In early June of 2014 I took a weekend off with no kids, no work and no stress. Its good to do from time to time and so we took off and headed north. The northern parts of SA have had an incredibly wet start to 2014, unlike us in the sth where its unseasonably dry. The result of this is that our desert country is glowing with a rarely seen health. Sheets of water are still lying about in places! Green grass adorns the roadsides and new growth can be seen as this harsh hot dry land relishes such rare conditions. During our short time there it rained again which cut short some of our intended destinations as the desert roads can become very slippery sticky and impassable very fast with rain.

First stop was Port Augusta. A town that most just traverse straight through, its well worth a diversion into the town centre to visit the old railway station where you may just be lucky enough as we were to see the old Pichi Richi railway steam trains warming up. The town CBD old wharf is also worth checking out. Its certainly more than just a main highway passing through.
Heading north just out of town is the Arid Lands Botanic Garden. Great views over the narrow upper end of Spencer’s gulf can be had from here. Then its on the road heading north. Endless Mulga scrub for mile upon mile dominate. Distant views of the Flinders ranges fades away to the north east and occasional tabletop hills dominate these far ranging vistas. From red sandy country wooded with mulga to samphire flats on heavy clay where nothing taller than a metre grows. Rising up into the oakden hills and views of salt lakes begins to show itself. Normally dry many of these had water after such good recent rains. Its easy to lose the reality of this landscape with its harshness and isolation when you can leave a big town and less than 2 hours drive be surrounded by “nothing”.

Lunch on the run

Even out here signs of the human touch is easily found. Tracks, dirt mounds, quarries, power lines and the railway line are regular intrusions to the view.
Some great lookouts are to be had along this road and its worth stopping to take in the massive expanse of landscape. It was in this section that we diverted into to some mulga for lunch. 100 metres in and the scrub closed in around us giving complete isolation. And a cold beer. Life is tough 😉

Turning off at Pimba we head towards Roxby and are stopped by a massive train that seemed kilometres long. Thundery showers were passing about and found out later than an inch of rain had fallen. The desert was looking great up here too. Just a few km from Pimba and you come to Woomera. Its quite an odd and amazing place. A town out of time, locked in some sort of timewarp with architecture and a “feel” that simply doesnt really exist anymore. Its kind of cool I think. The centre of town has a good display of rockets and paraphernalia that is interesting. Heading out of Woomera again and a ruin on the town outskirts reminds you that this is a very harsh unforgiving landscape. The land flattens to gibber/samphire(??) flats of heavy clay. The rain had left behind sheets of water. Slowly but surely ridges of red sand began to dominate and with this sand the vegetation returned. We pulled into the dunes to set up camp for the night. Swags and campfire was the order of the evening. And another cold beer or two. 😉

Its a tough life as the sun sets

Night in the desert away from city lights is fantastic. Great evening, great fire. Lifes good.
Morning arrived with a sheen of dew over everything! As the sun rose a mist and light fog formed in the valleys between the sandy ridges. I sat on one of these ridges watching with wonder at a ground fog in one of the driest and hottest places in Australia. It was a prveledge to be witness too and a great reminder to the power of water in such a landscape. Having worked up here in the summer heat this is still hard to believe actually happened. Dew coated everything and the desert was alive.

We packed up camp and headed into Andamooka which is an amazingly chaotic town like no other. Well worth a visit. Personally opal as a gem doesnt do it for me, but the stories behind it are fascinating. Chatting to the locals is a must. Lake torrens was on our destination list but all the rains had left the roads impassable according to a few locals. So we explored Andamooka and left back for Roxby with a feeling of a tough history….

Roxby is a young new town, set amongst the red dunes. You drive into tree lined streets before arriving to the town centre which has everything from a cinema to take away food. The main centre is lawned. It was vibrant green and with cool breezes and fluffy clouds above you would never know you were in a desert. Occasional glimpses of red dunes is the only clue. The town has a grassed oval and a golf club with lawned greens! Mining is money and mining has bought water and wealth to a landscape that it really doesn’t quite belong in. Its amazing when you stop and think about where you are.

Horroks pass hills looking incredibly green

Our time was running short so we left and headed back sth, retracing our steps to just south of Port Augusta where we turned off at Horrocks Pass with Melrose our destination. The ranges looked truly resplendant with vibrant green. Normally brown and yellow this was something to see. Up into the hills of the mid north region and the world changes from samphire and thin mallee to big redgums and farm land rich with growing crops. We stayed the night at Melrose waking to Mt Remarkable shrouded in a thick fog that hid its significant bulk from view. Melrose is a beautiful place, an island of abundance in a marginal landscape. I have been there many times and never bore of it.

Our time was up and the world was intruding on our time so sth to the fleurieu we headed through the main north road route and town of Clare. The desert was behind us.

A weekend off, 2 1/2 days, but it felt like a month. Good value I say 🙂 A few pics from our time is in the gallery below.