Week 10, Monday 5 April - 11 April 2010

Ok you lucky people, it's my turn to write the blog (Jen that is... :-D)

We set off on Monday down a dirt track looking for gold! Arltunga, close to our camp at Trephina Gorge in the East MacDonnell Ranges, was one of the early gold mining settlements in the Northern Territory, and we were out to find the left over nuggets! There are some old ruins of the original town left here which we quickly scooted around – more pressing things to come. We headed off-road in search of Paddy's waterhole – only about 5kms from the old town. We eventually found the creek-line and walked up to Paddy's waterhole. There was water in the hole, but it wasn't flowing so my idea of panning for gold was a little bit scuppered! We spent an hour or so digging in the creek bed, but both Claire and I were unsuccessful! Not surprising hey! Ah well – more chances to find gold later on.

We stayed another night at Trephina Gorge as it was a lovely little campground. The only disturbing thing was the number of grasshoppers, 10 or more of which would take off and sometimes land (normally on Claire) whenever we moved. Claire not happy. I must admit I didn't like it when they did this at night as I thought they might be moths! (Those who know me know how much I love moths!).

We drove back into Alice on the Tuesday morning as our plan was then to head out into the West MacDonell ranges. We stopped in Alice to stock up on food and also had a nosey around the camping store. We gave in and bought a new item that we shall call the Super Dome! It's a large dome tent with fly netting on all sides! We got to Ormiston Gorge (after stopping to have a look at Simpsons Gap and Ellery Creek Big Hole) and set up camp, including Super Dome! Claire went for a swim in the gorge which she assures me was beautiful. We had a lovely pest free evening and I cooked Chicken Fajitas again – yum!





In the morning we had a surprise visitor of a young dingo – very cute. Not so cute was the fact that he was eating the grasshoppers and we were close enough to hear the crunch!



We packed up and headed back towards Alice stopping at the Ochre Pits. These pits are of aboriginal significance - the cliffs are an amazing array of yellow through to deep orange ochre and the ochre is still used to paint their skins for ceremonies.



Back into Alice for the night, staying at the same (quite expensive) campground. We caught up on emails and other tinterwebby stuff and had an early night ready for our big drive south in the morning.

We were up and off early on Thursday morning aiming to be in Coober Pedy that night.
The drive is approx 700km. It was a good drive to be honest, I think we only saw about 10 other cars on the road. We amused ourselves with our usual comic genius (singing "Coober Pedy" to the tune of "My Sharona", as featured in earlier blogs)!

Before we got to Coober Pedy we took a small detour to the Breakaways. This was of great significance to us as this is where parts of Priscilla Queen of the Dessert were filmed (the bit where they break down in the dessert).... We could feel Priscilla trembling!



It was getting kind of late and the sun was setting so we took our pics and headed in towards Coober Pedy town. As we got to the main road the heavens opened and in true style gave our Priscilla the setting she deserves...



What a beautiful girl she is!

Having listened to the radio for 7 hours we got more and more nervous about the pending thunderstorms that were due in and around Coober Pedy (we must have heard the weather report at least 7 times!) We planned in any event to do what the locals do and go underground! We booked into the backpackers and got ourselves a room, then headed out for a pizza dinner and watched the sky light up with lightening in the distance.

Our room was 6 metres underground – it gets so hot in this area in the summer, that the locals live underground! We thought it would be an experience, but it turned out to be a bad one - unfortunately we had the worlds worst snorer next door, and no sound proofing to protect us! I swear if the German boy had been in the same room I would have stuck a pillow over his head!!!



Anyway, next day we had the morning in Coober Pedy, known for it's Opals! We went to the Old Timers Mine, a mine that was lost until someone found it while excavating their own home and decided to open it as a mining museum. We enjoyed the tour and were allowed to “noodle” for cast off Opals in the noodle-pit outside. We found about 6, and took them for my mum!



We even found a new boyfriend for Sheila on the mining tour...:-)



Coober Pedy is a very strange town, definitely a place that we'll remember well. There are apparently a million slag heaps of sandstone in and around Coober Pedy from the blurb we read. When you are driving in and out of the town, all you can see are pyramids of dirt that have been exhausted from the ground in the quest for opals!

