19 Apr 10 - Coward Springs, Oodnadatta Track

By Craig: The Borefield Road was an easy drive for the most and we were soon at Bopeechee, which appeared to be little more than the intersection of the Borefield and the Oodnadatta tracks, depicted by a road sign. We sat for a moment, checked the maps and turned onto the Oodnadatta Track and headed for William Creek. Another point of interest on this part of our journey was the Old Ghan railway which runs parallel to the track and the sidings dotted along the way.

After a good bit of distance we started to see to the right of the track what appeared to be a large expanse of water. After consulting the maps again we determined that the body of water was Lake Eyre South and that we were now seeing a 1 in 8 year occurrence. The recent rains in north east South Australia converged with the water coming down from NSW & QLD and had flowed into Lake Eyre.
A small percentage of this water had emanated from Tropical Cyclone Ului which had recently hit our home town of Airlie Beach. The irony was strange to say the least. This was a pleasant surprise as we had been stalling for time down south to see this unlikely occurrence until we were informed that the rains would take months to reach the lake, and we had resigned ourselves to the fact that it wasn’t going to be part of this journey.

It was around lunch and we sighted a lookout perfect for a photo opportunity. As lunch was being prepared I took a few photos of the lake and noticed two vehicles approx 2kms away heading in our direction. The vehicles were about ½ km apart and the first one looked like it had a large orange rocket on top. As it turns out the rocket was a canoe on top of an old Toyota with fellow travellers Errol & Val. The second vehicle was Steve and his wife Chris who we had briefly met at the Roxby Downs service station. We enjoyed a good chat over sandwiches. Errol took a moment to introduce Sam to his cargo (yabbies bred and on tour as bait) and looking on I thought to myself, these suckers are big enough to take your fingers off! We headed off in the same direction but with doing our own thing in mind.


Coward Springs had been mentioned by me in conversation and that this spot was our target for the day. It’s funny how things work out but all three parties ended up in Coward Springs for the night. Coward Springs is known as a little oasis
and in its heyday was home to many rail workers, sheep farmers and Afghans as it was on the Ghan railway. Today it is a stopover on private land for travellers, well set up offering showers (hot if you light a fire under the boiler) & fireplaces.
As usual conversation flows, a few drinks go by and the night was finished off with a chat with Louise by the fire. I noted during the evening conversation Errol had made a point about an interesting stop ahead and referred to Algebuckina Waterhole just south of Oodnadatta. The fact that he suggested it was a top fishing hole got my interest.