To rejoin the main road north we must travel through the Parachilna Gorge – a small test for our trusty Sprinter, and Charlie is sad to lose his mates from Willow Springs.
Again the countryside is immensely beautiful, red dirt and blue green trees, with Namatjira colours in the distant mountains and multicoloured desert plants whenever you pause.
After a joyous but jolting morning touring through rocks and sand and water crossings of Parachilna Gorge we reach the busy metropolis of Parachilna, with its charismatic pub.
16th May, 2022, Leigh Creek:
We’re still headed for the Birdsville Track, so next we reach Leigh Creek, once a coal mining town with a population in the thousands, it now sports just a few hundred people and isn’t even in its original location, having been moved to expand the mine, originally called Copley mine. Mining operations finished in 2015. Now there are only around 250 people living in the town.
A couple of pleasant days on our bikes, nothing worth a camera shot though, then on to Marree, where both the Oodnadatta and the Birdsville Track begin.
Blackwattle Roaming 
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