Goodness… How do I describe this experience. I’m not sure I can.
I reverted to google…
“The Oodnadatta is 620km of glorious dirt that Jessica reckons encompasses everything that’s unique and exciting about travelling Australia”
Not sure who Jessica is, but I like here.
620km of glorious dirt. Let me add that it was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. My mate, Geoff, never one to use hyperbole (so the total opposite to me) expressed something similar.
It is an extraordinary experience to see the core, the living heart of Australia. The sky is huge, the land just rolls out of on all sides seemingly forever. The sense of space, of self, of nature, is intense. The insignificance of humans was never more stark.
It tracked an old Aboriginal trading route. Then it became part of the framework for the overland telegraph across Australia. The original Ghan railway was built through here around a 120 years ago. Dotted along the way are historical monuments to the very brave people who came to live and work here in the 1800s. There are still remnants of the old Ghan, that now follows another route.
But that’s not the magic – for me anyway. The magic is cresting a rise in your vehicle and just having your breath taken away from you by the sheer, harsh, majestic beauty of the place. Of stopping and just looking in all directions at the sky and the lunar/Martian landscape. To marvel at dry riverbeds and the tough, tenacious plants hanging on. To literally be overwhelmed at the significance of nature, of the Australian outback, and so the insignificance of us.
Geoff and I agreed that it should be compulsory that every Australian is made to drive the Oodnadatta Track. If you don’t, then you don’t understand Australia – well, the core of Australia. Maybe even the core of what it is to be Australian.
Geoff and I agreed one other thing. No matter how many photos or vids we showed people, or how much we talked up the place, no one who hadn’t seen it would get it. Would understand. So this whole blog is pointless really. But I have to try.
But I had to try. And if I can convince someone, anyone, to give the Oodnadatta Track a go, then I’ll be happy.
As for the rest of you, enjoy your time on the coast.