A doubly ‘tyre some’ day…but more on that later. Up early to more cold drizzle and sleet … but packed up Bernie in a break in the weather and we were off by 9-ish. Weather worsened as we drove north on the Flinders Way to Blinman. Small moment of excitement when Ness saw the billboard for the old Blinman ‘underground mine tour’ and saw a ‘W’ instead of an ‘M’…
Alas, there was no underground wine 🥲, but more miserably cold sleet , wall to wall Boomers and reasonably good coffee.
We then proceeded west through Parachilna Gorge to the Leigh Creek Road. The gorge road was sloppy mud, we emerged at the other end with a ‘choc coated’ Amarok and Trailer.
end of Parachilna Gorge
The rain ceased and the cloud base lifted as we headed north. We went into Leigh Creek for no apparent reason, so it was easy to leave. Nice sandwiches for lunch at the Copley Bakery, then north past Lyndhurst to Maree.
Between Lyndhurst and Maree we stopped at the Ochre Cliffs. The ochre from these ancient mines has been traded across Australia by indigenous groups for millennia. Used for both art and ceremony, the ochre would be mixed with a variety of things ( animal fat etc)prior to application. It has been found in East Arnhem Land and as far south as Kaurna Lands around Adelaide.
Maree … iconic town and the start of the Birdsville and Oodnadatta Track. Quick tour of the sights . Pub . Tick. One of Krause’s trucks. Tick. Old Ghan train. Tick. Wall to wall new 4WD wagons clogging the servo . Tick.
Departed Maree around 3.30pm enroute for Coward Springs. These are ‘mound springs’ where warm artesian water bubbles up naturally. Plan was to see Kata Thandi South ( the salt pan temporarily known as Lake Eyre), get to the Coward Springs campground and have a warm natural spa bath …
pit stop team member
16 Km out of Maree we hear an unfortunate change in tone from the road . Pulling over we discover the rear right tyre is flat with a cut in the outside wall. Bugger!
So we unhitch the trailer , get a spare off the roof and crack open the bottle jack from the VW… which comes with a requirement to weasel 2 m under the tray to place the jack on the axle 🤨😳🤔… and a three piece ( ! ) jack handle that is at best 2m long . Much swearing about d!Ckhead German engineers ensues . After cranking up 2.6 tonne of Amarok while essentially prone, changing tyre, placing busted tyre on the roof rack and hitching trailer again we are on our way . One hour lost , plan of ‘spa’ on arrival now looking dodgy. Note: 1/2 a dozen fellow travellers stopped to see if we needed assistance, thanks to all!
The upside of the delay was we experienced and amazing sunset as we headed west …it went in for about an hour, the photos cannot do it justice
We arrived at the Coward Springs Campground, in the dark, around 6.30 pm. Self check in , through the gate , then play ‘find the reserved campsite’ . Which we did , eventually 🤨. And to the sound of hissing . Tyre # 2. Something sharp had ruptured the rear driver side tyre as we drove around the campground ring road 😳😡.
We decided to worry about it in the morning. Set up Bernie, cheese and wine for dinner. Again. We may well die of scurvy, but we will be happy .
Ness’ and Mark’s Wandering 