Of winds, mud and 4WDriving

We lay in our sleeping bags in Copley and listened to the wind gusts as they buffeted the tent. The fly wings flapped and made such an incredible racket that we had little chance of sleeping, then the rain came....."Oh oh (or words to that effect) says Vince, I think we'd better consider plan B". With the next 1000km on dirt, we were not keen to get stuck at Innamincka for the next week. We looked at weather predictions and made up our mind to limit our stay in Innamincka and move on to Cameron's Corner and Tibooburra as quickly as we could.

We set off up the Strzelecki track and the clouds darkened as we got nearer to our destination. We had showers all day. We arrived at Innamincka in fairly good time as the track was in reasonable condition for most of the trip.

For the princely sum of $5 we set up camp on the town common and drove back into town and paid $2 for a shower, as we had decided to shout ourselves tea at the pub. What a great meal. Simply the best pub meal I've had in a long time. I was interested to learn that a tourist was keen to pay his bill the night before in case he needed to leave at 2am!!

It continued to rain & as we hit the sack, we were again making plans for an early exit after visiting the Dig Tree. That added 120km to our trip so we were keen for an early getaway in case the roads closed.

"Come on, let's get organised it's time to go" was my wake up call. "It's still dark" was my sleepy reply. To no avail, Vinnie was convinced that we were going to get stuck so we were outta there! Our shoes were caked in mud as we walked around to pack up so we were imagining how much mud was going to be on the car tyres.

We actually had to wait 30 minutes for the fuel station to open. After paying 183c/L for diesel we implemented plan C, which Vinnie had discussed with a fellow traveller who was as keen to escape as we were. No Cameron's corner, no campfire in the common, no fishing in the Cooper, no Burke & Wills gravesites (road was closed), hit the mud & head to Queensland.

The road was ok at first, but as we headed down the aptly named Adventure Way, road conditions changed dramatically. We slid, fishtailed, and wobbled our way down the track to the Dig Tree thinking we must be the only crazy people out here but there were some campers and a few vehicles that followed us in. We read every monument we could find - it truly was amazing to see this place after reading all the stories about it in the "Dig Tree" book. We were pleased to be able to tick at least one of our outback boxes in visiting this place. But Burke was right, it really is in the middle of nowhere. We had basically travelled 500km in to see it, then a similar distance back out again.

The Dig Tree

Of course, because we were keen to read lots, all the vehicles left before we did and we were left with a very greasy tyre-rutted road. At times the truck had a mind of its own and Vinnie was forced to drive very slowly in low 4WD just to keep the car pointed in the direction we wanted to go! It was a bit scary at times but Vinnie handled it well (I think he liked the adrenalin rush, some people get all the fun!). It was a very long day in the car - 8 til 5.30 so we made another (wise) decision to try to find a cabin for the night.

Vince inflates the tyres after we come off the dirt, note the blobs of mud on the mirror and windows!

We bought fuel at Thargomindah, and if it had been a bit more inviting I reckon we would have stayed there but we settled for a bag of chips as we hadn't had either breakfast or lunch & then continued to Cunnamulla as the rain continued to fall. As we pulled over to take a photo of some fleeing emus, a car passed us and I joked that they would probably beat us to the caravan park! Guess what, they did!! And they took a cabin! Fortunately the manager of the park was very helpful and found us a cabin in town. It felt like the Penthouse suite of the Grand Mercure! It was blissful. Sheets, a comfy chair, television!! I really felt like I had escaped from the desert. We were incredibly muddy and my hair felt like straw. It's a good thing I haven't had access to a mirror for a while! I was feeling very weary but I think Vinnie was still running on adrenalin, either that or he was so pleased to be able to watch TV again. I was long asleep when he came to bed. We plan to wash and explore the town tomorrow before we head to Bourke for a couple of nights. We've booked the cabin for 2 nights, oh the space....