9. – 10. June

We left Coober Pedy and travelled north planning to stop at the Marla bore but didn’t find the exit. So we camped at a roadside stop. The sunset was beautiful although it looked like a half sunset with a complete, dark cloud cover to one side and the red to the other side. As this stop  was just off the highway there were several trucks passing through. You could hear them already miles away and then you just saw the front lights and the red lights surrounding the load. During the night two or three road trains stopped next to our tent. Each making quite a noise waking us up… Stop, correction this is not right… Waking only Tom up! Anja was sleeping through all the noise around her. :-)

In Kulgera we turned east to go in direction Finke. On the way we noticed the sign “Lambert’s Centre of Australia” so we decided to have a look. It was a sandy, narrow and sometimes slippery way to the centre but we didn’t encounter any problems. The centre is marked with the Australian flag and a pole stating where you are. – You might asking yourself about what kind of centre these guys are talking, because there are quite a few possibilities. – We are talking about a centre no one really knows about. Ask an average Australian on the street about the Lambert’s Centre and he most likely has no idea what are you talking about. – The Lambert’s Centre is the geographical centre of Australia.

When we reached Finke we noticed that they have a Desert Race happening in three days. This race is from Alice Springs to Finke and return done by motorbikes, off-road buggies... but we didn’t bother to stay around and have a look at. The old Ghan travelled through Finke as well. The Finke River flooded the area quite a few times. Several times the river knocked down the railway bridges. When this happend, the old Ghan had to wait at Finke until the bridges were fixed.

Cheers,
Tom and Anja