Stilt in Cooper Creek wetland
Cooper Creek ferry
Dude where's my hair?
Susan!
Greetings from the banks of the Cooper Creek wetland adjacent to where the Cooper Creek has rendered the Birdsville track unnavigable. It is 704pm tea has been cooked, dishes done and we are sitting in front of a small but efficient fire from wood gathered in the swamp.
The day started early at 630 with the alarm from one of the three phones that we set. 2 failed to work for various reasons. We got dressed and headed to the airport at Maree and boarded our scenic flight. The flight took us up the Birdsville Track to the Cooper Creek crossing where we buzzed the ferry and then headed back along Cooper creek to the point where it entered Lake Eyre. The scale of the flooding on normally dry landscape is amazing. Cooper Creek is flowing into Lake Eyre at around 3 gigalitres per day down from its peak of 6 gigalitres but with negligible drop in the water level. Everywhere you look from the plane there are birds. Makes you wonder where they all come from. As we sit here after dark you can hear the banded stilts and the moorhens squawking away.
When the flight finished we followed the plane route in the car up the Birdsville track fording Frome Creek which was around 400mm deep. Our first real water in the Pajero. Even managed to get a bow wave! The land is pretty flat and we travelled without incident apart from a few muddy patches until we reached the ferry at Cooper Creek. The ferry carries one car at a time and quite a few were queued many from the Port Power outback bash. Length limit is 7.8metres so most camper trailers attached to vehicles won’t fit. However one enterprising local with a tray top truck was loading them from a dirt ramp and carrying then across presumably for $50 a go. Water depth at the ferry was about 4 metres. After a look at the ferry we returned and travelled along the Birdsville Track to the flooded section and found ourselves a campsite adjacent the swamp. An early night after tea for restful slumber in the swag. Tomorrow back down the track and probably back to Copley to see whether today’s forceful south easterlies have demolished the camper!
No comments:
Post a Comment