As this was our third visit to Innamincka since 2000, we certainly noticed some changes here and the town now has streets and street signs and aside from the pub and trading post that sells fuel there are things like a laundromat. When we were here in 2000, Julie laundered some clothes in the tubs  provided at the "Amenities Block" built in 2 concrete water tanks and her whites turned a light ochre colour as the water was straight from the Cooper Creek. The town water supply is from the Cooper, however it is pumped up from the waterhole to a large earthen pit lined with sheets of black poly on the hill just out of town adjacent to the refuse dump. Here the water sits and the suspended colloidal clay which makes the water look dirty will settle in time leaving a fine silt on the bottom of the pit and clear water above it. So if you live in the remote outback where rain fall is to say the least sporadic, then a settling pond is the first step to your water supply.

We always camp on the Town Common here at the Cooper Creek Waterhole 1k out of Innamincka.  No need for a Desert Parks Pass and Cost is something like $5.00 per night and they supply long drop dunnies. The bird life here is just so prolific with all manner of water bird and noisy Corella's all squabbling over roosting spots for the night.

Where there's Cormorants there's FISH	Ducks feeding behind the Heron in the sun.
Coongie Lake Track Strzelecki Desert	On our way to Coongie Lake......

We can't stay at this waterhole too long 'cos it's too easy to sit and watch and besides, we have more desert to explore. Although this was our third visit to Innamincka, we had never been out to Coongie Lake. We were going to make the drive last time in '06, however it was windy and we decided to camp on the Cullymurra Waterhole East of Innamincka then....for a week......

Coongie is a rough track across the desert that gets rougher the closer you get to the lake. It's one road in and no through road connecting you to anywhere else, so it's 106k's out to Coongie Lake from Innamincka and 106k's back to Innamincka so you can then continue on your journey. This may have turned us off in the past and no doubt many others too, however, this time we're off to Coongie to see what's there....why else???

While fuelling up at the Innamincka Trading Post, we noticed a few unhitched vans parked on the clay pan in town and they told us at the Trading Post that they were left there by people who went out to Coongie to see the lake and didn't want to wreck their caravans. We had travelled some pretty rough tracks with our Bushtracker in tow and thought we'd give it a go...that way we could be comfortable camping the night at Coongie and not have to take a tent....which we don't carry anyway....

On the way out to Coongie we passed a few vehicles coming back in from the lake and they just stared at us with open mouths.......Our guess was that, having just seen what the track was like all the way to the lake,  they were a little surprised that we were towing our van out there. Were we nuts???? I guess so...

Oh..you remember the 2 couples we met at the Milparinka Pub who we followed out to Mt Browne Station????? Yep they were towing Kimberley Kampers.......well guess who we passed coming in from Coongie as we were heading out there???? Ha Ha Ha...it's a vast country, but it does seem small sometimes.