The real outback

By an amazing coincidence, the day we were in William Creek (the outback pub where the 'girls' in the film Priscilla the Queen of the Desert did a gig) the article pictured above appeared in the Travel Section of the Weekend Australian. The journo who wrote it must have been my ghost writer because he described exactly our experience of the outback, the 600 km stretch of isolation, the vast bare surroundings, and the concept of looking at the infinite flat horizon that awaits. And to cap it all, his vehicle is also named Priscilla!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How weird is that I ask you? His vehicle also stuttered over the rutted surface of the hundreds of kms of dirt roads where you hardly ever meet another vehicle. On the 170 kms between William Creek and Coober Pedy we saw one vehicle going in the opposite direction and a truck overtook us just before our arrival at Coober Pedy.

The photo above is of the William Creek pub, as mentioned in the article. The walls are full of cards people have pasted up there, some bras.

This is the photo of the Marree Hotel. Andrew tells me that the real outback begins at Marree.

and a photo of the sign that proves it.

Another sign showing which roads are open.

This is a photo taken at Halligan Bay which is 67 kms from William Creek. It is the most boring drive and the most dismal place when you arrive, with the flies being horrendous. But Andrew insisted on going out there so he could experience the "Lake Eyre with water experience". I thought it was the arsehole of the world.

ABC Bay just 10 kms before Halligan Bay. Only salt here, showing what Lake Eyre is usually like.