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.
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!
The following photographs were all taken with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera with the Olympus mZD 12-40mm f/2.8 lens or the Olympus OM-D E-M1 with Olympus ZD 50-200mm f/2.9-3.5 SWD lens, which I had ready at my side in the car for the very frequent stops for photo opportunities.
Jamestown:
Jamestown Hotel and church just south-east of Stone Hut:
Back of beyond – the desert – remote yet only 2hrs from Adelaide
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:
and beyond the gates, a 90km + remote circuit on gravel road across dry flood ways (although a storm was coming):
a dry sheep trough:
the only water I saw on the whole trip and it was far from drinkable:
ominous clouds suggest a brewing storm which would make the road impassable in my 2WD car:
stunted trees:
a kangaroo hiding amongst the ballerinas (shot with a 400mm eq focal length at a distant hill side):
desert hill lookout track:
abandoned sheep station on private property with signs prohibiting entry onto the property:
and another abandoned homestead:
a very old stone cottage further down the track:
remnants of a wall with the timber plinth used to support the ceiling:
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!:
Nearby is the re-created birth homestead of the famous explorer of the Arctic, Sir Hubert Wilkins.