera bounding alongside us in the car.

At Hawker diesel had now jumped up to over $1.40 a litre, Hmmm.

The drive that afternoon was spectacular. I drove while Nic sat and chatted to one of his buddies on msn. Mountain ranges surrounded us on all sides – the colours were a lush mix of red, green and blue. It reminded me of the sort of scenery one would see in films like Braveheart or The Last of the Mohicans’s. I kept looking up to their crests hoping to see a group of native American Indians running down their sides, screaming at the top of their lungs, weapons raised as they run towards their enemy with all their brute force. I have watched too many movies I think.

Mid afternoon we hit Maree after driving through the teeny towns of Lyndhurst and Leigh Creek, all proudly displaying massive yellow signs emblazoned with the words ‘XXXX – sold here’. It’s always good to see Australians sorting out the most important things first. Who cares about fuel? Shelter? Or Water? As long as we hve beer, we’ll be right.

By the time we got to Maree the landscape had drastically changed. The Mountain ranges were behind us and we were now faced with the hard reality of the outback.. not a lot but dirt. About 30mins back from the town we had also lost the luxury of bitchumen so the driving had now begun to get quite rough. We had dropped our speed and weren’t traveling the same distances as we were able to on the way to Broken Hill, but hey, we are both so relaxed at the moment time really doesn’t matter. Seeing as we had everything we need right here we can always just pull over and camp… where-ever. You have to love that.

So we hit the Oodnadatta.

All of the roads were open, though the ride was pretty bloody bumpy all the way to Coward Springs. There was a fair to bit see along the way at the beginning of the track – sculptures and the like although more than anything the two of us are still totally over-whelmed by the nothing-ness out here. On all of the road signs it always specifies – “make sure you have adequate food and water supplies…” Remote area’s ahead”. You can understand it too. God knows what you’d do out here if you lost the beaten track. Its almost winter and yet the sun is still so fierce on your skin. At least it is nice a cool though overall hitting max 20-23degrees during the day, I’m glad we waited until May to get here. I reckon the heat in summer would be completely unbearable.

By mid-afternnon we made it to the little oasis which is Coward Springs. A devine little camping place which gets its name from the hot natural spring which is on site. I’d definitely recommend staying here if you ever make it out this way. It has great little tree-lined camping area’s complete with pre-made fire pits – perfect for our chocolate wheaten and marsh-mellow sandwicheas. Yum yum yum =.)

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