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Day 3 - Farina Ruins to Mungerannie Hotel on the Birdsville track
We heard the alarm at 7:00am and got up not long after. Another cold night but no frost. We went for a walk and checked out the two wells and found an old railway bridge. We walked under the bridge and up onto the track. Merv walked across the bridge and I went back down and up on the old railway line on the other side of the bridge. There were no rails. We walked back toward the ruins and came across another bridge. We tried to cross (I took my glasses off and it wasn't as scary). There was a gate on the end that was locked (to stop people walking onto the bridge [we came from the wrong direction]) so we had to walk back, down and around.
Farina was the main station on the railway from Port Augusta until it was extended to Maree. There are a lot of information boards which are very interesting. We walked to the Farina Cricket Ground and then to the ruins and had a quick look around. Then it was back to camp for brekky, pack up and on the road.
There was 17km of sealed road not far from our camp, and 8km leading into Marree. We went to the servo/general store and thought we were in Burke St Melbourne - there were vehicles everywhere. We got a couple of things and headed back to the Birdsville track.
The road was good and we drove at 80kmh, because we are on holidays. The sky is blue with light clouds.
We stopped at Lake Harry and checked out the ruins. This was a date farm back in the 1800's. It went well until the crows and cockatoos started eating the dates, and then there was a drought. They moved the date palms to Berri but it was too cold for them there. Lake Harry was quite large.
There were 3 lots of road works between Marree and the Cooper Creek crossing. Just before Cooper Creek there is a monument and story about how they used to ferry goods across the creek when it was running because this was the main road between Birdsville and Marree. They did it tough then.
We had lunch at the Cooper Creek camp ground (a very nice free camp spot). It must be warming up because the flies were very friendly.
After Cooper Crossing the track was not as good in a lot of places. It had been wet and there most of the track was wheel ruts with smooth bits where the traffic had been driving. Most of the time there was a track on both sides, but there was a length where it was one way only. When a car came along someone had to move over onto the ruts. We only saw 15 vehicles today.
We arrived at Mungarannie Hotel / Campsite at 4:10pm, fueled up and set up camp. We checked out the hotel and decided to have tea there.
We had a walk around and found a small cemetary, wetlands and thermal pool. There were heaps of kites flying around.
We both had beef schnitzel for tea and went back to the bar for a chat.
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