EXCEED OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2017 oct_dec_2017_emag | Page 16

TRIP REPORT
We picked up the Development Road and headed towards Windorah. Great surface, some actually
blacktop ! You now bypass Betoota although there was only ever a pub there and a telephone box.
We stopped at Dion’s lookout for morning tea. As usual, blowing a gale but stunning views.
Before long we turned off onto the Planet Downs-Arrabury Rd and then turned off to Haddons
Corner. The second jewel in the crown, the first being Poeppel’s. The road surfaces and heavy head
winds made for poor fuel economy on this stretch of road.
We had to drop the camper/van to negotiate a couple of sand dunes to reach the corner. Haddons
Corner is the top right hand corner of SA and abuts QLD. Apart from a post in the ground there’s not
much there. Some scrub on the flat stoney ground and a metal picnic shelter. After some pics that
was the only available shade and that was where we had lunch in an unpleasant windy 43⁰.
There was a geocache registered for this site and we finally tracked it down. The compass in the
phone was taking us all over the place until I recalibrated it. And we finally located the cache. Not
hidden, not buried, just lying on the ground in the open. Unusual to say the least !
It was then back to the camper/van and we rehitched before heading south.
We followed the road down past the Terrietcha mustering yards and through Arrabury. For the first
time we’d see some brahman cattle.
Some dark clouds accentuated the horizon. Hmmmm. Certainly some rain falling. Time would tell.
Some even stopped to take photos of the beautiful double rainbows over our right shoulder.
We arrived at Nappa Merrie station and proceeded some 10km on quite a stony track to the camp
grounds beside the Cooper Creek. We set up camp and there was just one other camper there.
A pleasant evening was spent sitting under the awning of Simon & Liz’s van after a few attempts to
dampen our spirits.
Overnight though there was the pitter/patter on the roof for quite a while but by morning there was
no real evidence of the precipitation.

SUNDAY – 8th October
Doesn’t matter where you are the crows are letting you know it’s time to get up ! By 8.00 oclock it
was already 26⁰.
We packed up and before departing visited the Dig Tree, where they had left supplies for Burke &
Wills in 1861. Alas the supply party left just an hour or so before Burke and Wills arrived and they
were too weak to catch up to them. The rest is history near Innamincka, just 57 km away.
There’s an interesting visitor centre at the entrance to the Dig Tree Camp area and one of the
displays shows branches from the various trees you hear about in the outback – red gum, red mulga,
hop bush, gidgee and coolabah (plus others). Helps you to recognise them based on their barks.
Great display.
Flood level markers here also show the height of the 2010 floods (same levels shown high above the
road at Innamincka).
It was back out to the main road and over the Burke and Wills Bridge. Here the river had quite a bit
of water.
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Vol 35 No. 6 - Oct / Nov 2017