We woke on the first morning at Innamincka a little later than usual and we decided to move to a campsite close to Coopers Creek. A lot of campers had moved-on that morning and we found a great spot after a little bit of exploring. At that point I somewhat blotted my copybook. As we started back to get the motorhomes I stopped for a chat with some campers. I asked important questions about which path they had used to reach their spot, had they caught any fish etc etc and when I looked up Mare, Jan and Pete had disappeared. Now, had they taken the shortest route back or had they explored the paths and tracks that we would need to use ? Well, as you can guess, I chose the wrong option. I started out along the paths and track so that I would know how to drive to the new location. Two kilometres later I arrived at the old campsite to find Mare sitting on a log (she had left her keys in Maggie) with smoke coming out of her ears. No sign of Pete and Jan. They had worked out how to get to the new place and had set off.
When we finally got settled. The new spot was first class. Right on Coopers Creek with a great view of the water and the wild life.
Not all the waterways are still flowing but the quality of the bush here is outstanding.
Firstly, I should have a word or two about the name of the river that we now sit beside. I know that I have made a number of mistakes with the spelling of place names and such (as well as sundry typos) but I am on a mission now and this part I know is RIGHT. Sturt named the green river that occasionally flowed across the channel country down to Lake Eyre as "Coopers Creek". He called it a creek because he believed that rivers flow constantly and creeks are seasonal. He seems to have been alone in this because many Channel Country "rivers" named by others are certainly seasonal. Now enter the Place Names Comittee - a group of bureaucrats who have probably only ever seen water in Lake Burley Griffin. They said that rivers in Australia named after people should not be given possessive names. The Murray River is not Murray's River, or even Murrays River, and so on and so forth. So, Coopers Creek must be known as Cooper Creek. Uniformity in naming is an essential part of the taming of the wilderness. So there. All the maps (clearly produced by a bunch of whimps) now call it Cooper Creek, but all the local signs, I'm pleased to report, still call it Coopers Creek. Anyway, I've always called it Coopers Creek and will continue to do so.
On another topic entirely, I want to draw your attention to a bird called a Grey Shrike Thrush. They have a beautiful call and look stunning. Anyone who does not know why Grey Shrike Thrushes are personally important to me will have to ask me when we get back because I don't want to risk boring those in the know by repeating the story yet again. The southern races of this bird are rather shy but I'm pleased to say that the northern ones are much more cheeky. This one landed on Maggie's mirror and proceded to entertain us.
It soon realised that it had me enthralled. It tried to encourage me to take a photo of its mate which could only be seen on the other side of the mirror.
I had been concerned for the past day or so that our house battery charge was getting low. We could still start the engine but lights, fridge and the all-important CPAP machine which enables me to breathe properly at night, were draining more power each day than we were putting in. This should not happen. When we drive, the alternator charges all the batteries and when the sun is out, the solar cells contribute. In the summer the solar cells can produce enough power for all our needs but in the winter they do not. We are reliant on running the engine for a few hours to fill them up. After that we can last about 3 days, more with solar help. Clearly driving up the Track had not charged our batteries. On our first night at Innamincka the CPAP machine stopped a few times. On our second it failed altogether and I spent a sleepless night. The next day I felt rotten. Our plan to spend three or four relaxing days beside Coopers Creek was not on. We had to get to 240V power as soon as possible to get some charge into the batteries and we had to get the charge controller fixed. We enquired about power at the pub but they were unable to help and so we had to get away from Innamincka.
We had planned to travel south to Tibooburra and then on to Broken Hill. Unfortunately the roads were reliably reported to be very poor after the floods and as we were going to be dependent on Mare to carry a much bigger driving load until I got some sleep, we decided to travel east through southern Queensland on asphalt roads. This decision changed (we think for the better) the scope and features of the rest of the trip.
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