We set off South at about lunch time hoping to get to Port Augusta again, but knew this might be a stretch too far. We managed 370km to Pimba and spent the night in a car park next to the roadhouse. Free camp with Telstra signal and we managed a skype chat with mum to wish her happy birthday so all was good (and Claire only heard one murderer coming and going in the night).

On the road early again on Saturday for yet another huge drive. This time we managed 500km's all the way down to Port Lincoln, only stopping in at Port Augusta again for food and much needed beer supplies!!! Port Lincoln was unfortunately due some rain overnight so we decided to try to get a motel for the evening. We went to the tourist info only to find out it was the busiest weekend of the year there, with national hockey championships, sailing competitions AND the navy in town (not as exciting for us as it might be for other girls)... With the help of the lovely lady at the info we managed to find a room for the night above a pub! We enjoyed a meal out at the local Chinese restaurant and I even managed to watch some of the AFL game that was on the t.v. (Claire loves that this is my new obsession as I am playing Fantasy AFL now, not easy when you don't even know the rules!)

Sunday we set up camp quite early in the Coffin Bay National Park, a FREE CAMP (Alex!) that was sheltered and quite lovely too. We were visited by the incredibly cute Blue Wrens again. I think they could see their reflections in the windscreen and side window, amusing! (cleaning their little presents away wasn't so cute, that's another one of my jobs!)





Claire spent a good half an hour talking to a Dutch couple who camped opposite us (they had an Ultimate Camper, which we were extremely jealous of!) The couple manage to spend 3 months at home in the Netherlands and 3 months touring in Australia, leaving their car and trailer with friends in Melbourne in between! What a life!!! They gave us lots of good advice on where to go and where to camp, more of which in the next exciting instalment!

Sending love hugs and kisses from WA,
Jen, of Jen and Claire Fame

Week 9, Monday 29 March - 4 April 2010

So, Uluru.

Or Oooo Loo Roo, as Harn so endearingly calls it...

We had our first glimpse of the world's most recognisable rock on Sunday late afternoon as we drove into Yulara, the tourist village established to service the rock. The first thing to grab you is the size – its 346 metres tall (put another 35 stories on top of the 60 stories of Governor Philip Tower where I worked at Mallies and that's about the height apparently) and the walk around the base is 10.2km (albeit it deviates some way from the edge of the rock in parts). On route to Uluru you first see Mount Conner, which is pretty impressive as far as mountainous flat topped rocks go, and we wondered why its not much of a tourist attraction itself. All becomes clear when you see Uluru. Its difficult to say what's so impressive about it. First is just the sheer size, but when you get closer (we walked all the way around the base) you appreciate the different textures and shapes – its not just a huge oblong shaped red mass rising out of the ground, it has different faces on all sides, the colour changes with the light and the contrast of the red with the deep blue sky above and the greenery of the trees and bush below is spellbinding.

To the Anangu traditional owners, Uluru is a sacred site, and they ask you not to climb it. We had met a number of Australians on our travels (normally greying nomads!) who told us we must climb it. I would have liked to have climbed it, but I wanted to respect the request not to and, well, lets face it, Jen would never have let me scramble up there anyway! The climb really is a climb as well – they've put a handrail up, but its incredibly steep (we saw people shimmying down on their bottoms).



On Monday we drove around the base, watched a very random cross-section of society climbing the rock (various nationalities, old people, young people, children, even a lady with a baby....) then headed over to Kata Tjuta (the Olgas), where we walked into the gorge.




On the way back we experienced a very localised rain storm.



That evening we headed back to the rock with some wine, bread and cheap brie from the Yulara IGA (you get what you pay for, it was inedible) to watch the sunset over Uluru. We were concerned it would be packed with tourists, but actually it wasn't too busy, and it was a lovely night. Jen took a million photos and I sipped my white wine and enjoyed the view.







And so you too can experience sunset at Uluru, we recorded this time lapse video (see if you can make out our special moves at the end.....answers in the comments section please).



On Tuesday morning we got up early to watch sunrise (not quite early enough as it turned out - surprise surprise, we were 10 minutes late!) and then did the walk around the base. We started off with a free ranger tour (the Mala Walk) which was excellent. The young Australian guide was passionate about his role and gave us a great insight into the significance of the site to the aboriginal people and their way of life. We'd highly recommend this to anyone going to Uluru. He made the most compelling arguments I've heard for not climbing, the key to which was that the Anangu people ask you not to - its their land, we should respect that request. To put this in some context, aboriginal paintings here date back 40,000 years, and the rights of the Anangu people whose ancestors painted them were finally recognised in 1985 when the title deeds to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park were presented to the Anangu people, in return for a 99 year lease back to Parks Australia.

