We’re at the Erldunda Roadhouse tonight. There’s not a lot of clarity on exactly whose land this is – it’s likely that this is the lands of the Matuntara people. We’d also like to acknowledge the Antakirinja people, whose incredible land we spent most of today driving through. We acknowledge the elders of the Matunara and Antakirinja nations, past, present and emerging.
The first stop on the drive today was the Dog Fence, or Dingo Fence. Incredibly, it’s a fence that stretches some 5300+ kilometres from the Sunshine Coast across to the Great Australian Bight, keeping the dingoes in the north-west of Australia away from the farming areas in the south-east. Daniel had been learning about it last year as part of his learning about Australia at school, and so he’d been really keen to see it in person on our trip. Even though it was only about 20 minutes out of Coober Pedy, the Kaṉku Conservation Park (where the viewing point for the Dog Fence is) just felt so incredibly remote.
As we drove back along the dirt road toward the Stuart Hwy, we stopped at a couple of the amazing rock and mountain formations in the Kaṉku Conservation Park. We definitely planned on just coming here to see the Dog Fence – but these rock formations were just breathtaking. In some ways, I wish we could’ve stayed longer and appreciated them more. There were actually a couple of other things to see further down the road – but we were only about 20 minutes out of Coober Pedy at this stage, and knowing that we had a lot of driving ahead of us, we needed to get back on the Stuart Hwy.
After a brief stopover in Malga for some morning tea (and, surprisingly, a decent coffee!), we made it to the NT / SA border for lunch! They have a really nice rest area right on the border, which was great for us to pause and get all our supplies out for lunch – but such a big rest area with a beautiful sign was much more fun for photos! After lunch, the kids were keen to play handball over the border, which was a lot of fun to be able to. As we’ve experienced quite a bit today, we’re also well into the to the land of so, so, so many flies.
I’m so glad I ended up choosing this roadhouse to stop at tonight. It’s nearly perfect – the motel rooms attached to it are clean and fresh, the staff are really friendly, and there’s a fun emu park that the kids have already enjoyed! They were so excited about having a swim in the pool when we got here – they tried but lasted about 30 seconds.
After a bit of travel diary writing and playground playing, we headed to their sunset viewing platform to watch the sun go down before dinner.
Tonight has been another dinner on the road – but as far as roadhouse dinners go, this was pretty decent. The kids meals were huge, so they were definitely full. And the food wasn’t completely deep fried, which was a nice change for kids meals. Our meals were delicious as well – Debbie grabbed a salad with some grilled chicken, and she really enjoyed it. I’d been looking forward to the experience of just arriving at a roadhouse for the night, and having a beer at the bar when happy hour starts – so I can tick that off my list. $5 beers!
Erldunda is also the centre of the centre of Australia! There are apparently 5 different (and equally valid) methods to determine the centre of Australia. And apparently, this is the central point of those 5 different points!
Tomorrow, we finally get to the heart of Australia – Uluṟu! There’s a few things that we’ve been looking forward to more than others – and getting to Uluṟu is definitely one of them. Only 3 hours down the road tomorrow…
