After our overnight stint in the mining town of Leigh Creek (food for thought on the work front for the future) we headed to Lake Eyre via Marree. We had a quick stop we knew we would be back in town in a day or two so a beer at the pub and back on the road towards Muloorina Station. When we arrived at the campsite we had a quick picnic lunch just us and a million flies. We unhitched the trailer and left it there and headed off down the heavily corrugated track towards the famous Lake Eyre. 20kms down the road we saw Lake Eyre South and then followed “The Neck” for another 20kms or so. We parked in a rugged little carpark amongst the sand dunes and hopped out again joined by our friends the flies.
Over a massive sand dune we climbed and there in all it’s glory was Lake Eyre. It spread as far the eye could see. The white glistened in the sun like crystal as we reached the bottom of the dune we took our first steps out onto the Lake. The water was a few kilometres away and they encourage not to walk out to find it as it may have evaporated further than thought and you can become disorientated. For me I was happy to sit down on the cool surface and just take it all in. It was spectacular. A magic moment indeed.
That night we camped back at Mulroonia Station on the Frome River. Nestled amongst the tree line is a hot spring waterhole which is divine after riding over all those corrugations. We enjoyed a nice peaceful camp that night sitting round the fire. Shaun even got the guitar and sang a few tunes.
The next morning we hitched back up and headed back into Marree about 15km from the campsite we heard a MASSIVE BANG. It sounded like a bomb going off. We pulled over to see what it was hopped out walked towards the camper and stopped. Shattered glass everywhere. The rear window on our canopy had shattered into a million pieces. Very annoying but such is expected in outback travel. To get us back to Marree we tarped up the back window and made our way to the pub to make some calls. The man at the Marree Hotel, Phil bent over backwards to help us cardboard and tape up the back window. If you are passing through please stop have a drink or even a meal to repay him for all his help for us. We really appreciated it. To pay him back we had lunch at the pub and then headed off to conquer the Birdsville Track. The window would have to wait we had more important things to do
Norris Around Australia 