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We went into this week with five days to get from Marree to Oodnadatta. With a lot of outback but not a whole lot of people in between, we didn’t have a plan set in stone, but the continuing theme of country hospitality helped this week to be a successful and fun one where rolling with the punches worked out nicely.
Tuesday got off to a horrible start, with Claire having to throw out her 11 year old boots which were by this point held together with duct tape and bobby pins. One pair of boots down, and Kate’s runners very much sodden from the Marree mud, our dancing boots became ‘everything’ boots. Challenge 1 was walking out to Lake Eyre in them on Tuesday, which was followed by meticulous cleaning of the stitching with a toothbrush (Kate’s trick), leading them to scrub up well – literally.
We had tea at the William Creek pub on Tuesday night, were treated to some fire twirling displays, and had a great time catching up with our friend Bridgette, the govie at Anna Creek Station. A dinner turned into a ‘drop by on my morning tea break tomorrow’, which led to a ‘come inside for a coffee’ from Anna Creek’s Chantelle, then a ‘stay for lunch’, then finally ‘do you want to just stay here tonight’. So rather than heading to Coober Pedy, we spent Wednesday and Thursday at Anna Creek. We had a blast (and even attempted pilates), and are so grateful for Matt and Chantelle’s hospitality.
On Friday, we headed to the Oodnadatta Racing & Horse Sports Club, and got a bunch of enthusiastic ringers up bootscooting as a prelude to Saturday’s gymkhana. We decided to give away our karaoke machine (which we won at Yunta) to the station which had the most people dancing – congrats to Macumba Station and thanks for your enthusiasm!
Saturday’s gymkhana was great fun, and even though we felt like grandmas when we had a midday nap, we came out all guns blazing to spectate the afternoon’s events, and even took part (unsuccessfully) in the egg tossing comp.
We were NT bound on Sunday and are now in Alice Springs. This week, Kate is homeward bound to South East Qld, while Claire is off to Uluru with boyfriend Alex. We’ll be back for line dancing fun next week.
Yours in boot-scootin,
Kate and Claire