Hi ho, hi ho, it’s off to work we go...

Not a lot of time to settle in, but after quick introductions to Dave Cox (owner), and to Brian and Kirsten (workers like us), Stuart and Candice (stranded travellers), it’s straight into helping with dinners, twenty-eight a-la-carte meals altogether on our first night.

Our home for the next ten weeks is in an old three bedroom house on the property which we will share with Brian and Kirsten. It has very squeaky floors, probably as a result of floods (more about them later).

It’s on-the-job training, learning to deal with meal sales, bar sales, souvenir sales and fuel sales. We quickly settle into the rhythm of Mt Dare Hotel life, sharing the duties, as well as hotel, toilet and cabin cleaning together with camping ground maintenance. Bet and Kirsten are soon joined by a new staff member, Elise, and together they organize a roster around themselves for hotel cleaning and servicing the cabins. I get together with Brian for rubbish collection and trips to our own tip where anything that can be burned is fired using a mix of petrol, oil and diesel as an accelerant

Brian and his apprentice

The dinner travellers’ menu is a choice of scotch fillet, chicken breast, crumbed fish and fisherman’s basket, with chips and vegetables as accompaniments. The scotch fillets are some of the best I have ever seen, and are sourced from a wholesale butcher in Alice Springs. Naturally being so far from the source, food is generally frozen or is long-life product. Staff have a more varied choice, and arrange their own meals from whatever produce is available. Additional to this, we bake fresh bread in breadmakers which is served with dinners.

Most of the cooking is done by Dave, with Brian as a backup. At the same time, I am serving my apprenticeship to these accomplished chefs.

Stuart and Candice have been stranded here for six weeks, while Stuart repairs his Navarra after damaging the engine after losing all his coolant when his radiator was holed. It’s a quid pro quo relationship with Stuart and Candice working around the hotel for accommodation and meals, and use of the workshop to effect repairs to their vehicle.

Power to the property comes from two diesel powered generators, a 50KVA unit powered by an Isuzu diesel engine, and a smaller unit powered by a Hino diesel engine. By day we run the smaller unit which is adequate to keep all vital components, such as fridges and freezers, operating. Late afternoon we switch over to the bigger generator to support the additional load required for the operation of water heaters and kitchen equipment, before reverting to the smaller unit for overnight running.

That’s it. Time for a bourbon.

Getting there....

Not a flying start on Monday morning as the Pathfinder has a flat battery. Curses to the local battery supplier who twice tested it and said it was OK, Jumped started from second battery and off to an alternate supplier for a new one. That out of the way, the journey to Mt Dare begins.

It’s cold and raining and we leave Melbourne behind us, traveling through fog around Ballarat. A nights stay at Nhill and its back on the road to Port Augusta. North of Snowtown, the highway runs beside the railway where The Ghan and Indian Pacific travel. We catch sight of the The Ghan as it waits on a parallel section of track to allow one of the many freight services to pass by. At Port Augusta during the night, we can here some of the freight trains rumble by with up to 1.8km of freight carriages behind.

Coober Pedy underground accommodation

Leaving Port Augusta we venture on to the Stuart Highway for the first time, stopping at the Pimba roadhouse for morning coffee. The highway now starts to enter desert-like country, unfenced as we pass from one grazing station property to the next. One more stop at Glendambo for lunch, and soon we are in Coober Pedy and our underground accommodation.

It’s warm inside and cool outside, the opposite to what I suspect summer is. Our original intention was to spend a day exploring Coober Pedy, but after a visit to the museum (free) and a meal at John’s Pizza Bar & Restaurant, the experiences available seem somewhat limited. Interestingly, a restaurant patron asked if the fish of the day was fresh. Alcohol restrictions in Coober Pedy limit one bottle of wine per person per day from takeaway outlets, with no sales of casks.

 

Coober Pedy

This is the last of the black top as we leave Coober Pedy in the morning and head towards Oodnadatta. We travel 50 km before encountering another vehicle, the recently graded road being in good condition, and a two and a half hour drive brings us to Oodnadatta. 

 

Hamilton Station

The Pink Roadhouse provides an opportunity for a break and morning coffee, then its off the Oodnadatta Track and onwards to Hamilton Station, passing through Mt Sarah Station along the way. At Hamilton Station we stop beside the road for a picnic lunch of the freshly baked rolls that we purchased just as we were leaving Coober Pedy. The road conditions remain the same and this is a relatively comfortable ride for an outback road. Three hours after leaving Coober Pedy we arrive at Mt Dare.

That's it. Time for a bourbon.

Beginning soon....