Curtin Springs

Our last day on the Oodnadatta track was probably also the least interesting. We had heard that this would be the worst section of road, but lucky for us a big section had just been graded (in fact we passed the grader along the way). The Ghan railway had diverged from the track at Oodnadatta, so there was no more interesting railway history to discover, and having already driven half this section before camping for the night, this day was really just a push to get to Marla. We also only passed about 5 vehicles in this section of track (compared to the veritable hordes further south), so we think that maybe more people tend to drive the southern section then leave the track at Oodnadatta to head towards Coober Pedy or Dalhousie Springs and the Simpson Desert. I think if we did it again, we would probably do the same.

Anyway, we made it back to the blacktop – very dusty and slightly more rattly, but still in one piece. Driving on the tar was not-unsurprisingly kinda mind-numbing. We did see one wedge-tailed eagle feasting on roadkill (a sight which had been promised to me as common in the Centre), otherwise the Stuart Highway was pretty uninspiring. (Ryan just pointed out that we also saw a rhinoceros on a pole)(we don’t know why it was there either).

We decided to get as close to Uluru as we could manage before fatigue set in – which turned out to be Curtin Springs. At this point we also gave in and stayed indoors (the lure of a shower was too much). The lure of a camel steak for dinner was also more than we could refuse – although these turned out to be a bit disappointing. Overall, it was quite a nice place to stay, although our “budget” accommodation consisted of a partitioned section inside what appeared to be a shipping container, which contained a bed and not much else (was all fine by us). There was also heaps of free camping which we were glad we had bypassed once the rain started coming down that night. All of a sudden it was quite snug and nice inside our shipping container…