Coward Springs

Our first trip onto dirt roads in the Outback. Several miles north of Roxby, the paved roads come to an end and you eventually come to the Oodnadatta Track. It follows the original path to the interior of Australia. It was used by Aborigines and then by settlers with their camel trains and eventually the first rail line connecting north and south Australia.

When traveling on these roads, they recommend a 4 wheel drive vehicle, 2 spare tires, 10 liters of water per person, a satellite phone and a UHF radio. (We didn't have quite all that stuff.) There are several levels of quality for the dirt roads in the Outback and this one was at the high end. It was fairly straight, level and smooth. Compared to many roads, it also has a fair amount of traffic. I would estimate we saw another car every 20-30 minutes.

Being the only one insured on this vehicle, Duncan got to do all the driving.

The distances can be quite large. As we started the dirt road, it was 250km (150 miles) to the next town... which has a population of 10.

Unfortunately it is common to see a lot of road kill on all the roads around here. Lizards, kangaroo and snakes being the most common victims.

Bird we scared away from its road kill lunch:

We startled a couple emu:

and had a dingo (a wild Australian dog) walk past us.

The original north-south rail line had to follow this route since it was the only one that had the regular sources of water required by steam locomotives. This route also had a lot of trouble with washouts, though, and passage was not always reliable. With the advent of diesel locomotives, this rail line was abandoned and a new one built about 100km to the west.

Remnants of the original Ghan rail line.

On the way, we passed Lake Eyre, the largest salt lake. The middle of the Australian continent contains quite a few salt lakes. This entire region is slowly sinking, forming a basin that water drains into and not out of. I didn't realize Australia also has areas below sea level

Our final destination was the hot springs at Coward Springs. The springs ended up being a bit underwhelming. The water was tepid at best and there was a pump house right next to it that didn't make it feel particularly natural. The flies were a nuisance, but it was refreshing to get in the water after our hot dry drive.