Flinders and outback SA

After another hard drive into strong headwinds we arrived at Wilpena Pound – WOW !! This place is stunning, the rock climbing looks superb, the rock resembling something between Grampians sandstone and Arapiles Quartzite, this place is a feast for the eyes. A walk to the lookout revealed a great diversity of reptiles, every bend on the walk presented us with a new little beasty to say hello to and marvel at.

On the oil front, I missed it by five minutes….. yes, it was cleared from the bistro 5 mins before asking ….

North Flinders was also spectacular wonderful camping and amazing scenic driving through valleys and gorges.

We loved camping at Farina not far from the ghost town. It had very welcomed fire warmed showers. I also manged to fix the leaking oil filtering system ... hooray !!

Lake Eyre

Camping at Mulroonia Station (near Lake Eyre) was fantastic by a waterhole full of birdlife. The drive to the lake was easy going although the wind was up and the visibility was low because of the dust. As we wondered out into the basin, I noticed how seductive this wildscape was, it felt as if I could just keep on walking into the vast interior, not unlike the draw of a deep rainforest gully or paddling along a river. I just felt like going forever. The dust in the air added to the ambience of the place and took the edge off the sun.

Back to camp we heard about a serve weather warning, seeming it was on dusk we figure there was not much we could do about that. I mean, where would we go? There was no place to hide from a storm out here. It was due at 8pm, and that is when the storm hit …. The predicted 90km/hr winds and rain seemed spot on !!

It began with a dust storm that saw Kaiden take cover under the bedsheets as it blew through our tent. Then the rain came – wow… I never expected to have rain at Lake Eyre of all places in Australia ! The storm continued through to sometime past midnight after I had fallen asleep.

I am now enjoying the birdlife around the waterhole and waiting for the roads to re-open. The roads are wet and sticky….. We are longing Coward Springs to soak the dirt and dust off, and perhaps rehydrate through osmosis.

SPOKE TOO SOON, the roads are closed today .... we were lucky to make it back to Maree they are very sticky and wet !!

Oh and to those who have been trying to contact us on our sat phone. The car antenna is operational. Also as a habit we are going to start to switch the phone on by the camp fire once we set up. One thing to remember with satellite phones is that we need open sky to communicate with satellites, unlike a standard mobile phone which will work inside or under tree cover. There are also a few satellites that are out of service creating gaps in signals, I will post a link to a site that predicts the best time to ring for our location