Fishery Bay, Whalers Way - Port Lincoln

Port Lincoln is a bustling town with diverse industries from my observation. I have not verified this with Google???

I see infrastructures for shipping grain produced around the area, the tuna and other seafood industry and tourism. Seems like a place with a bit of everything.

Beach at Fishery Bay - our local beach

TJ found a free camping spot at Fishery Bay, which used to be a whaling station back in the whaling days. Its a 5 mins walk to the beach. Weather here is what I called Goldilocks, not too hot, not too cold. A bit of cloud cover occasionally throughout the day to avoid getting sun burnt. I took my first dip in the southern ocean since we left Sydney in October.

Overlooking Lincoln National Park

Shucking oysters bought from Cowell

Remote Area Living

Innamincka from air 

I have never lived in a place smaller than Brisbane. It was a big change having lived in the city of New York to Innamincka, latest population = 12. I certainly had no expectations except mentally preparing for temperature over 50s. I am glad this wasn't realised.

After the first week, I knew I could live in a remote area. I did not feel alone. In fact, I felt more at home than ever. You get to chat up with everyone; the locals, truckies, miners, rangers, ringers, the policeman who drops in every couple of months (provided there are no reported incidents), road graders, geologists and the odd tourists game enough to travel the outback in summer.

My time in Innamincka also meant that I did not have to think about locking our doors, carrying my wallet, leaving belongings around and watching out for traffic. While there are quite a few road trains and mining vehicles out and about, one can usually hear and spot the dust from way off.

I must admit that I am missing all these after just 3 days.

The Road Out

We left Innamincka and headed towards Lyndhurst, which is just over 500km via the Strzelecki Track. It took us well over 6 hours due to the rough tracks. The entire journey was on gravel and dirt roads filled with bull dust holes and corrugations, not to mention monster road trains kicking up dust.

Getting to Lyndhurst was a relief at first but when we stopped to pump up our tyres, we found a broken window on the Podd. Time was spent cleaning up glass bits and sealing it with the help of some rubber mat and duct tape.

We continued to push on to get as far south as possible in order to escape the heat. We finally decided to stop for the night at Fitzgerald Bay, past Port Augusta near Whyalla. We spent the first night falling asleep to the sound of waves hitting the shore. We are no longer in the Outback!

First night camping at Fitzgerald Bay

The Sun Sets in Innamincka

We first saw the town in October. There is pretty much nothing except for a few building structures and a WHOLE LOT of dust and dirt! There were, however, plenty of picturesque sunsets and interesting yet quirky people that really made our stay here memorable. It was not easy saying goodbye to the people and the laid back lifestyle.

Pouring my last

Highlights in the past 4 months - being part of the Outback Loop team especially after the first month, running along the Old Strzelecki track in 40 degrees, beautiful sunsets, amazing storm fronts rolling in, kayaking in the normally boned-dry Strzelecki creek and the Cooper creek after the rain, catching my first Yellowbelly, Christmas day, NYE fireworks performed by TJ with hand sparklers, learning to drive a grader, going on the Inna Cruise and many more unique experiences.

Loading the boat

Goodbye Innamincka and thanks to the Outback Loop team for the opportunity and memorable experience.

The Inna team - GH, NH, me, RH, EP, AB

Birdsville

The owners of the hotel also own the iconic Birdsville hotel in Birdsville, Queensland. Its about 500km north of Innamincka. Birdsville is more well-known than Innamincka due to the infamous Birdsville races, held annually on the first weekend of September. The town with the usual population of 115 swells to over 7000 during the carnival weekend. Being the only pub in town, the Birdsville hotel has to keep thirsty racegoers happy.

We were fortunate to get rostered to do a 'beer run' i.e transport leftover alcohol/beer from Birdsville to Innamincka. With B, our supervisor at helm, we took off. The journey took over 6 hours, mainly on dirt tracks. In the evening, we went out to the Big Red, the biggest sand dune in the Simpson Desert, which spans across over 100km. The edge of the desert starts about 40km from Birdsville. It was a fun evening out with drinks and nibbles, watching the sunset.

Aerial View

Innamincka township and the Cooper Creek

Got chatting to a chopper pilot who stopped by the pub. He landed across the place to pick up some mates who were checking out the road conditions around the area. He was kind enough to give us a quick ride around. Although it was short, we managed to get a great aerial view of our home for the last few months and its vast nothing.

Taking off

Desert Oasis

Diverting the flow to save the pub

The last time the town had decent rain was Christmas eve 2013. Over the past week, weather forecasters have been warning of rain in all parts of the country including the Outback. For SA, the possibility of one in 30 years rainfall.

The first storm hit on Saturday. From then on, we had on and off storm cells for the next 4 days, resulting in approximately total rain of 120mm. This closed most roads across the Outback and had dry rivers and creeks flowing. The Strzelecki Creek, which was boned dry was flowing swiftly. This was where we launched our kayaks and paddled out to the Cooper Creek, then upstream to the causeway. The overflowing causeway was where I caught my first Yellowbelly.

Hard at work

Dinner!

The sunny and hot weather returned eventually and its back to desert condition, including the creek which we kayak just a couple of days ago. The rain did do some damage to tracks and roads around the area. On the flip side, we get to see green grass starting to pop up.

Paddling down Strzelecki creek

Table Mountain

How many cars can you spot?

We have seen a series of hills when out driving a couple of times. Found out that they were part of the Merninie Range. We decided to try walking up one of the hills. With another workmate, CB, we drove to the area called Table Mtn. Having a 4wd is useful since the hill is off the beaten track. It did not take us long to get to the top at just over 700m. Got a bird-eye view of the area.

On the way back, we saw our first lizard, which unfortunately we ran over. We doubled back and saw that it was still alive. Hope its not injured.

Christmas in the Desert

Things couldn't be more different.... Our last Christmas was in a city of just under 20 million and in almost freezing condition. Today, we are in an Australian outback town with under 20 people and 40 degrees heat.

With the day off, we decided to visit the Cullyamurra Waterhole where one could find ancient aboriginal rock carvings. Having made friends with the local rangers and getting their consent and directions, we started early on Christmas morning, 5am! With CB rally driving skill, the drive out to the waterhole was short and speedy. It was then on foot along the creek to get to The Choke, the narrow part of the river. This is where our search began. 5 pairs of eyes started looking around for the carvings. After several minutes, our driver found the area. We saw rocks with engravings, which wasn't obvious at first but realised that they were all over the rocks around.

After our morning adventure, it was pancakes for breakfast, thanks to EG, our resident chef. An hour nap later, it was Christmas lunch, followed by mini putt-putt and finally karaoke. With an open bar, it was a wonder everyone lasted till 7pm.

 Although we were not with our families on this day, we still had a good Christmas, especially with the opportunity to see the ancient rock carvings up close.

Oversize

After a couple of weeks of not having the same day off, we were finally rostered together for the day. We went for a drive looking for M, who we met at the pub and had agreed to let me have a go at driving the grader.

The grader is a big machine, relative to my size. It is used to smoothen the corrugated dirt roads. After a 5 second briefing on how to operate the machine, I was off. There is not much to it. Just remember where the brake pedal and the accelerator are, keep the vehicle in a straight line and that the dirt is shoveled. While it was fun driving for a short period, I don't fancy being in there going at 10km/hr, having to grade 30km.