Day 4 - part 1

Day 4
After a good nights sleep, I was up bright and early and got breakfast on the go. Bacon and egg rolls ready by the time Doug was ready. Breakfast sorted, and the washing up done making use of the donkey hot water system, we headed back out stopping to view the remains of farina town - which appeared to have been abandoned many years ago based on the state of collapse the buildings were in. The information board gave lots of history of what the town was like before and the sacrifices and involvement they'd had in the world wars but nothing about its demise and abandonment. Carrying along, we stopped at Maree to refuel, both the petrol and my tea supply! Small and out of the way, the petrol station was the village hub, in fact you could almost say it was the village - being grocery store, takeaway food place, post office, public telephone spot and probably a million other functions as well. The sign of a proper outback town. It was here we first joined the Oodnadata track, much loved by far enthusiasts.
The oodnadata track was unsealed and rough in places, so first thing we did is let some air out the tyres. It also had lots more wildlife along it, a definitely driving hazard. Over the last few days, our war on bugs on the windscreen had escalated to a war on lizards - they sit in the middle of the road looking just like sticks, some of them try to scuttle away at the last minute, but away is generally into a wheel, others lie completely still allowing you to put a wheel on either side. Small birds along the roads seem to play the old childhood game of chicken, waiting until the last possible moment to cross in front of you. Because they cross as a group, the leader always makes it, the followers are sometimes a bit slow, and the kids really new to it get 3/4 across before changing their mind and returning - only to find a great big car smack bang in their way. Yesterday, there had been an incident with an emu, out for a stroll with a ragtag band of 8 baby emu. They popped out  halfway through the car ahead overtaking another vehicle, causing both to stop side by side in the road, the mother on one side of the road the babies on the other. Not exactly a normal situation, if I'd been following close behind like a Melbourne driver I'd have gone up the back of one, thankfully my distance gave us ample time to come to a stop, despite dougs white knuckles grip, and warnings because he had spotted that both cars werent moving still. Today, a flock of 5 emu decided on a last minute charge from the hidden depths of bush cover, leaving an ever changing chicane track to navigate the wagon through. With mere inches to spare we were safely through, Doug was very frustrated having still not come up against any animals during his driving stints. Obviously the noise making animal defenders we'd installed didn't work on emu's .

Along the track, we came off at lake eyre, stretching as far as the eye can see in all directions. This was only the small lake, lake eyre south, with the larger north lake no more than a image on the map. A change of drivers, and Doug had his chance at driving the dirt track's. Within a few k's there was a horrendous screeching sound, and we stopped to work out what it might be. After jumping on each corner we couldn't find anything wrong and so started off again, screeching still happening - we had fallen into the easy trap of not looking up. As soon as we did we spotted the roof rack had worked loose as the bumps and wind resistance was pulling it back. We stopped, switching to 4wd drive mode to full of the road into the sandy side beds and with handy pocketknife tools, loosened the bolts and repositioned it all before tightening it up. Possibly it was overladden, so we removed everything but the second spare type and the rack itself and packed it into the boot. The leatherman-style penknife Doug had was no competion for the trusty swiss army knife I come equipped with, another win for the swiss army knife for the next inevitable discussion I have with someone over which is better. hoping we'd resolved the problems we set off again, keeping ears open for more screeching. 10k further down the bumpy track and screeching still hadn't returned, only now we had a thump coming from the roof. Sticking my head and body out the window, I checked out the roof rack and immediately came back in "nice and gently now mate, we need to pull in to the side". The roofrack had skipped the screeching stage and had completely come free, just resting on the roof and falling further backwards with each bump. Stopped at the roadside we had to take the whole rack off. We copied what had seemed like an ingenious idea on another vehicle, and attached the second spare type onto the first spare mounted on the rear door. With it firmly tied down, bunjee cords shaking in and out, and rope holding it firmly in place, we dismantled the roof rack to chuck inside the boot, only to discover our exuberant tie town of the tyre meant the boot door wouldn't open! Having finally managed to attach the type, and pack the rack - we were off once more. 1.5 hours travelling from farina to Maree, it was another 1.5 until we passed the originally planned campsite for last night. Good thing we stopped early.  By the time we go to William creek, we were ready for lunch, so pulled in to another sleepy town where the most active thing was the tumbleweed dancing lazily by. The first real casualty occurred here too. Having finished lunch under the trees, I turned around having felt something brush my wrist. I couldn't see any anything, and I started feeling a little faint when I saw what lay on the floor behind me. My bluesfest festival band had given up the ghost and was lying dead before me. As the youngest of the bands around my wrist, and my only Australian one it was a devostating blow.ar having