Port Augusta

We checked in to the Shoreside Caravan Park and because the sky was black as we arrived with rain all around we opted for a 2 bedroom cabin. The cabin was one of their older ones but everything worked and we would probably stay here again. The facilities were excellant and Maria and I did our washing after dinner with no competition and good commercial driers. Meanwhile Maria and Roland were cooking pumpkin soup because we still had Lorraine's pumpkin and we didn't want to lose it at the border. We had gone to a pub for dinner which Bob and I had found on our previous trip. Maria and I had seafood since we were back on the coast and it was delicious.
Next morning the priority was to register our absentee vote, go to the library to clear up our emails and shop in that order. M&R went searching for a camera battery but were unsuccessful so Perth seems to be their next hope. Meenwhile their IPad is taking some great photos. Somehow I seem to have forgotten to post my blogs while at the library so it will have to be the Visitor's Centre at Ceduna.
We then shopped for supplies and set off for Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula 100 kms short of Ceduna. We were travelling through the SA wheat lands and they have had goods rains since the beginning of June. We  drove through 100's of kms of vivid green paddocks. Bob and I realised that we have never been here at this time of year before and we now understand how the communities are sustained. Previously it has looked dry and dusty and a pretty hard struggle.
We diverged from the the East/west highway at Poochera after discovering there the one roadhouse along the way that serves a decent coffee. I was also admiring some hand made kangeroo skin plaited belts but since we had already purchased kangaroo skin golf gloves at Oolooroo I resisted.
Streaky Bay is delightful and the Caravan Park is also very well run. We opted for a 2 bedroom cabin again and found it was a very compact but well designed Jayco right on the edge of the beach much to M&R's delight. The CP has a cafe on site so we had fish and chips for dinner in our cabin.
This morning we drove the scenic route around the nearby Bauer Peninsula stopping at one of the beaches and the Blowholes.  Then back in Streaky Bay we purchased fresh King George Whiting fillets for dinner. Where ever that turns out to be. The plan is for a brief stop in Ceduna for fresh bread and oysters for lunch and hopefully I can post all these blogs before we go offline again for a while.