Following the ranger tour we continued on the long walk around the base which is well worth the effort (Jen enjoyed it even though she had a blister almost the size of Uluru by the end!) After the walk we pretty much collapsed in a heap at the camp ground and didn't do anything else for the day except feel tired and a little proud of our efforts...

On Wednesday we got up for sunrise again (and made it this time!)



We watched the sunrise from the sunset viewing area because we wanted to see the sun rising next to Uluru rather than the light rising on it, and also because we thought there may be more people at the proper sunrise viewing area. And perhaps because it was further away and we wouldn't have made it to the sunrise viewing area on time! What a great decision though. We hadn't really felt the pressure of crowds in the few days we spent at Uluru, we wondered at times where everyone was. At the sunrise viewing point we found them – swarms of tourists big enough to outnumber the flies. Nice view though, once they'd all got into the coaches and camper-vans and left us to it... That day we also saw our first camels.



Very cute.

Before leaving Uluru we went to the cultural centre, which was very good, then said our final farewells to the rock and set off for Kings Canyon, arriving at the resort there late afternoon to set up camp, eat and collapse. The camp ground here had a lovely view of the George Gill Range in which the canyon sits.



The next morning we headed to the canyon itself, and did the short walk into gorge. It was lovely, but not quite as lovely as we'd hoped – a lot of people had told us this was one of their favourite places, outranking Uluru. I think we suffered from the reverse hype of not expecting to be that impressed by Uluru and expecting too much from Kings Canyon. That said, sunset back at the camp ground was lovely again that evening.



We headed in to the resort bar for a drink that evening, which was suitably bizarre. A musical (if it can properly be called that) act called The Roadies were performing to crowds of families, embarrassing mothers and fathers alike by getting them up on stage. We escaped to the pool room and wound up being challenged to a few rounds of doubles by two guys based in Melbourne working at Kings Canyon for a few weeks (a pilot and a helicopter engineer). And we won! Thanks to Jen of course...

On Friday, our camp ground neighbours, Greg and Robyn, kindly offered to let me do the rim walk around Kings Canyon with them – Jen was scared off by the steep climb at the beginning and was still suffering with said Uluru blister. It wasn't as bad as we thought, and she would have made it fine, but stayed behind photographing lizards instead...





(Actually, I took the first one the day before - its much cuter than Jen's, don't you think?!)

The rim walk was really lovely, and made me appreciate why Beeler and Maz loved it here so much. There is a very steep climb to begin with, then a 6km walk around the top of the canyon. The odd thing is it takes you through some strange moonscapes, with numerous rocky cairns (looking a bit like mud huts made from small rock bricks) popping up all around you. From this you emerge onto a plateau over the sheer walls of the cliffs dropping into the canyon, which is wonderful. And then there's a drop down into the Garden of Eden – a rocky valley with a lovely rock pool for swimming and palm trees. All in all a great walk, and my companions were lovely as well.

In the afternoon we drove to Alice Springs, only about a 200km trip, but it took us around 3-4 hours. We took the Mereenie Loop track, which passes through Aboriginal land requiring a permit to enter ($5.50 from the Kings Canyon Resort, $3 if you come in from the other direction, not sure how that works!) Its a truly terrible road. It seems that whenever Jen takes the wheel, as she did to relieve me from further exertion after my walk on this day, we get the worst most corrugated roads. Anyway, the Mereenie Loop is not recommended by us to anyone!

In Alice, we headed to the MacDonell Ranges camp-site recommended by Keith and Pauline in William Creek. Its the most expensive camp-site we've been to so far ($38 a night), but the facilities are good and clean, and we were happy to relax there for a couple of days. Not at all influenced by the fact United were playing Chelsea on Saturday night, which we might be able to catch in a pub in Alice...

