Strzlecki Track #3 Innaminka

I found a map which illustrates where we went. I should have posted it in Strzlecki # 1 but forgot. This view shows the two tracks to give an idea of their relative size. It shows Maree (the start of the Birdsville) and Lake Eyre immediately to the north. A bit to the south is Lyndhurst which is the start of the Strzlecki.

The next map is an enlargement of the Strzlecki Track. You can see the tent symbol on the Montecollino Bore about half way along. The Blanchewater ruin is there but not well marked. As you can see the Track cuts right through the Strzelecki Desert. I have been spelling it Strzlecki not Strzelecki. I assume they are correct!!

The third day of driving (leaving from Montecollina) sarted easily. Which was just as well because we wanted to get to Innaminka that night.

A storm threatened, but passed us by.

If you check back on the second map you will see a sharp right-hand bend just near the Moomba Gas Field. The road deteriorated seriously after that bend. The cynics amongst us might say that the road to Moomba is well maintained for the trucks supplying the field. They would say the tourists get second shift. Unfortunately we were so busy with the conditions we did not manage a photo.

Innaminka is a very small town set on a hill with Coopers Creek flowing around it. The pub, the general store and the mechanic's shed (ie the town) hides behind some trees but as you can see there is one more building on the hill which rewards us with a magnificent view at sunset.

This building is the stuff of philosophical musings.  We are all familiar with major religious institutions building highly visible buildings on the top of hills and rises in suburban surroundings. These institutions take on the task of resolving mankind's historically great conflicts. They do this by rational discourse where that helps, and appeals to emotion when it doesn't.They established professional orders to assit them and developed management structures to keep the whole show on the road. But, you ask, what has this to do with a building sitting on top of a hill at Innaminka? Well, one of the greatest personal tensions of the modern world is the conflict between wanting to use up resources as fast as possible so we can live a comfortable life yet, at the same time, keeping the world as it was at some defined time in the past. For most people that time is about the time of their childhood.

What have we done to reconcile these forces? We have set up an institution! This institution has different names in different places so we shall simply call it "The Department of the Environment". Yes! That magnificent building so fetchingly catching the rays of the setting sun is the local office of the Department of the Environment. It has a foyer with displays of the excellent work carried out by this public institution, using facts where they are available and emotion when they are not, and many offices staffed by people who hardly ever get out into the real world. It all sounds depressingly familiar. Yet it does catch the rays of the setting sun.

We set up camp only a few metres away from the spot we used last year and felt quite at home.