Flinders Ranges and Lake Eyre South

G'day lads, just got back from a one week trip over to the Flinders ranges and along the Oodnadatta Track to the bottom of Lake Eyre and William Creek. Just me and my son, Ryan, who has just turned 15, and the trusty Nav.

Couple of pics:

The beast, loaded to the gunwhales and ready to roll...

Had a trouble free run up through Mildura then headed towards Menindee but was confronted with this at Pooncarie. We checked at the pub and the publican said people had been getting through for 3 or 4 weeks, so off we went. No drama. Next shot is our camp at Menindee - a stiff cold breeze coming off the lake, but had a good nights sleep. Final shot is my attempt at an artistic shot at one of the old mines in Broken Hill.

Went out to Silverton to have a gander - worth a look but very busy - there would have been 50 vehicles parked around the pub but I managed to score prime position. Camped at a caravan park in Broken Hill which was pretty cold and unveventful

We then drove across to the Flinders Ranges via Peterborough. Stayed 2 nights at Wilpena Pound. The first night was -1.7 degrees. Frost on the windscreen....

A coupleof shots from the top of Stokes Hill lookout - amazing 360 degree views that seemto go forever

Sorry, missed the Silverton pub shot, plus a couple of others...

More pics to come - going to wash and vacuum the ute.

nice pictures, sounds like a good trip with a few cold nights thrown in. How did your swags handle the cold?

Not too bad, dave. Ryan was in a sleeping bag with a doona on top. I just had a doona. Tucked in it keeps you warm. had two nights when we had frost on the inside of the swags, but as long as you're tucked in you don't feel it. Mine- the darker one - is a Bushskins Wentworth and is bigger than Ryan's Oztrail Mitchell King. Both were $200 and pretty good value at that, I reckon.

A few more shots from the Flinders Ranges. The first is another shot from the top of Stokes Hill lookout with the Wilpena Pound diorama in the foreground. Next is Aroona hut - blow the picture up to read the details.The dry river bed is on the Brachina Gorge track - you spend a bit of time driving in the river beds on these tracks. At the exit of Wilpena Pound you see this rock painted up as the Mack truck bulldog - pretty clever I thought. Lastis the view from a lookout on the Bunyeroo Gorge track.

Some shots from Leigh Creek coal mine. I grew up about 4 kms from Leigh Creek - the one near Ballarat in Vic.

Some photos from the Oodnadatta track. Lake Eyre South from the car park. Great to see the water - but so many others had the same idea.

We camped at Coward Springs in the middle of nowhere - about 100 kms east of William Creek. A great spot with long drop dunnies and wood heated showers and bugger all else, but still enjoyable. Met some great people and had a good chinwag around the fire with redgum we picked up beside the railway south of Leigh Creek.

All up we covered about 3650 kms in eight days. The ute averaged 10.0 litres per 100 kms which I was happy with given the load we had on. On sealed road I sat on an indicated 105 km/h, about 102 according to my GPS, and varied between 80 and 100 generally on the Oodnadatta.

Most people were very friendly and courteous, with the exception of Landcruiser 100 and 200 drivers. We probably passed 100 of these and only 1 waved back. So on behalf of all Navara owners, I say to all Landcruiser drivers: "Get Fucked!!"

The ute performed flawlessly except for the puncture we got on Lake Eyre - fixed it with the plug kit I always carry and it's held so far.

All in all a great trip. Get out there.

Sounds like a good trip. Your son will be about 7' tall by the time he is 18. Lol. Where did you get the swags from ??

Yeah, Pat I've still got half an inch on him. He's only just turned 15 in June, too.

The Bushskins I got online from a place called outdoors online - they were good to deal with and it came with a it's own swag bag and another canvas bag. The Oztrail I got from Harris Scarfe when they had 50% off. Not that it was worth $400, but I was happy to pay $200.

Nice one. I will have to check it out.

sounds like it was a good trip not a fan of frosts, I'm glad we decided to put our trip that way off until september. good luck getting the red dust out of every where

Already done, robbo. Wasn't too bad, but haven't washed the ute yet. Good thing about frosts is you usually get a good day.

cheers bullwinkle. I've done that trip a couple of times now, gotta love the ranges and the oodnadatta

Wow what a great write up! Thanks for taking the time to post it online for all of us to share. Will have to add this trip to the already huge list of trips to do

Thanks for the comments, fellas. It's funny, I was looking forward to this for a long time and tried to prepare for any eventuality, but it's really simple to do and the reality is, that it's not that remote. There is plenty to see and do in both the Flinders and on the Oodnadatta, but Broken Hill didn't impress me much. I'd go back to the Flinders and do the other tracks, Birdsville and Strezlecki and the rest of Oodnadatta tomorrow, but in no hurry to go back to BH. So anyone who is thinking of doing it, just go. And don't forget to give the bird to all the snobby Cruiser drivers!

Just another tip - each night when I climbed into the swag, I took 5-10 minutes to record the day in Notes on my iPhone. Really simple way of remembering the trip and then you can remember where the bloody hell you were when you took a photo.