On Saturday afternoon, after a lazy morning, we headed into Alice and picked up some national park information at the very helpful Information Centre, together with a Fosicking Permit to enable Jen to find gold.... Then we went to the Reptile Centre, where we got to hold a Blue Tongue lizard:



and a Bearded Dragon:



There was a very large python too, but we gave that a miss! The funniest thing to see here up close is the Thorny Devil, the most bizarre little lizard to wander the earth:



After that, we headed (a little too early) to the pub. We met up with a local guy called Graham, who worked at one of the aboriginal communities and was in town for some beers over the Easter weekend. Graham joined us to watch the football in an Irish pub later on. We had a pretty good night, although as is de rigeur for me and United, they lost because I was watching.

Sunday morning and Jennie was in heaven. No, not because United lost the night before, but because on Sundays at this camp-site, they have free, all you can eat, pancakes for breakfast! We got there a little late and scoffed down two a bit too quickly, thereby precluding us from a more serious go at the 'all you can eat' challenge, but it set us up well for the day nonetheless. We set out for Trephina Gorge in the East MacDonnell Ranges, calling in at Emily and Jessie Gaps on route (the East and West MacDonnells are ruggedly picturesque ranges punctuated by deep gaps or gorges, often with a water hole supporting wildlife, and the odd tourist escaping the heat for a dip). Trephina Gorge seemed a good spot to stop for a few nights, and Jen promised to find gold the next day at nearby Arltunga, where a mini gold rush occurred in the late 19th century.

More of which is our next instalment...

Love to all,
Claire, of Jen and Claire Fame
[it must be time for Jen to write the next one!]

Week 8 - Monday 22 – 28 March 2010

Back again – only about 2 weeks behind now...!

Monday, we did a circular route through the Flinders Ranges from Trezona at the north end, along the Brachina Gorge (searching again for the old Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby to no avail), then back down through the Bunyeroo Gorge, with a few great lookout points on route (the muppets particularly enjoyed Razorback).



In the evening we decided we'd watch the sunset at Stokes Lookout, which is a fantastic vantage point to see both Wilpena Pound (behind which the sun sets) and Willow Springs (in the other direction) where we'd done the Skytrek track the day before. Sunset was lovely – there is an organised tour from Wilpena which gave us the idea. We arrived early, set our chairs, a little tipple to watch the sun come down and the camera then waited. Sure enough, the Wilpena tour arrived, but we'd already bagsied the best spot and there were only 8 of them, so it didn't destroy the moment. On route there we saw a dingo cross the road – apparently the recent floods had caused a hole in the dog-fence (no kidding, there is a huge dog-fence which is intended to keep dingos out of south-eastern Australia). Sunset was lovely – the best moment was seeing the perfect silhouette of a roo on the crest of the hill framed by the red back-drop of the sinking sun. Too far away for a photograph, but a lovely memory for us, and some exercise for your imaginations. That night we camped at Dingley Dell, which is a National Park camp by the roadside not far from Stokes Lookout. Not the best spot, but convenient. An Axe Murderer arrived late on in the night, but left early morning without any attempted homicides, so all was fine.



On Tuesday we did a long drive up to Gammon Ranges, otherwise known as the Northern Flinders. The scenery on route continued to be spectacular, growing more rugged as we got further north. We stopped on route at Blinman (cute, if a bit odd), then headed to Angorichina for fuel (even more more bizarre – its called Angorichina Tourist Village, but who on earth would go there as a tourist I don't know – the fuel is the main attraction, the food in the shop is mostly out date (the milk was a week overdue) and the manner of the lady serving convinced me we would have been Axe Murdered had we stayed there). From there, we took a track through the Glass Gorge back to Blinman (disappointing track as it happened – not sure we'd recommend much of the Blinman/Angorichina area to anyone!)

From Blinman, we set off up the dirt track to Balcanoona where I thought we would camp for the night, taking a short detour to Chambers Gorge, which was very pretty, and had some Aboriginal art to admire, but the flies were beginning to get us down. We saw quite a few birds of prey on route hunting, which is always pretty special to see, even if we can never identify exactly what bird it is! At Balcanoona I realised there was no camping, only National Park accommodation in huts, so we had to reconsider our plans. We were pretty tired this point, and started on a drive to one of the 4wd accessible park camp-sites, only to decide it was all getting a bit too hard. We headed on up to the Arkaroola Resort instead. Arkaroola, quite apart from anything else, nicely fits to the tune of “My Sharona”, and it proved to be a good choice.

