Jan 17 2009
Real Outback Travel - Not the Tourist Stuff
The most remote we got on our around Australia trip wasn’t the Gibb River Road or Cape York Peninsular. No it was nearly 600km of track from Camerons Corner (where SA/NSW/Qld meet) to Inmainka. All day we saw no one, not a vehicle, nothing. The road had just re-opened (we’d been stuck at Cameron’s Corner for 3 days waiting for it to dry out) and there was water on the track - well across the country really - for the first 50km - we followed a local’s track and it worked (good reason to drive a Toyota in outback Australia - they all have the same track width) but we never saw anyone or that vehicle all day! We got to Inaminka and filled up and told them we had just come thru with no problem and they - said - you can’t have - the track is closed - well duh- perhaps you guys should talk to each other. I got some good photos though!
Dingo Fence at Cameron’s Corner - which also marks the state border at this point.
You’ll read the stand advice which is to always drive through mud - but ask the locals - we were told definitly not - they had had to pull a large American Dodge pickup out of this hole a few days earlier so our smaller vehicle had no chance. Instead we followed the single set of tracks that locals had left who were maintaining the fence. BTW this was the easy one and first - I don’t have the photos of the subsequent one’s because I was too busy getting us not bogged! As it was we would have waited at least a day for anyone to come along to help!
Inaminka its self is on a river, but otherwise the area is about as desolate as it gets!
We didn’t want our old but reliable Truckie (1985 model)
To end up like this! Remember towing fees are pretty bloody high in the bush - certainly worth more than the $5k that truckie is worth!
9 Responses to “Real Outback Travel - Not the Tourist Stuff”
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Thanks for commenting guys. Yes Ali there are the Wet Tropics which certainly give you a lot of humiditiy - especially at this time of year. I’ll dig up some tropical pics for net weeks travel photos.
A. - the most similar landscape Ive seen is the high antiplano in South America - yes its certainly different - theres a lot more to Australia than Ayers Rock
Thanks for visiting guys
I must say, this is truly fascinating!
In the second picture, where on earth did that water come from? This is supposed to be the desert, for Pete’s sake!
Love the picture of the ruined buildings. Wonder what happened to the residents? Do you suppose they just abandoned it or do ya think they died of thirst? I’d also be tempted to drive the vehicle in the last picture… wonder if it still works?
Sitehopped, dropped and redditted.
Hi hindleyite- thanks for visiting! The water was the result of 2 hours of rain 48 hours earlier (on top of about the same the previous week). We had had to wait the 48hr to be allowed to try the road! It does rain in the desert - just not very often and it causes a fair amount of chaos - in fact I will post some follow up photos to explain right now!
I added a new post - above this with some more photos. BTW the old building - “Old Crodillio Downs Station” on the map - was probably just a matter of moving the main station building to a better location - they station itself still survives. There are plenty of building just abandoned in South Australia where families tried to farm land that was totally unsuitable - unfortunately some did die on their land to.
Same problem as we have coming to Europe - just remember that Perth - Sydney is the same distance as London to Moscow - most Europeans don’t realise that!