Thread: Road trip Melb to Uluru over Easter - how long to do Oodnadatta track?

Originally Posted by mick88

It gets pretty hot up Oodnadatta and Alice Springs way in October.
Probably bordering on too hot to enjoy yourself.
Remember one of the highest temperatures officially recorded in Australia was in Oodnadatta, so it gets warm there.
All good sitting in an air conditioned motor car, but a totally different situation if it breaks down.

Cheers, Mick.

Yes it will be hot in the centre in October, but that’s the desert for a lot of the year. Remember there are plenty of folk who live there full time.

Originally Posted by Young Angus

I like this!

..... My wife and I could use a desert intro and that sounds perfect!

First of all I love the desert, so I'm biased with places I recommend:

Intro desert trip, easy to do for 'ya.

Melb-> Ouyen -> Underbool to Pink Lakes(more specifically at Lake Crosbie, and camp there).
Note that 'Pink Lakes' is a lake system area, not a lake in itself!
Nice camp ground(at Lk Crosbie), quite a few sites.
If all taken up, just move on and find a site elsewhere as a backup plan.
My preference for alternatives in the Murray Sunset NP up there would be Mopoke, and if I had too, there are a few at Clay Lake.
Problem is: if you drive from Crosbie to Mopoke and the camp area at Mopoke Hut is also full, the drive to Clay is backtracking(I hate back tracking! )

Drive from Crosbie to Mopoke probably 30-ish mins, the track will turn to soft sand, and best to let air out of tyres.
FWIW tho, I'm pretty lazy and I didn't (running 38psi) and had no problems with both diffs being open. Only on the way back I had trouble with the very last dune where I followed the ruts and didn't make it, reversed had another go on a new line .. made it up no worries. But remember this was with tyres at high pressure. You have rear diff locker which will help a lot!

From Mopoke keep heading north along the sandy tracks up to Rocket Lake. again just soft sand, easy-ish to do.
Now you're nearly at Mildura, and two options to think about.
1: straight up to Mildura(and beyond) or 2. east from Rocket to the Murray estuaries at Hattah - Kylkyne.
H-K NP is a nice place, haven't really checked it out much tho, but I think I've been to Lake Mournpall(need to check my old GPS tracks .. but close enough) nice place to camp!

3. Menindee Lakes area too. North of Mildura look for Pooncarie road. This takes you further up into Menindee. Lots of sandy tracks, nice big lake, but just entering the NP costs money(get it at the entrances), and camping also costs $s too. I reckon worth the cost. Lots of sandy tracks to drive around on.

4. another highly recommended thing to do is Broken Hill for a day. Check out the Painted Desert(hill top art installation .. awesome at sunset) AND Silverton too. Both worth the time.
The other thing I'd recommend is as well whilst up that way is the Mutawintji NP(Historic site) .. aboriginal rock art area. When we went to Mutawintji, a sand storm had just begun, so we actually missed out on the rock art.
We waited for a good 2-3hrs, but in the end decided to leave(stayed the night in a motel in BH, with a spa! )

5. Lake Mungo(as already mentioned). One of my favourite places up that way. I'm a photography geek, and this place is highly photogenic. Old Woolshed and the walks around the lakes are nice.

ps. Little Desert NP is south of the Western Hwy(Nhill). Big Desert is a wilderness area, and is adjacent to the Wyperfield NP(basically the same area type.
Murray Sunset is further north again just south of Mildura.

Do you have a mapping/GPS device or software?

Originally Posted by AK83

First of all I love the desert, so I'm biased with places I recommend:

Intro desert trip, easy to do for 'ya.

Melb-> Ouyen -> Underbool to Pink Lakes(more specifically at Lake Crosbie, and camp there).
Note that 'Pink Lakes' is a lake system area, not a lake in itself!
Nice camp ground(at Lk Crosbie), quite a few sites.
If all taken up, just move on and find a site elsewhere as a backup plan.
My preference for alternatives in the Murray Sunset NP up there would be Mopoke, and if I had too, there are a few at Clay Lake.
Problem is: if you drive from Crosbie to Mopoke and the camp area at Mopoke Hut is also full, the drive to Clay is backtracking(I hate back tracking! )

Drive from Crosbie to Mopoke probably 30-ish mins, the track will turn to soft sand, and best to let air out of tyres.
FWIW tho, I'm pretty lazy and I didn't (running 38psi) and had no problems with both diffs being open. Only on the way back I had trouble with the very last dune where I followed the ruts and didn't make it, reversed had another go on a new line .. made it up no worries. But remember this was with tyres at high pressure. You have rear diff locker which will help a lot!

