ON TO OODNADATTA
We were driving at 80km/h, watching pieces of gypsum on the track twinkle like stars, when it happened. Strips of black rubber cartwheeled out of the arch, rocks dinged and ground against the exposed wheel, and the car tilted forward as we rolled to a halt. Outside, in a silence broken only by flies, the unintelligible clicking of expanding metal under the bonnet and the occasional F-bomb, we assessed the carnage as beyond the scope of our ARB Speedy Seal tyre repair kit.
The jack fit under and soon we’d fitted our one spare. Ahead lay 120 bare kilometres to Oodnadatta, the hottest and driest town in Australia, where the merc famously kissed 50.7 degrees in 1960. Behind us was William Creek, 60km distant, but that would’ve been backtracking — and, with outback diesel prices, that’s arguably a worse fate than busting another tyre and calling upon the 24-hour recovery service of the Pink Roadhouse.
ABOVE GOYDER’S LINE
We’d set off from Adelaide six days previously, passing the Outback Highway to start on the Oodnadatta Track at Marree. Having been as recently as February, we didn’t drop into the Flinders or Gammon Ranges this time, but highly recommend visiting both while out this way. What lies beyond these desert mountains is even greater outback, defined not by lofty bluffs but by barren, flat landscapes, brought to life intermittently by above and underground water sources, and dotted with service towns, or the ruins of them, galvanised by the
