After a great nights sleep we awoke to the news that Rosie had lost her glasses again (an everyday event!) and Dave had to accompany her on a midnight stroll back to the pub to look for them… everything was turned inside out but the glasses were nowhere to be found although Rosie swore she had put them in her handbag after reading the menu in the pub. She walked back down to the pub while we were preparing to leave just in case but no luck….

Anyway a much bigger issue was looming on the horizon. It appeared that the Hackies had left their fridge running on the car battery all night and Branch arrived to find a completely flat battery!!

Glen was quick to get out the instruction manual to ensure no damage was done to the delicate computer system (what happened to old school cars!!) Attempts were made to start the Hilux with Gordie’s jumper leads – no luck!

Switching over to the Macgyver version and moving the Ranger closer, the Hilux roared into life and everyone cheered….

A secondary cheer was then heard as Rosie found her glasses….in her handbag of all places…

We left Parachilna , stopped briefly at Leigh Creek to fuel up and then drove on towards Maree and the start of the Oodnadatta track which Dave had been so keen to do. We passed Deception Mountain shrouded in cloud looking as mysterious as its name…

Annette noticed a sign on the way for an underground bakery at Farina so we decided to stop and have a look. Farina was a small town founded in the 1800s before Maree but once the railway was extended to Maree it began to die.

The place had some amazing ruins with one old building that had been both a Transcontinental hotel and then a bush nursing hospital.

The underground ovens were still in use – a Scottish design and one of the very few left in working order.

We went into the tent café and ordered a variety of baked goods including the best cream buns ever and amazing sausage rolls, pies and vanilla slices. The sourdough bread looked awesome so we all grabbed a loaf to take with us.

The bakery is run by volunteers who are raising money to restore the buildings of Farina – a fantastic effort and great idea now the road is sealed all the way to Maree. The place was packed despite being out in the middle of the desert and the queue to buy food and coffee was long. After a few photos and the usual extended chats we were back on the road to Maree.

We arrived in Maree only to find another huge crowd of 4WD vehicles, people and a very long queue for fuel.

Glen lined up for fuel and we all started taping up our vents and letting down the tyres for the Oodnadatta track.

Rosie won the best taping comp with colour coordinated tape and evenly sized pieces… our lime green tape clashed with the calm aqua of our van.

After our group shot under the Oodnadatta track sign we ventured off road… and off road it was! Despite the fact that the road conditions were listed as good the corrugations were terrible – the last time we drive the Oodnadatta the road had been amazingly good – but this time not so…

Only 13 kms into the drive Rosie came over the CB radio asking us could we see a “water trail” in front of us?? As we could see nothing we stopped to check and low and behold we had a leak – a stone had hit the small drainage tap of our caravan water tanks and had snapped it off. Branch was out in an instant while I plugged the hole and Trev got some tools out.

Dave took a moment to find a bush after a leak of his own…but no bush in sight!!!

A quick plug of the hole and we were on our way… or so we thought but Branch was working overtime today… only 2 kms along and Dave stopped with a completely flat car tyre….

We did a u-turn and drove back to find the car manual out, and Branch loving the action….all good and finally we were on our way again….optimism abounded as we had now had 3 issues…but the Hunters were still unscathed so who knows what may happen next.

We planned to have lunch at Lake Eyre then go on to Coward Springs for the night. The road was pretty bad with the dips and cattle grids very eroded and the corrugations were unforgiving! The landscape was arid and barren but beautiful in its own way.

Passing the random metal sculptures we eventually made Lake Eyre and stopped to check the damage and eat lunch.

Rosie and Dave discovered they now had no water left in their tanks and on inspection discovered that their little drainage tap had been sheared off by a rock too – this time no one detected the leak trail on the road so they had lost all their water…Branch did not dare poke his head out at this stage. Rosie also discovered a random piece of melamine with a small round hole in it on the floor near the bed – but no one could find where it had come from.

Lake Eyre was eerily quiet and beautiful – a little bit of water in the distance but mostly mud and salty sections – not like our last visit when it was a huge white salt pan looking like snow.

We ate lunch while waiting for the Hackies who were bringing up the rear and had not answered on the CB – we were about to go back and see where they were when they drove up. Glen had stopped to check his bikes which were rattling and noticed a window had partly come ajar. When they went inside their van the fridge had come loose and moved almost completely out of its cavity!! Branch now made an appearance as Glen tried to use his head to push it back into place.

The fridge did not go back in completely but we decided to push on to Coward Springs as it was getting late and we wanted to arrive during daylight hours.

We made a beeline for Coward Springs and arrived to find the park full with a sign up saying no entry – as it was in a conservation area we were not allowed to free camp for another 10kms so we pushed on and once out of the area Kerry spotted a clay pan on the righthand side which already had 1 van camping there – it was a great spot away from the road and protected so we drove in.

It had appeared that the Hunters had had no issues however Branch noted a near miss… Gordie’s nut on the towball was almost completely worked loose – only holding by a thread…this prompted everyone to check their nuts.

The Wells and Hackies had been making their way a lot slower and so Kerry and I stood up on the road edge waiting for them so they did not drive past and miss us…they arrived just before sunset and we pulled in and set up for the night. Kerry solved the mystery of the melamine in Rosie’s van – it had come from under the seat – the lid to get into the extra storage that Rosie did not even know existed. Rosie again won the award for the best decorated van – even a pot plant on the table!

Branch made a quick visit to Trev and Gordie’s utes…it seemed that the vent Trev thought was used to prevent dust getting into the back of the ute did the opposite – the whole back was coated in fine dust which demanded the use of the Makita blower…Gordie’s also had dust throughout but the dust on his tray had set like render!

After cleaning up and sorting various issues like moving fridges and oven doors falling off the Hackies joined us all for happy hour and a good laugh at the day’s events…who knows what a day may bring but at least we were all safe and well praise God!