There are some experiences on a lap of Australia that you know you’ll remember long after the trip is over.
For us, flying over Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre with water stretching across the landscape below us is going to be one of them.
We’d left the Flinders Ranges and continued north through Farina and Marree, heading towards the Oodnadatta Track.
The timing of our trip couldn’t have been much better.
Water had made its way into Lake Eyre, transforming a place normally known for its enormous salt flats into something completely different.
And we were about to see it from the air.
First Stop – Farina
Before reaching Marree, we stopped at Farina.
Today it’s mostly ruins, but Farina was once a thriving outback town.
Walking around the remains gives you a glimpse of what used to be here, with old stone buildings and ruins scattered through the landscape.
The kids explored while we wandered through the old town, trying to imagine what life would have been like out here when Farina was busy.
Above us, whistling kites circled through the sky.
It was quiet, remote and completely different from the places we’d been travelling through only a few weeks earlier.
This was starting to feel properly outback.
On to Marree
From Farina we continued north to Marree.
Marree sits right at the beginning of the Oodnadatta Track and has long been an important stopping point for travellers heading through this part of South Australia.
For us, though, there was one major reason we’d come here.
Lake Eyre.
We’d decided that if we were going to see it, we wanted to see it properly.
That meant getting in a plane.
Taking Off Over the Outback
There’s something different about seeing this country from the air.
On the ground, the distances already feel enormous.
From above, you realise just how little of the landscape roads actually touch.
We climbed away from Marree and watched the outback spread beneath us.
Tracks became thin lines.
Vehicles disappeared.
And eventually the landscape ahead started changing.
We were reaching Lake Eyre.
Seeing Lake Eyre With Water
This was the moment we’d come for.
From the air, we could see water spreading across sections of the lake and through the surrounding channels.
The colours and patterns were incredible.
Water, salt and earth all blended together into shapes that you simply can’t appreciate from ground level.
There are very few places we’ve seen that look anything like it.
For the kids, it was also another one of those experiences where travelling became their classroom.
They weren’t looking at a picture of Australia’s largest salt lake.
They were flying over it.
Being There at the Right Time
One of the things that makes Lake Eyre so interesting is that you can’t simply plan to see it looking the same way every year.
For long periods, much of the lake can remain dry.
Then rainfall hundreds of kilometres away can eventually make its way through inland river systems and into the lake.
We happened to be travelling through South Australia during an exceptional filling event.
That’s what made this flight feel particularly special.
We could come back another time and have a completely different experience.
That’s the thing about travelling Australia.
Sometimes you plan where you’re going.
Other times you’re simply lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time.
A Completely Different Perspective
We’ve seen plenty of impressive landscapes from the ground already.
The Flinders Ranges had only just given us some of the best views of the trip.
But flying over Lake Eyre was different.
The scale is difficult to understand until you’re above it.
You look out of the aircraft window and realise that what you’re seeing is only one section of an enormous inland system.
It made Australia feel very, very big.
One for the Kids to Remember
There are going to be plenty of things Chad and Quin forget about this trip.
That’s inevitable.
We’re visiting so many towns, camps, museums, lookouts and attractions that eventually some of them are going to blur together.
But we reckon they’ll remember this one.
Climbing into a small aircraft in the middle of outback South Australia and flying over Lake Eyre with water below us isn’t exactly an everyday experience.
Neither of us had done anything like it before either.
That’s one of the best parts of this trip.
We’re not just showing Australia to the kids.
We’re seeing a lot of it for the first time together.
Back on the Ground
Eventually we turned back towards Marree.
The lake disappeared behind us, the outback returned beneath the aircraft and before long we were back on the ground.
But there wasn’t much time to sit around thinking about what we’d just seen.
Because Marree wasn’t the end of this part of the adventure.
It was the beginning of the next one.
The Oodnadatta Track Was Waiting
From Marree, we were heading onto one of Australia’s best-known outback roads.
The Oodnadatta Track.
Ahead of us was William Creek, kilometres of dirt and corrugations, remote country and plenty more history.
The Patrol and caravan were about to get a lot dustier.
But before we headed off, we’d managed to tick off an experience that wasn’t even guaranteed when we first planned this lap.
We’d flown over Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre with water in it.
We don’t know what it’ll look like the next time we’re here.
And that’s exactly what made this one so special.
— All 4 Good Wins
