Wednesday 17 July 2013 – Travel from Maree to Coward Springs

Wednesday 17 July 2013 – Travel from Maree to Coward Springs

Sadly the wind came up during the night and in the morning it was far too dangerous to fly.  Not a complete disaster as they can transfer our booking to William Creek – a few stations u the line.  Before we left we visited the wonderful general store and discovered that they had a bakery out the back – another sausage roll to test!  They had even made bacon and cheese croissants –imagine in the middle of the desert!  We also bought a loaf of nice fresh white bread- yum.

Maree also boasts the Lake Eyre Yacht Club – so when Lake Eyre is up people come from miles around to their regattas.

Hitting the road we traveled to Lake Eyre for lunch – it’s such a fantastic sight to see it from the road - pink and white salt stretching for miles.  We are fortunate that there is still some water in the lake, and we are looking forward to our flight on Friday.

Crossed over the Dog Proof fence that runs for 5000+ klms, and came across more eccentric artists -this time using old vehicles and planes to work with.

Another remarkable phenomena in this area is a string of mound springs.  These are springs of water coming up from the artesian basin and the salts and minerals they bring with them (with blown sand) forms mounds around where they spring up from the desert floor.  These supplied the Aborigines with water for thousands of years and made is possible for the pioneers to travel this route (North to South) and build the telegraph and rail network, and set up pastoral stations.

These mounds springs are like oasis in the desert – nothing but white salt desert for miles around and suddenly a mound with bright green vegetation and small trees.

Arriving at Coward Springs to camp we were delighted to find that the old bore made for sustaining the railway was still flowing and had been made into a spa bath using old railway sleepers for the refreshment of the campers – us!  As you can imagine it took us no time to get into our swimmers and dive in.  Our first full immersion in water since leaving Bondi!