Campsites North of Andamooka

I had another go at getting south from Chimney Hole Dam and Crozier Creek to Andamooka Waterhole. Got about half way, maybe better than halfway.

Found Stuart’s large dry swamp with reeds. Not the one I’ve been to before. By far the largest dry swamp I’ve seem, maybe one and a half km wide and three km long. Couldn’t really see the other end.

Getting through this area wouldn’t have been too bad for Stuart. He wouldn’t have needed to zig-zag around as much as I expected.

The swales are about one km to three km wide. I was able to pick a low spot to cross the next dune from the foot of the one just crossed. At the foot of each dune that I crossed I set a GPS waypoint so I could find my track over on the way back.

At eleven miles and a half passed a large reedy swamp on our left, dry. At seventeen miles sand hills ceased. At eighteen miles and a half the sand hills again commenced, and we changed our course to north for three miles.

Where Stuart changed his course from NNE to north, that’s where the last sand dune of the area is. Unlike the other dunes, it runs south to north. So he’s followed it to the north. The dune finishes about the head of Crozier Creek, from where the country generally falls to the valley of Crozier Creek, Teatree Creek and Opal Creek, which all run to Lake Torrens.

The high country, though, continues with a ridge between Crozier Creek and Teatree Creek, till it reaches Trig Bluff, and then suddenly drops off. Teatree Creek bends around the northern end of Trig Bluff, heading east to the lake.

So the three miles could be the distance, running parrellal with the dune and a little out past it. He’d have then followed the creek, from up on the eastern ridge, coming down to the creek when it started to look promising.

Pictures, maps and more info coming over the next few weeks, so please check back.