Arkaroola, like Willow Springs, is a privately owned station where they have taken to tourism as a good source of income. The homestead here has a bar, restaurant, various accommodation options, pool, observatory and tours, as well as various 4wd tracks you can explore free. The camp ground (we headed to join the older folks in the caravan park) is quite special – a sheer red rock face descends in front of you, with the sun perfectly catching the colours as it drops in the evening. Here we also found some of the friendliest neighbours yet, two couples who'd only met each other on route themselves, but were more than welcoming to us. We had a coffee with Kath and Lindsay on the second night there in their trailer tent, chatting away until nearly midnight – a shockingly late night for us, but great company!

During the second day at Arkaroola, we drove out to some of the waterholes and a site called the Pinnacles (STILL no yellow-footed rock wallabies!) then had a roast pork dinner in the restaurant as a treat that evening. All in all, very nice.

On Thursday, we set off from Arkaroola (My Sharona) to Leigh Creek, our jump off point for the Oodnadatta Track (which also fits pretty well to the My Sharona (Ood na datta...) you may notice a theme developing). Nice drive again on dirt track most of the way, with our final views of the Flinders. At Leigh Creek we stocked up at the local supermarket for much needed supplies, then mooched about in the car park catching up on internet time. Finally, we decided to stop the night, and camped at the inauspicious Leigh Creek Camp Ground (looked a lot like the car park we'd been sat in earlier in the day). It turned out to be a very nice little camp spot for us, with a camp kitchen to boot, so we could sit indoors, avoid the flies and mozzies, and Jen could cook her famous Fajitas! Also, fine tasting water at this camp ground, which had become something of a rarity for us at this point, so a good place to refill all the tanks! Finally, we used the vacuum sealer to properly store some meat we'd bought – a very successful day.

The next day we set off for our first proper outback drive up the Oodnadatta Track. We lowered the tire pressure to about 30psi, called the Pink Roadhouse for any last minute advice on the track condition, and set off into the dust and heat with some trepidation. The truth is the track was in pretty good condition, and we sat at 70-80km for most of it, creating our own minor dust storm off the back wheels as we travelled. We stopped at Maree first - outback towns from a passer-by's perspective are a dusty road bordered by a General Store and a Roadhouse selling fuel. Maree has an unusual addition – the Lake Eyre Yacht Club. Optimistic to say the least. The landscape is pretty flat and barren for the early part of the Oodnadatta Track. Someone has had the good grace to break up the landscape with the truly bizarre Mutonia, where quite some effort has gone into building some very odd steely art exhibits in the desert surrounds. Mr de Belin would appreciate these I think.





We also passed Lake Eyre (south) on route. Lake Eyre is roughly the size of Holland and has only been filled to capacity 3 times in the last 150 years – this is a country of extremes. All that can be seen is an amazing expanse of shimmering white haze caused by the salt dried on the crust of the lake. There was actually some water in the lake, which is unusual, following the water that has flowed down from the floods in Queensland.

We covered 320km on the day, and arrived in William Creek to spend the night. The flies here were feral. One of our neighbouring campers (Pauline, more of whom shortly) came over to say hello and was sent into a brief (if gracefully handled) coughing fit as one of the little buggers made it into the back of her throat as she spoke – honestly, this would be a truly wonderful country were it not for the flies (and the mozzies). We'd traded places a number of times on the way up from Leigh Creek with a white Prado towing a swanky looking off-road caravan/camper trailer. It turned out to be Pauline and her lovely husband Keith, from Darwin, who were a lot of fun. William Creek has a very cool pub, the interior of which is decorated with countless mementos left by people passing through (mostly business cards, but hats, scarfs, flags, naked photos... don't ask me!) and we had arrived on the cusp of the key date in the diary – the William Creek Gymkhana. The pub was therefore heaving that night, and we saw a bit of local colour! Pauline was particularly good value – she reminded me of Dorian in Birds of Feather, a dark haired (Black Irish according to her), confident, provocative lady of indeterminable age. A number of station hands were in for the Gymkhana from the neighbouring stations – young guys with shirts and hats too big for their skinny frames and an 18 year girl from Tasmania who had just finished her first week on the station! She looked too young and wide eyed to be dealing with station life, but seemed to be handling it all very well. We decided (after a few too many beers) that William Creek was great and we must stay for the Gymkhana the next day (this includes men riding horses in races against other men riding motor bikes, boot throwing competitions and who knows what else).