Wilpenna Pound day 2,3 and 4

After we had such a lovely day when we arrived we booked in to the Wilpenna Pound camping area for 2 nights. The next day we drove 50 kms to the NE area of the Park to walk in Wirrealpa Gorge. It was beautiful weather and we had packed our lunch so we strolled down the creek bed towards the Gorge. This was after Maria had surprised some young German tourists by quizzing them about their holiday in their own language. This Gorge was not as steep sided as the ones we saw the previous day but had the same interesting geological strata as we had seen earlier. We discovered later that we had completely missed the walking trail along the top of the creek bed which would have taken us to the Gorge proper much faster. As it was we walked along the waterway dodging the deepest pools and muddy tracts. It was very pleasant and interesting but after we had walked for 1 & 1/2 hours we thought we were only just on the verge of the Gorge and it was time to back track for lunch. We had our picnic lunch and then drove out of the access road and turned left instead of right continuing for 5 kms. This took us out of the park boundary so we could collect firewood. It is forbidden to collect wood in the Park because of all the little critters that we would make homeless. The previous evening we had nearly frozen without a fire so we were determined to have wood for fires for the rest of our stay. Satisfactorly loaded we headed for home and an early shower. Maria cooked dinner which was an additional bonus for me.
We had already decided that with the weather holding at sunny and a comfortable camp established we would stay an extra night. This allowed us to go walking into Wilpenna Pound itself and up to one of the lookouts. I think we had all expected the Pound walls to be like the rugged colourful walls the we had seen on the previous days. Instead it was a shallow valley surrounded by rounded hills. Most significant was that the hills did completely encircle the valley with only one pass providing access. This was an area of ceremonial significance to the Aboriginal people and which they have reclaimed after failed attempts at farming and grazing by early settlers. The settlers story was written up on well designed story boards and their struggle to succeed was tragic. The setlement was abandoned after years of competing with drought, floods, fire and the Depression.
The view from the upper rampart was worth the climb. Only 100 metres but it was very steep. We then had a picnic lunch beside the very well restored stone farmhouse before going for a gentle stroll across the valley floor. There ensued a subtle struggle to photograph the joey in the pouch of one of the many fairly tame Euros in the area. Mother finally got fed up with the attention and told junior to pull his head in before moving just out of camera range. We have been amazed at the number of Euros and Kangaroos grazing on the grass that has prolifereated after the rain. They are wherever you turn.
It is luxurious to come back to camp after a pleasant day and stroll over for a shower. The crowd is building up here so our canny old travellers strategy of showering late afternoon ensures we have the bathroom to ourselves and plenty of hot water. The facilities here are very good but there is nothing like a tour coach of young people to make the shower room  soggy.
Today we woke to the dreaded sound of rain pattering on the roof. When it did not intensify we sprang into action to pack up and were relieved when the shower moved on without really wetting us very much. We have introduced Maria and Roland to jaffles for breakfast and they make an easy messless breakfast when we are packing up to move on. Much to our surprise the clouds cleared away and we had a beauriful morning to travel south. We took a slight detour by driving along the Moralana Scenic Road which was well worthwhile. Similar countryside but different enough to be interesting in it's own right. A short side trip to Black Gorge saw us standing in the turn around debating whether to risk a walk but the clouds which were rapidly building and looked very black decided against. Just as we were about to get back into the vehicles we saw a Scarlet Capped Robin flitting around chasing insects close to where we were standing. He had a brilliant red cap and breast, not dissimilar to our Robin Red Breast though a bit smaller.
We then headed to Peterborough where we thought we might spend the night. However the day became darker and wetter the further south we went. After a quick tour of the internal areas of the Steam Rail Museum we high tailed it north to Port Augusta. We are in a comfortable two bedroom cabin in a caravan park and there is promise of  finer weather tomorrow. What's more we have found we can absentee vote tomorrow Friday which means we don't have to hang around Port Augusta until Saturday. So we will be on the road again.

Wilpenna Pound, FRNP

We had sunny but cold weather yesterday. Before we set off from Blinman Maria and I did some laundry at the towns only option; the hotel laundry. Meanwhile the men hosed yet another load of mud off the vehicles. This is especially useful for the camper as we are getting covered in red mud each time we set up otherwise. I have adopted a hint from Maria and bought some gardening gloves to wear when we are setting up and breaking camp. Just the same my hands are cracked and dry. I really feel for the early pioneers who didn't have the luxury of hand lotion though I suppose they had lanolin in the sheep country.
We drove into the Park from the north and headed for Branchina Gorge. Along the way there is interesting information about the different geological eras and the type of rocks that were formed. The whys and wherefores. The Gorge itself was stunnning and the cameras were getting a workout. We saw a Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby. He tried  to hide when I was pointing him out to M&R but then got impatient and dived out from behind the sreening bush and made a dash for more  substantial cover. There are kangaroos and euros everywhere there is new grass and that is over a lot of the country. About 3pm we decided to look for camping and stopped at a couple of advertised stations. The first was booked out and the second one had no one home. It is the beginning of the SA school holidays! With some trepedation we went  on to the Wilpenna Pound resort and found it was not overcrowded. We set ourselves up comfortably, cooked our lamb chops in the camp kitchen and went early to bed because it was bloody cold and we hadn't collected firewood in our anxiety to find somewhere to stay. That is the priortity for today along with finding some more beautiful scenery.

