A visit to the Pink Roadhouse

Our first packing up took us some time – we have so much gear with us and the majority of it needs to be packed on to the roof rack with the food for lunch in the rear beside the fridge.  We confirmed that the track was open and were delighted to see that the grader had recently graded the road and it was too bad to travel on.  A few kilometres later we met up with the grader and the road deteriorated somewhat. 


At Alberrie Creek we passed a number of homemade statues – these provided some variety to the landscape and obviously were made by a local.

All the boys are particularly interested in the wildlife we are likely to see as we travel and of particular interest is the possibility of camels.  What a surprise we all had when we saw a mob of camels in a paddock – we were unsure if they were wild or not but they were worth seeing and there were eleven of them.  At least we have seen some camels on our travels.

The track continues to follow the original Ghan Track and the old railway bridges were pretty amazing.  The bridge at Algebuckina was particularly impressive.

Of course public toilets are non-existent in this part of the world so sometimes a stop along the track is absolutely necessary – Connor can even entertain himself kicking the side of the track.  

We saw one lot of water on the track and Peter being the young boy he really is at heart couldn’t disappoint our passengers and had to drive through it really fast – the muddy water came splashing up over the windscreen and we were covered in mud and not only had a dusty car but now one covered in brown mud.  The boys just loved it and it made their day.

Lunch time we arrived at the legendary Pink Road House at Oodnadatta where we refuelled and then had lunch. Oodnadatta is the hottest and driest town in Australia.  There appears to only be the one shop and a small Aboriginal community.  We had originally planned to stay overnight here but as we were quite early in the day we continued on to a newly opened campsite at Hamilton Station.    This campsite has been built by the station owners and for $10 a vehicle we were able to set up camp and stay overnight.  There were pit toilets and a covered shelter area with a couple of tables.  We
were the only campers in overnight.  Christie from the homestead came across and introduced herself and was very friendly providing us with information about the station.  The station was originally part of the Sidney Kidman largest station in Australia.  It is now 7000 square kilometres in size and runs approximately 8000 sheep and cattle.  Where we were staying on the property is in the south east corner of the station.  It is a great facility for travellers and for us provided us with a great outback experience.  We were able to have a campfire and before bed cooked marshmallows over the embers.