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2nd April 2009.
We're continuing further north into the outback and deserts, through some of South Australia's legendary outback tracks originally used to drove cattle down south to the main ports. We left the caravan in storage at Lyndhurst as we knew the tracks were not suitable for on-road caravans. Still no mobile phone coverage and no drinking water connections..
Keep in mind over the next few articles, the whole purpose of our trip north is to film water in Lake Eyre. Lake Eyre is usually a dried up Salt Flat where Sir Donald Campbell set the land speed record way back in 1964. It has flooded three times in the past 150 years and gets some water in it only every 20 years or so and as such, very few visitors ever see it as a lake with water in it. Due to the recent floods in Queensland, the northern rivers are slowly flowing into the Catchment Areas and Lake Eyre has again got water in it , so gotta see it and film it for our DVD :) We've been reliably informed that we can see the water from certain points accessed from the Simpson Desert and a point along the Birdsville Track. Instead of going up The Birdsville Track and having to come back down it again, we're taking the loop route of going up The Strzelecki Track, cutting across to Birdsville via Cordillo Station, then comming down The Birdsville Track, then around the bottom loop and north again up The Oonadatta Track before heading south west again to Coober Pedy, well that's the plan.
The Strzelecki Track:
Lyndhurst to Innamincka 486kms.
The guy that runs the hotel at Lyndhurst also runs the tyre repair business and is a wealth of information on all the roads and tracks in the area and he warned us that although the Strzelecki Track wasn't too bad at the moment, some areas had lots of sharp stones and rocks, but the biggest problem was the bull dust holes. He advised to drop tyre pressures down to 25psi all round but as I was a bit concerned about the weight Tinkerbelle was carrying, only droped the fronts to 25 and the rears to 30 and off we went forewarned.
The first part of the Track is the worst with sharp rocks and we see nearly as many wrecked tyres strewn all over the place as we saw on the Gibb River Road . Passing the Gibber Plain at Mount Lyndhurst, the road then follows The Dog Fence for a while. This Dog Fence is one of the longest structures in the world, and "The Longest Dog Fence in the World". It was originally put up to keep the dingoes up north in the outback and away from the pastoral areas in the south. It stretches thousands of miles all the way from Jimbour in QLD to the Great Australian Bight in South Australia, but definitely needs some maintenance in the areas that we came across.
The terrain then changes to sandy as we approach the Lake Eyre Catchment area and Montecollina Bore. There's a hot water artesian bore there and it's a good place to stop for refreshments. It does have limited ammenities for those wanting to camp there and there's plenty of space. Amazing seeing all the birds taking cover in any shade they can find as the temperatures weren't that high.
From here on, you gotta be careful of Bull Dust Holes. Most of them are marked with warning signs, but we came across a few that weren't and narrowly missed them. There were a few road works going on and some of the bad places are now being sealed with the black stuff.
Heading through the Strzelecki Desert, there's some awesome scenenary and brightly coloured sand dunes along the way. Reaching Moomba, the road turns right as visitors are prohibited from entering the town, except for urgent medical assistance. There's a lookout to view the oil and gas operation, but you can't really see much.
Finally arrive at Innamincka and can't believe how small the place is. We head into the Trading Post / fuel station for all the local info and some suplies and get directions to the local campsite on the banks of Coopers Creek. Awesome campsite with lots of secluded sites all along the creek, but the flies are probably the worst we've encountered on the road so far and make things very trying. By about 7pm, I couldn't believe what was comming out of Marlene's mouth as she not so politely told the flies to Go Away and leave us alone. The only camp showers are out the front of the general store back in town and cost $2.00 for 4 minutes. So be prepared, this is real outback with limited ammenities and facilities. Our site was awesome, the views were amazing and we had a good night on the banks of the river.
Overall, the Strzelecki Track was in reasonable condition, just be carefull of the sharp stones and bull dust holes.
Next morning, left Innamincka crossing the Causeway (river crossing) on our way to Birdsville via Cordillo Station, a trip of 448 kms. Although very smooth and sandy as we head off, once we turn off the main track to Cordillo Station, the track soon gets very rough with sharp rocky stones that chip hell out of our tyres. Can't believe how they run these huge cattle stations out here and how the cattle can find anything to eat and survive out in this barren landscape.
Life on the Road:
A first for me on our trip, I managed to delete a folder of video and photos before backing everything up, so some valuable footage lost forever. Not long after we left Innamincka, came across a huge herd of cattle being run up the road/track and the drovers weren't on horseback as you see in the movies, they were on motorbikes, quad bikes and 4WD's and the road was blocked for miles. Most of the roads up here cross private land and you are only using them with the kind permission of the station owners, so they have the right of way. The only way past was to head out in the bush and 4WD our way around them through some pretty rough and rugged terrain, some excitement and an experience all of it's own, pity I don't have the footage anymore to include on the DVD as it was one of the highlights of that leg.
Although Marlene is missing the luxury of her caravan, we did have a wonderfull time and other than the flies, we enjoyed every minute of the Strzelecki Track.
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Our Trip 
