Day 8 Thomas’s Birthday & Coober Pedy

A major part of the planned schedule was always to be in William Creek to take Tom on a flight over Lake Eyre for his birthday. Unfortunately we woke to strong winds and a building dust storm that made flying impossible so after breakfast and birthday present time, Tom and I took a stroll down to the famous William Creek Hotel. One of the pilots was tending the bar and advised us not to fly because of the strong winds so we had a look around the Hotel. Every woman that’s ever stopped in seems to have left a bra nailed to the ceiling and every other traveller from foreign Policemen to high school graduates have left something to add to the décor.
William Creek has an electoral role population of 3 so there’s not much to do other that hang around the pub, if you’re not exploring the lake. The road to the lake is almost in-passable according to the publican and we couldn’t take a flight so we had little choice other than to hit the road. We’ve seen plenty of dirt tracks so we decided to head for Coober Pedy rather than Oodnadatta. It was about 200km before we hit the tar at CP. While not a huge distance, it was probably the worst dirt yet. Lots of corrugations for long stretches had us down as slow as 30km/h. We’re in real desert country now.
We got to CP at about 3 and headed straight for the local hotel for lemonades all round. It got as high as 41 on the drive into town and we all needed something cool with ice. After the recharge, it was down to the caravan park for a stinking hot set up followed by a dip in the pool. To celebrate Tom’s Birthday, we grabbed a pizza for dinner and settled down for the night.