Blinman , Flinders Ranges

Would you believe after one sunny day it rained on us again last night. Bob and I woke to the pitter patter of raindrops at about 2am. It continued to rain until after we had breakfast and packed up. We all huddled under the annexe off the side of Martin and Lorraine's vehicle to eat our left over chicken curry on toast. I then had time to very quickly publish yesterdays blog. We set off from Arkaroola and drove back to the North /South Highway because I wanted to shop at Leigh Creek. Unfortunately Leigh Creek is a mining town (brown coal) with no interest in serving tourists. It was Sunday so the Foodland was closed. The only place open was the service station and I did manage to buy tomatoes and some packaged ham slices there. The only other thing in the towns favour was that it had a mobile service so I could interrupt Elise and Ingrid's screen printing workshop that was Ingrid's present to Elise for her birthday. They excused themselves to phone me back so Elise could check on our return date and thank us for her birthday presents as she had celebrated yesterday for convenience and so they could go bushwalking.
We left Leigh Creek and went down to Parachilna where we shortly later detoured to go to Glass Gorge the first of the attractions in this area. We are not sure where the name comes from but it was certainly a pretty drive with the country looking almost Alpine. There were native pines all along the way and barren hillsides reminiscent of areas where there is a snow line higher than the tree line. Maria and Roland commented on the similarity to Switzerland. The Glass Gorge itself was lovely. It is a slate valley and the gorge floor was littered with eroded slate. There were many different colours of slate. We think we also managed to identify some fossils within the surface of some pieces. Roland would have liked to put some in his suitcase.
Tonight we opted out of camping and are in a two bedroom apartment in Blinman which will give us ready access to  the Flinders Ranges National  Park tomorrow. Blinman is the highest town in South Australia and so we are expecting a cold night again. Our unit has reverse cycle airconditioning so we are quite comfortable which is a pleasant touch of luxury. Thankfully the weather forcast for tomorrow is for fine weather. We are looking forward to doing some walking in the gorges.

Arkaroola

We knew that Roland and Maria were returning to Marree on Thursday so we packed up the camper in the morning and checked out of our room. Our host Ralph at the Oasis Caravan Park was kind enough to allow us to park our camper near the camp kitchen and we built a fire there to make the cloudy drisseling day more comfortable. Then donning our umbrellas we set off to walk from one road condition report at the north end of town to the other at the southern end to check on what rumour said and to get some exercise. This entailed about a 3 km walk and confirmed that the road from Birdsville was open to 4 WD and the road to the south was closed. This meant that Maria and Roland could get through from Birdsville but then we couldn't leave to go south.  We believed that the reason the southern road was closed was that a young man in a 4WD had left the sealed road from Lyndhurst in a bit of a hurry and rolled his cruiser. We spoke to people who had helped the poor damaged vehicle back onto it's wheels and they were very clear that his inexperience was a contributing  factor even though the road was slippery. This seemed to be the reason that this southern access to/from Marree was closed since the minor rainfall had been the same for both exits to the town.
Later on we spoke to the Oasis Caravan Park / Roadhouse owner who knew nothing of this and said he had put a flea in the ear of the Dept of Transport staff because of course it was holding up his supply trucks and customers. Hence we were fairly confident that the road would be reopened by 4pm. We spent the rest of the day chatting to fellow park occupants who were also delayed, pestering the roadhouse staff to check if the overdue fresh produce truck had arrived and visiting the local photograph studio.
Maria and Roland arrived at about 4pm and we informed them that we were moving on straight away to the ghost town of Farina which was just 40 kms down the road. They took this in good part because that they probably realised that after 5 days in Marree we were desperate for a change of scene. We had only recently heard of Farina when friends of ours from Walpole told us they were going there to help with the restoration work. We arrived at about 5-30pm having stopped on the way to scavenge wood for a fire. We found that there was a well organised though rustic camp ground and soon set up in a comfortable corner just far enough away from a camp with 8 vocal youngsters. The next morning we enquired of the rubbish collecting team as to whether Frank and Lorraine Cooper were still in residence. Shortly after Frank arrived to say  hello and told us Lorraine was at work in the underground bakery where they cooked all sorts of delicious goodies. This was enough for us to head out but we did visit the Anzac memorial and the cemetary first. Farina had once had a population of 500 and boasted two hotels. Because most of the buildings had been stone construction it was feasible to restore them to a condition that showed a good representation of what the town had been like. We found Lorraine just finishing her shift in the bakery with all the bread delivered to the cafe marquee. She showed us around this amazing bakery with a huge bread oven. We then went and chatted to Frank who was helping to excavate all the stones of the tumble down Police Station prior to a stonemason arriving to supervise reconstruction of the walls. Naturally we had to support the hard working team by buying some of the bakery products before we left.
We then set off for Arkaroola which is a privately owned Conserveration Park. It is located in extremely rugged terrain. They offer bush camping as well as the usual caravan park faciities and we chose the former so that we could have a fire. Bob and Roland are very good firewood gatherers and we were soon comfortably set up. It was a shock this morning however to wake up to - 2 C with ice over everything which had been left out overnight. We spent the day out exploring the area which involved some significant 4WDing. Maria and Roland tackled an "extreme 4WD" track and had some fun but Bob and I took the low road which still required slow and careful driving. We all ended up at the Paraluna Springs which were promoted as hot springs. Maria and I took our bathers envisaging a swim. Sadly when we arrived we discovered that the springs were "hot" in more than one sense of the word. There was a sign telling us that they are a heath hazard because the agent which makes the water warm is radon gas and it is effectively radioactive.
We came home having seen many Yellow footed Rock wallaby's and some beautiful creek beds with some interesting vegetation in amongst very rugged red stone bluffs. There was a collaborative effort to prepare a chicken curry cooked in the camp oven and it was delicious.

