Vikings in Australia - Víkingar í Ástralíu

8/7 From Oodnadatta to Hamilton Station

This time we decided to have a short drive today. Only go to Hamilton station and camp there if the camping was good. We filled our tanks in Oodnadatta and then headed east out of town. It's about 18km drive until you hit the turn off towards Hamilton station and then on-wards to Mt Dare. The road is quite good and only has the occasional corrugations.

Along the way we stopped at the Fogarty Claypan, which is a large flat area the road cuts across, at least when it's dry and not raining! I gather there is a bypass track if it is flooded. We stopped to take some videos of our 4WD driving across the clay pan. It wasn't as good as we hoped for as it was too windy. i.e. the wind simply swept up more dust than the car would throw up while driving across. Sibba had the GoPro on a tripod in the middle of the claypan ready to film when suddenly a gust came and she was surrounded by dust!
From there we drove on and eventually got to Hamilton Station mid day. We drove to the camp site to check it out. The turn off is to the right, just before the turn off into Hamilton station itself. The station is very close to the road. After having checked out the facilities we drove back to the station and spoke with Kristy, who along with her husband Tim manages the station. After paying our fee we went back and set up the tent.
Tim came around shortly later and we asked him about the track up to the Pedirka ruins, which are part of the old Ghan railway. He told us that they are just like most of the other ones, but still interesting to see. It was great to talk to Tim as he was very knowledgeable about the station and it's history. Even to the point where he offered to bring back and lend us the "Cattle King" book, which is about Sid Kidman as the book also features the Hamilton station.

Thus we set out and drove up to the Pedirka ruins and back again. It's a 16km track, which is a bit rocky in places so it's slow going if you don't want to get a sore bum or blow your tires!

Once back at the camp site, Tim came back with his personal copy of the Cattle King and some firewood for a campfire. Sibba started reading it and then I did that as well. Sid Kidman was a very interesting character and his story is well worth reading if you like a bit of history. We promised to re-turn the book the following morning when leaving for Mt. Dare.

In the evening we put a few logs on the campfire and had a fantastic evening as by then the wind had settled down!