From Mopoke keep heading north along the sandy tracks up to Rocket Lake. again just soft sand, easy-ish to do.
Now you're nearly at Mildura, and two options to think about.
1: straight up to Mildura(and beyond) or 2. east from Rocket to the Murray estuaries at Hattah - Kylkyne.
H-K NP is a nice place, haven't really checked it out much tho, but I think I've been to Lake Mournpall(need to check my old GPS tracks .. but close enough) nice place to camp!

3. Menindee Lakes area too. North of Mildura look for Pooncarie road. This takes you further up into Menindee. Lots of sandy tracks, nice big lake, but just entering the NP costs money(get it at the entrances), and camping also costs $s too. I reckon worth the cost. Lots of sandy tracks to drive around on.

4. another highly recommended thing to do is Broken Hill for a day. Check out the Painted Desert(hill top art installation .. awesome at sunset) AND Silverton too. Both worth the time.
The other thing I'd recommend is as well whilst up that way is the Mutawintji NP(Historic site) .. aboriginal rock art area. When we went to Mutawintji, a sand storm had just begun, so we actually missed out on the rock art.
We waited for a good 2-3hrs, but in the end decided to leave(stayed the night in a motel in BH, with a spa! )

5. Lake Mungo(as already mentioned). One of my favourite places up that way. I'm a photography geek, and this place is highly photogenic. Old Woolshed and the walks around the lakes are nice.

ps. Little Desert NP is south of the Western Hwy(Nhill). Big Desert is a wilderness area, and is adjacent to the Wyperfield NP(basically the same area type.
Murray Sunset is further north again just south of Mildura.

Do you have a mapping/GPS device or software?

Amazing Arthur thanks so much for all that info, I'll be heading out that way as soon as my wife is well enough, the poor girl is having a few gut issues at the moment so not ideal for camping. Something from that post is my next weekend trip though for sure!

Originally Posted by mick88

It gets pretty hot up Oodnadatta and Alice Springs way in October.
Probably bordering on too hot to enjoy yourself.
Remember one of the highest temperatures officially recorded in Australia was in Oodnadatta, so it gets warm there.
All good sitting in an air conditioned motor car, but a totally different situation if it breaks down.

Cheers, Mick.

Ahh really? Dammit, I just don't think we would get a chance to go any earlier. I thought it would be okay then still, and it's still be spring so hopefully there would be lots of wildflowers around for pretty photos.

Maybe bringing it forward a month would be better? Not sure if we can, heck all my trips seem to get **** canned for some external reason so I'm just happy if I make it out there, then I'll deal with the weather

Hi Young Angus,

I assume your going to uluru to see the Field Of Lights. Jealous.....

Hope you have an awesome trip.

Originally Posted by AK83

Do you have a mapping/GPS device or software?

Forgot to answer this one...I do have the iPhone HEMA 4WD Maps app...but then I had to give my iPhone back to my old work and I have my old Android phone back now for a few weeks till I get an iPhone again...so don't have any GPS map software right now. I'm just rocking a bunch of great paper maps and a compass, no batteries to go flat in those!

I was thinking of getting something else like a dedicated device or the other HEMA app for iPhone but I don't know the difference, but I believe you can put waypoints into both of them etc. etc. Alternatively I could just get a GPS unit, but to answer your question no currently I don't have a GPS unit or software, but I do need to get something I think. The paper maps are great but the other weekend my mate and I overshot a track but quite a long way haha it was fun trying to find out way out of the High Country maze but a GPS dot on a map would have sure been handy!

Originally Posted by Lee Jackson

Hi Young Angus,

I assume your going to uluru to see the Field Of Lights. Jealous.....

Hope you have an awesome trip.

That is definitely one of the reasons we're going, and they extended it so it was going to finish Easter this year but now it's on until 2022 (we think...blame my wife if that's wrong, she's feeding me misinformation, quite possibly on purpose to make me look bad)...so we've got a bit more time to get up and see it!