Marree, population 60, at the junction of the Oodnadatta and Birdsville tracks, became famous last week. Made it to Marree, barely. Mounted on the wall of the Marree Hotel, next to a sign pointing to the Tom Kruse Room, is a large plaque. In a moving eulogy the memorial pays tribute to the death of The Weekend Australian's ute and its subsequent 685km trip on the back of a road train to Adelaide.
We were 300km out of Silverton on our way to Marree, on a leg of the 2015 Shitbox Rally, when our ute was attacked by what the locals call the devil's culvert, putting a hole in the sump a small child and his labrador could crawl through.
From then on until the finish in Townsville we joined the 28-year-old Mercedes of Jo Millar and Deb More. Under my expert driving and coaching we managed to shred three tyres, destroy a rim and shock absorber, and found a way to fit a Mazda wheel on the Merc.