Roxby Downs, Australia

We had a hearty breakfast at the Ibis in Adelaide, checked out and met Paul at 7:30am in the lobby. Paul’s our tour guide and driver for our whirlwind three day excursion to Kati Thanda Lake Eyre, the low point of Australia.

This will be the 4th low point for us. Our first low point was the Dead Sea when we went to Jordan. A few years later we went to Lac Assale in Djibouti, more for the scenic excursion and because I’d also been to the high point of Africa. Anyways the Seven Low Points became a thing for us after that.

Based on the rest of our itinerary we had just three days and two nights to get to Kati Thanda and back. Paul (the company is just Paul and his wife, Astrid) arranged the custom itinerary, with about five hours driving per day, and interesting sights along the way. It’s a dangerous trip to self-drive if you don’t know what you’re doing in the outback.

At this point we still weren’t assured of getting there. Flash floods can close down roads for days; and the weather forecast was all over the place the next few days.

So we loaded up Paul’s Toyota Landcruiser, and started on our adventure!

Over the next three days Paul turned out to be really knowledgeable about almost everything in the region, including the history of towns, and identifying all the birds and animals that we spotted on the drive.

We had a fuel stop and coffee break once we got out of Adelaide. Mince pies are popular in the morning and Paul recommended them, so I tried one. Not my typical mid-morning snack but it was pretty good.

First highlight was Lochiel, a pink lake. The colour changed based on the sun / cloud cover; got some okay pics. My iPhone was better than my camera at picking up the colours.

Next we saw Germein, a former shipping town. There’s a 1676m long jetty to reach the drop off where ships can dock. It’s so long it had a railway track to assist with shipping back in the day. It was an photogenic historical stop.

As we drove inland, north from Adelaide, the farmland turned to desert scrubs above the ‘Goyder line’. Above this line, farmers aren’t eligible for relief funding in case of drought etc. The farms had perfectly straight crops, guided by lasers and GPS.

At some point we passed the marker for 'The Outback' which was also a place we wanted to get to, similar to how we wanted to get to the Sahara. we had googled the definition of the Outback and there's no set boundary - even Paul said it was basically 'inland'. The roadside sign was probably from the tourism marketing board, lol.

We stopped for lunch at Arid Lands Botanical Gardens. The temperature had started to creep up, it was now 32C with a forecast high of 38C. This is typical as we get into summer. We’re the last excursion for Paul before they shut down for three months over the summer - it just gets too hot, with highs in mid-40s.

Last sightseeing for the day was an outdoor museum in Woomera, with rocket launchers and aircraft. The coolest part for me was a second stage booster recovered from the outback. The region is still militarized for testing and launches - we passed by large off-limit areas.

We stayed overnight in Roxby Downs, a mining town. The restaurant was packed in the evening with off-shift mining crew drinking and eating.