Day 74: We move to a different world: Where’s Wilmington? (14/08/12)

When we woke up in Glendambo we were greeted by a new experience: there were clouds in the sky! 

Glendambo Caravan Park (The clouds were the other way :-) )

There had been a one-minute patter of rain somewhere in the night, and now the new day brought a light sprinkling of clouds with it. This was a harbinger of the changes to come. Though we were still firmly in the outback, we were getting a foretaste of a different world, one which was not ruled by that solid winter high sitting over central Australia, bringing clear skies day after day, week after week.

Our objective for today was Port Augusta or beyond – Port Pirie or somewhere nearby was our thinking as we drove off. After some time we became aware from the map that we would be skirting some large lakes, and, being aware of the recently-filled Lake Eyre, we thought we would see some lakes with water in them. We rounded a bend in the road, and there was an enormous lake to our left – Lake Hart – filled with water to the brim! What a sight after all those thousands of kilometres of parched landscape! We drove on a couple of kilometres further to come to a lookout. From this angle the water looked very white, almost like ice, and given the temperature in the morning...... No, it was not to be, Lake Hart was a salt lake and the only reason we had thought it was water was because first sight of it was directly into the sun. We went down to have a look at this phenomenon and walked around on the salt. Some hundred or so metres out there was still a soft patch where you could dig your heel in and create a puddle of brackish water, but the rest was a hard and dry crust. You needed your sunglasses there because the surface was dazzlingly white. 

Lake Hart. The cloud shadows helped to make it look as if there was water in the lake.

This is the ultimate fate of backpacker bongo vans. This one was near the shore of Lake Hart. One can only wonder what happened to the occupants.

Flower from the shore, salt from the lake.

As it was none too warm, you could almost imagine getting out your ice skates and cutting a few figure eights.

Lady of the Lake.

Car seat embedded in the salt. We wondered if it had been ejected from the burnt-out bongo van on the shore - and if the driver had still been strapped in it at the time........

Here and there the salt was mushy and you could make water (or brine) collect in the heel print.

Further on, we saw the huge salt lake Island Lagoon on the other side of the road. It was many times larger than Lake Hart, and was itself dwarfed by Lake Gairdner which was further away and not visible from the road

As we drove away we noted that the rest stop would have made a better overnight spot than Glendambo, and cheaper too. Some people showed us pictures of last night’s sunset over the lake and they were nothing short of spectacular.

Next stop was Woomera. I particularly wanted to visit Woomera because of its history as a rocket range. Joke only associated it with a detention centre. The town looks rather deserted, but the display of rockets and the museum are worthwhile. A lot of work was done here which made the “space age” possible, the benefits of which we now all take for granted. Before we went, we thought we had better find the detention centre as well, so we drove up to it outside the town, saw the “trespassers prosecuted” signs, did a u-turn and drove on. Yawn!

Rolls Royce motor. Thought of pinching it for the X-Trail, to give it a bit of a power boost.

The Blue Steel rocket. This was designed to carry a nuclear weapon. The display hastened to add that only the British actually loaded bombs in them and the ones fired at Woomera were harmless toys.

The Canberra bomber. I remember one flying over Launceston in the '60s.

Oh yes, the Detention Centre. Boring! (**Serious grumble warning***) Fancy association Woomera only with a detention centre and not with the leading edge of rocket science for over a generation! Grrr!!

The drive on down into Port Augusta was fairly uneventful. Bare landscape gave way to a softer, more vegetated land, we lost height fairly steadily, and finally Port Augusta was in sight. We moseyed around for a bit and did some shopping and then pushed on for Port Pirie. Another change of mind came over us, and we backtracked to go through the Southern Flinders Ranges to Wilmington. From there we would drive down the Clare Valley towards Adelaide. So we drove east at Winninowie  to go through the Horrocks Pass.

Approaching the Horrocks Pass in the southern Flinders Rangers. We had suddenly arrived in a world of green!

At Wilmington we drove to the Stoney Creek Bush Camp where we settled down in a very lush and green bush setting. We had most definitely left the outback behind!

Washing-up time.