Day 7 – William Creek

Today I woke earlier than Phil and having no phone reception and it being totally freezing, I stared at the ceiling for a good hour. I woke with the start of a head cold AND even though I packed everything but the kitchen sink, cold and flu tablets were not included and NO, there is no IGA or pharmacist here! We had breaky, just cereal this morning, a coffee, showered and made our way to the runway for our flight to Lake Eyre, there is no airport building here. We were in a tiny little Cessna that seated 4 however it would just be Phil, myself and Sam the pilot today. We were booked in for an hour flight over Lake Eyre and it was everything we imagined and more. The Lake spans over 155kms from North to South and a similar distance from East to West, unfortunately I forgot what the pilot said it was. It is however the lowest point in Australia being 15m below sea level. The lake is fairly full at the moment however is only 2m deep at its deepest point is. There are an abundance of birds with some of the pelicans coming from as far as Papua New Guinea. The lake does have fish in it which come from the other fresh water lakes however they do not survive long because of the high salt content in the brackish water. We also learnt that Lake Eyre has a catamaran club and that a farmer with a private plane decided to try and land his Cessna on the shore of the lake which he did so unsuccessfully. Whilst the shore looks quite dry and hard, it is not. He broke his prop in the process and the plane had to be retrieved by four wheel motorbikes. Here are some beautiful photos of Lake Eyre.

The love heart island!

After our flight we made our way 70kms South to Coward Springs. This is a natural spring with warm water which bubbles, also known as a natural spa. It was a beautiful green colour and whilst we took our swimmers, neither of us was keen on getting in to get out to 14 degrees. We left here, grabbed a few photos with the old Ghan train line which is worse for wear and made our way back to camp. As I was feeling under the weather with a head cold not a hangover, I laid down for a nap which ended up being a 2 hour sleep.

Tonight we have decided that we will have dinner at the pub, they’re famous for their hamburgers and after seeing them, we decided they should be on the menu. 

We met some friends at the campsite from Campbelltown, NSW. They were an older couple who had been together 20 years however only married just 6 months ago. After checking out their Ultimate Camper trailer, which looks like our next purchase, we joined them for dinner at the pub.