But on Saturday, this seemed like less of a good idea. The sun was beating down pretty hard by 8am, and the flies had reformed overnight to start wave after wave of attack, like a regenerative alien force. We probably should have stayed and seen it, I'm sure it would have been an experience, but we gave in to the flies and set off for Oodnadatta instead.



The trip from William Creek to Oodnadatta is a bit more varied – gradually the hills start to build around you, with sand dunes in some sections and salt pans. The road gets redder as well, and it feels like you're in the Outback. We passed the Algebuckina Bridge (which used to carry the Ghan Railway) on route.





Oodnadatta is the outback town I expected, and the Pink Roadhouse is true to its name and looks pretty special against the desert back drop. But for my honesty we would have got some very cheap fuel there too – instead it was the most expensive yet (some $1.79 a litre!). The girl read her machine wrong and was going to charge me $24 for the 60 litres and the can of coke until I told her (twice!) that she really ought to check that...!



We had been contemplating continuing on up to Alice Springs along the Old Ghan Track, passing Dalhousie Springs, from Oodnadatta, but having received unpromising advice about the state of the track with the recent rains, and in view of Easter approaching, we decided we'd head back to the highway and go to Uluru and Kings Canyon before Easter, to try to avoid the school holiday crowds. So from Oodnadatta we set out across country on a track through the Painted Desert. This is pretty spectacular, the best bit of our little outback excursion. The landscape here is littered with oddly coloured and shaped hills and ranges, which change colour wonderfully in the setting sun.



We finished up at a roadhouse called Cadney Homestead that night, basically a road train fuel stop on the highway.

On Sunday we set off on the long drive to Yulara, the tourist village developed to service visitors to Uluru. We crossed the border (very exciting!) and found ourselves in the ever deepening red sand of the Centre. We had our first sighting of Uluru on the way to Yulara, but I'm going to save that for the next blog.

Love to all,
Claire, of Claire and Jen Fame

Week 7 - Monday 15 – 21 March 2010

Week 7 already!

On Monday we spent a good part of the day doing chores – Priscilla had a service (which I watched – finally I know where the transmission fluid dip stick is!), we bought a Telstra phone so we can have reception in places outside the major conurbations and we did a food shop. Finally, we left the outskirts of Adelaide (Modbury) where we'd achieved so much and headed out to Hahndorf, a kitch German town in the Adelaide Hills wine region.

Hahndorf, though kitch, is undeniably cute. Our camp site was not. It was close to the town though, which is what we wanted. It also had a group of Australian car enthusiasts of the Hot Rod variety, which meant I could get some photos for John, and lamely boast about the fact a friend back home has a 1934 Ford Coupe.... We had a pretty poor dinner at the German Arms Hotel in town, then Jen spent the night on the internet, and was punished for her urbanity by a thousand mozzie bites.





Tuesday, we drove through the Adelaide Hills region (really lovely, we should have stopped for some wine tasting), up on through the Barossa Valley (where we did some shameful wine tasting) and finally camped up in Clare in the Clare Valley. Yes, we drove through some of Australia's finest wine producing regions and we stopped at.... Jacobs Creek Winery! Well, we haven't been wine tasting before, and we were a bit intimidated about the idea of going to a small vineyard (even though we knew it would be better). We'll do more in Margaret River, and won't go to the big UK distributors!





On Wednesday we pressed further north to Mount Remarkable, a small National Park just outside Port Augusta (called Porta Gutta by the locals!) Since leaving Adelaide, the weather has continued to get warmer, and on this stretch of road, we began to notice the changing landscape too. Suddenly Australia begins to seem like the vast country it is, in a way you don't appreciate on the coastal roads of New South Wales and Victoria. The roads stretch ahead to end in a heat fuelled watery haze, and they're relatively sparsely populated, save for other the other 4WDs and road trains. And the drivers passing in the opposite direction acknowledge you with a raised hand or finger from the steering wheel. Mount Remarkable National Park forms part of the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, and these framed our view to the right as we drove - a long line of hills (surprisingly green) topped by flat rocky crags. To our left everything is flat out to the Spencer Gulf, where the Southern Ocean reaches its Northern most point in South Australia at Port Augusta.

