{"id":6880,"date":"2015-04-13T21:16:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T11:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=6880"},"modified":"2015-04-16T21:23:22","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T11:23:22","slug":"sth-australia-a-last-hurrah-road-trip-into-the-desert-beyond-worlds-end-highway","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=6880","title":{"rendered":"Sth Australia – a last hurrah – road trip into the desert beyond World’s End Highway"},"content":{"rendered":"

My rental car road trip<\/a> exploring South Australia having left the lovely beaches of Port Noarlunga<\/a>, the photogenic old copper mining town of Burra<\/a>, and the Mount Remarkable National Park region<\/a>, I now head back towards Burra and the extremely isolated desert areas north east of Burra that look towards Broken Hill some 400km away.<\/p>\n

This area is off grid – no mobile telephone services, no internet and in my 4+ hours round trip on the gravel roads I did not get to see another car or another person, nor any evidence of current habitation. So not a place to have your car break down – it’s a long walk in the dry, heat without water back to civilisation!<\/p>\n

The following photographs were all taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M5<\/a> Micro Four Thirds camera with the Olympus mZD 12-40mm f\/2.8 lens<\/a> or the Olympus OM-D E-M1<\/a> with Olympus ZD 50-200mm f\/2.9-3.5 SWD lens<\/a>, which I had ready at my side in the car for the very frequent stops for photo opportunities.<\/p>\n

Jamestown:<\/h2>\n

Jamestown Hotel and church just south-east of Stone Hut:<\/p>\n

\"Jamestown<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Jamestown<\/a><\/p>\n

Back of beyond – the desert – remote yet only 2hrs from Adelaide<\/h2>\n

I stopped at the petrol station to see if they knew much of the mysterious lands across the highway – but alas they had never dared go, nor did they have any maps – their advice, just open the gates and close them behind you:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

and beyond the gates, a 90km + remote circuit on gravel road across dry flood ways (although a storm was coming):<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

a dry sheep trough:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

the only water I saw on the whole trip and it was far from drinkable:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

ominous clouds suggest a brewing storm which would make the road impassable in my 2WD car: <\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

stunted trees:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

a kangaroo hiding amongst the ballerinas (shot with a 400mm eq focal length at a distant hill side):<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

desert hill lookout track:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

abandoned sheep station on private property with signs prohibiting entry onto the property:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

and another abandoned homestead:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

a very old stone cottage further down the track:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

remnants of a wall with the timber plinth used to support the ceiling:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

this is why I took a radio beacon EPIRB device – not really a place to be stranded without supplies or communication, as it was I drank all of my 5 bottles of water on the trip – maybe it just made me feel thirsty!:<\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

\"the<\/a><\/p>\n

Nearby is the re-created birth homestead of the famous explorer of the Arctic, Sir Hubert Wilkins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My rental car road trip exploring South Australia having left the lovely beaches of Port Noarlunga, the photogenic old copper mining town of Burra, and the Mount Remarkable National Park region, I now head back towards Burra and the extremely isolated desert areas north east of Burra that look towards Broken Hill some 400km away. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,181],"tags":[18,241,14,339],"class_list":["post-6880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-travel-photography","tag-four-thirds-micro","tag-micro-four-thirds","tag-olympus","tag-sth-aust"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6880"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6880\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}