Bob,s say

Hi.
I am so very thankful Gail could carry me for the 3 days weve been here. Today at last I am alive and nearly ready to get going again albeit slowly. So sick .... no beer ....no wine for 3 days ,,,,,,,,, Now at last I can be of help but even so have still a bit to go.However they say the rain may now stop or at least ease up so we can keep going to nice places espec in the Flinders Rangers. We are waiting for the swiss contact to see where we get to next. Never thought getting a bit crook would flatten me but this did. Now up and on
Bob

Day 4 in Marree

Bob is much much better and we are looking forward to moving on. Day two we waved Maria and Roland off then moved into the unit they had vacated. Bob slept most of the day but went for a long walk around town to stretch him (and me) after so much lying around. Yesterday we took a drive out to Herrgott Springs, an artesian spring that is about 4 kms from town. This was the original name for the settlement but it was changed to Marree in the 1915 mood of anti German sentiment.  We have done some domestic chores so all is laundered. Yesterday and today we have tidied up the camper a bit more. Bob has attached the second new Anderson plug to the electrics for the cruiser. They keep getting damaged with the rough roads. He declined to pay the local mechanic $45 for it and then we found them at the store for $21 so he was well pleased. I have scraped more mud out of the mud guards and from every conceivable crevice around both cruiser and camper. Last night we walked down to the hotel for dinner and were amazed to see locals sitting outside in the cold drinking their beers. They told us we needed a name tag to get inside. When we opened the door we understood what they meant. The bar was jam packed with a few locals and a bus load of seniors. One woman  kindly informed us that they were due to go into dinner in 10 minutes. We squeezed through and went to enquire about dinner. We were informed we had to find a table and report back with the number. We were relieved when the barmaid told us there were several dining rooms. Sure enough the pub is in the grand old style with lots of space going back behind the bar. It has been nicely restored and we had no trouble finding a table. We were in the Tom Kruse  Room which is set up as a museum to the legendary mail man who drove the Birdville Track from 1936-40 before there was any track until 1975. There was a video playing about his exploits and we could have done without the repetition, repetition, reptition. The meal was very nice and they must have a well organised kitchen because it was served promptly despite the bus load of tourists.
We have heard that Maria and Roland were going out driving the dunes today and will head back tomorrow.
Bob wants to have a say so over and out.