Our camp here for the night was very nice, great setting with showers and mod cons, all free with the National Parks permit we bought back in Mount Gambier. On the way in we saw a family of emus crossing the road in front of us – unfortunately we were too late to get a picture of them crossing (I'm determined to get a Beatles style shot of them crossing the road before the end of the trip). Emus are fast becoming our favourite of the Australian fauna. On the way back out the next morning, we saw the same family crossing the road again, only for a baby to get its leg trapped in a fence. The largest of the emus (we assumed the mother, but later realised it was quite possibly the father as stay at home dad's are all the rage in the emu world) stood guard to our right while the others paced behind him. Together, we all watched the young emu struggle in the wire fence to our left with concern. Jen and I were about to turn back to find a ranger to free the bird, when it managed to wrench itself free and limp across the road. We watched a while longer to make sure it wasn't injured and moved on again only after we'd seen it walking normally again (which happened after it emptied its bowels for us – poor thing!)

That day we carried on up to Porta Gutta and spent a long time looking for someone to check the wheel alignment on the front wheels (tire tread wearing thin on the inside edge as identified during the service) but not finding anyone with the time or working tools, then more time stocking up for the trip ahead to the Flinders. By the time we left, my hopes of reaching Wilpena Pound that night were almost dead, and the final nail was hammered in when we ran into a hold up on the road up there in the shape of a truck which had lost its load onto the siding. We waited about 45 minutes for the crane to clear the way, then made our way on up to Hawker for the night, where we also thought we could get the wheel alignment done at “Chris' Mechanicals”.

Our camp was fine, though the swim I took in their pool was ill advised – I was attacked by something Jen reliably informed me was a Wurleygig Beetle – a bit like a diving seal, only tiny and in no way something you want to swim with.

On Friday we made our way up to Wilpena Pound (after the necessary wheel alignment at Chris' Mechanicals, and a hour in the Panorama Gallery there – something to be seen for sure!). The scenery around the Flinders is stunning, even on the approach. I'm not sure the pictures really do it justice, but here's Priscilla on the road up there.



We stayed at the commercial camp ground at Wilpena for two nights and nosied about the area, but really did very little other than spot lazy kangaroos hanging about the place, and dodge the legion of flies that beset almost every move (fair to say at this point (b b b baby) we'd seen nothing yet as far as flies go, much worse was to come on the Oodnadatta Track). We didn't even manage the walk into the Pound.

On Sunday though, we did the Skytrek 4wd tour of Willow Springs Station. Around the Flinders, many of the stations open up their tracks to the 4wd public for some off-road viewing of the Flinders area not within the National Park. Skytrek has the highest vehicular access point in the Flinders according to the very helpful and enthusiastic ranger at Wilpena. And it was pretty spectacular. Its only around 70km, but takes all day to drive it. It passes through some aboriginal rock art sites, Old Moxan's Hut (which was restored with the help of the Nissan Patrol Club in SA) which a station employee occupied until the 1960's, a Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby conservation (we searched a lot for these Yellow-Feet in the Flinders, they're rare and rarely seen it seems – Jen's cries of “Oi Yellow Foot, where the hell are ya?” didn't even work....) and finally a fantastic drive up and view from the top of Mount Caernarvon, where you get a great panoramic view of the Flinders Ranges and internet coverage (yey!).





Of course, as has become vogue for us, we saw more emus – these ones were particularly inquisitive and watched us for as long as we watched them. I'm very amused by emus. They have punk haircuts and a strange gait that John Cleese would be proud of – each step looks like that of a mime artist accentuating the tentative steps of a comedy burglar, until they break into a run, when their ample bottoms bounce about behind them in a manner Beyonce must admire.





That night, we found a nice camp at Trezona off a dirt track towards the north of the Flinders National Park, and collapsed in exhaustion, only to be kept awake a lot of the night by strong winds ripping through the tent – sometimes its not so good to be high up. No Axe Murderers though, just a Swiss family on holiday.

More of the Flinders and the Gammon Ranges to follow in the next instalment, together with our first outback track (the Oodnadatta) and crossing the border into the Northern Territory and the Red Centre.

Love to all,
Claire of Jen and Claire Fame