A short glimpse of Oodnadatta

You can’t miss the Pink Roadhouse in Oodnadatta… The 4WD magazines write about it, there are flyers of it lying around in any major touring destination round South Australia (with very detailed information of all sites along the Oodnadatta Track that are worth a mention), and once you actually get to Oodnadatta, it appears to be the only place open within a range of 200kms, where you can get fuel, food and beer… In fact there is at least one more roadhouse just 100 meters further (The Intercontinental), but the place looks lifeless… just as its counterpart across the road, the railway station of the former Old Ghan railway, which served its last train in 1980 back South to Marree.

As we stopped to refill our fuel tanks, I was already wondering about the fuel pump making dodgy sounds… getting into the store and asking for some road information, the friendly staff wasn’t even able to provide an access permit for the Witjara National Park and Dalhousie Springs… Anh-Dao’s Hamburger tasted strange, and my phone call to the next roadhouse at Mt. Dare to ask for more information about road conditions in the Simpson Desert wasn’t successful, apparently due to the weather conditions (which were clear skies with very little wind)… At the entrance to the store, there is a flyer marking “Prime Business for Sale”… As if this place was looking at more glorious times back in the past.
I did love the pink cowgirl hats, but none of them seemed to fit Anh-Dao’s head (perhaps she just waited for me to buy her one anyway…) but what I found strange is that there were only ladies working at the Pink Roadhouse… and the Men’s Toilet was the worst in whole South Australia (at least of the few glimpses I was able to get on this rather bush-camping style trip)… which confirms that there are probably no men looking after these premises... neither any ESD engineers – there are two massive window rattlers that have already seen better days, and despite having a rest during the cooler winter period, they would probably be working extremely hard against the non-insulated corrugated metal deck and full-height, single glazed front in this hottest and driest town of Australia (at least what they claim to be…). Not to speak about the large number of nice-looking but energy (coal or diesel?) guzzling down-lights… (sorry about my little “deformation professionelle”).
Anyway, we were able to enjoy some fish&chips with the kids, some free hot coffee and tea, 100l of unleaded petrol, 2kgs of frozen meat and some biscuits, and even refill our water tanks with some 20 litres of rain (drinking) water. We left the place with a bitter-sweet impression, coloured by the short visit to the aboriginal primary/secondary school (covered by fibro/asbestos walls), the wonderful contrasts of the Eastern horizon at sunset against the pink window frames of the roadhouse, and the feeling that we better leave the place asap after having seen a Mitsubishi Delica with a rather flat front tyre drive in from the nearby Caravan Park (they confirmed they got it in Oodnadatta and I said they’d better have it in town than in the desert…).
Once back in the car, knowing that we had to continue our drive despite the original plan to stay in town, the kids fell asleep immediately. We decided to drive as far as possible and actually did another 185kms on a single-line dirt road into Dalhousie Springs, without a permit… to arrive and set up camp at midnight, looking forward for a swim in the naturally heated ponds… and finding out that we had a blind passenger on board from Halligan Bay, a tiny mouse which left traces all over our car…