It is time to head back to South Australia but we were not expecting the welcome we got today. There had been some rain overnight but it wasn’t heavy but there must have been more further south as a couple of the roads on the Oodnadatta Track were already closed.
The Painted Desert Road was closed and the Oodnadatta to Coober Pedy had a “no towing” restriction in place. Of course I had planned to use both these roads.
It was overcast and about 20C when we left Alice Springs but an hour down the highway and the temperature had dropped to 12C and the rain started. As we crossed the border into South Australia the temperature still hovered around 12C with the rain getting heavier.
Arriving into Marla and phone coverage and there were some more roads on the Oodnadatta Track closed. There goes my plan to head that way home.
After a 450 kilometre drive and arriving with around 4 litres of fuel left we decided to stay the night here at Marla. It was amazing the difference a wet road makes to fuel economy. On the dry road it was around 13.5 litres / 100 km but on the wet road it increased to 16.5 litres / 100 km.
After setting up, we went for a walk down to the Oodnadatta Track sign which still had some green on it but by the time we had returned to the caravan, everything was red. There was certainly enough water lying around to justify the closures.
So the new plan is to head down the Stuart Highway to home but it is still 1100 kilometres so it will take 3 days. Lucky I got another day off work, so return to work is now Sunday.
