It didn't take a lot to for the mrs to stoke the fire and get a coffee sorted and we were all soon up .
As everyone stayed in the camper overnight it was quick and easy to pack up excepting the pans left from dishes the night before ( doh!).
We made our way up to the railway siding ruins which is still in relatively good shape considering its age .
Back on the track we soon passed strangways springs then William Creek where we had hoped to see some bronco branding but once inside talking we completely forgot about it till we drove off.
Some grey nomads who were camped close to us the night before had blown two tyres and were getting another repaired while we talked to them at William Creek, then shortly after some taswegians who had earlier passed us in haste also called in and after a bit of a chinwag he told us he had broken his rear window on the prado ( been there done that !) just as he overtook us as I felt empathy for him I could feel karma kicking in , but as it turned out they were very nice people the fellow actually had not not retired from the antartic division and had done many summer and also a winter tour of Antarctica both at Mawsons camp and two others .
It was an early beer but had to be done before we made tracks again and an hour or so later took the turn off down the 21 no 19 no 16 Kms ( so many signs all different) down to the Peake telegraph station and settlement .
It's hard to imagine times back then when someone decided we need a repeater station here in the middle of bum stuff nowhere .
Having said that it obviously flourished as a telegraph station for a brief 21 or so years before being upgraded to the Oodnadatta station then the settlement became home to a mine and smelter .
You can still see the many palms and springs there today , it was a great walk around the 4 or 5 still standing buildings with interpretive signs handy to read on the area.
The drive in and out was slow and mostly very corrugated so we took our time on low tyre pressures.
Back out on the Oodnadatta track we took the slight detour to algebuckina mine and bridge the bridge being the longest single span bridge in South Australia to date.
We took a walk out along the bridge works for 100 or so metres and dared not go past the walkway although the fence was cut open and you could easily manage to put your feet either side of both the narrow and wider gauge rail line and sleepers to the other side where the mine was.
In retrospect I wished we had of camped here as none of us thought much of Oodnadatta or the caravan park so we grabbed a ice cream each ,milk and a tin of apricots for the next nights dinner and kept on going up the road to camp here on Todmorey station nestled between a couple of jump ups out of the wind if it decided to spring up though the night.
Etienne and I made spaghetti bolognaise ( a large pot too !) and sat around our burning old ghan sleepers and were startled shortly after by popping volcanic rock .
Another big day probably one more to go before we reach a sealed road and maybe one more before phone reception .
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