Saturday 30 August.

Saturday 30^th August

The trek back to home.

Wilpena dawned another lovely day and so I decided to get up and jog to the homestead and back. Its 6.5km. Of course I didn’t jog all the way as I am so out of condition but walked when I had to and took some photos on my phone. I left Greg in bed and he was still there when I got back sound asleep. He was still sound asleep as I did my stretches outside and then got my things ready for a shower.

He met me when I was walking back from yet another splendid hot shower at the toilet block and he was going that direction . Well at least we can start the day now.

We had decided to call in to the kiosk for another nice coffee (no food, its stale) and gather some information on Peterborough and places around. Our trouble is that we have a week to get back to Canberra which is more than ample time from where we are. We don’t have enough time to embark on another adventure – or we would have gone up the Stezleki track or something which would be another 2 weeks – so that adventure is on the bucket list for next time. So now we are faced with seeing what we can do to not get back home too quickly.

Greg was going to leave the van where it was and hitch later but I decided that it was a bad idea and that we should hitch, steel water from the camp kitchen to fill up the van and park it somewhere in the sun to try and redeem the solar batteries as these were starting to suffer.

My idea was better so that’s what we did. Parked Gibson in the sun and went inside the information center. Their internet still doesn’t work. I am starting to wonder if it ever does. They put it on their information sheet they have internet to fool desperate bloggers into staying there.

Batteries – the bain of our existence when camping. We have a solar panel unit that you would think was good enough to run the fridge and a few lights. However this plan is terribly flawed when you get either a bunch of cloudy days in a row and you are not plugged into mains somewhere (home or caravan park) or the place you are staying has lots of lovely shady trees – which is nice but solar can’t work in shade. We have been parked in part shade for 3 days and now our power supply is on amber to red. Danger. If the deep cell batteries decharge completely they have to be chucked and replaced. This has happened once and it wasn’t our fault but Springvale Caravan’s as they turned everything off when they did a service on it and left it in their yard for 2 weeks. We luckily got that set of batteries on warrantee after me arguing with 2 lots of different suppliers all saying that there isn’t anything wrong any way I don’t want it happening again. This time we will have to pay lots of money to replace them and there must be something wrong with the way our solar is rigged to the batteries. Can’t trust new technology with a people who aren’t that expert in it. The people that build caravans aren’t that clued up I’m sure.

We decided maybe in error and because of money that we would free camp tonight but the fridge is sucking the life out of the batteries which means we need power tomorrow. Trouble is tomorrow we are going to Broken Hill and I would rather not stay there at all. Been there and done that and I have heard that the caravan parks are not the best. (It was ok when we were there a few years ago but it was noisy. One of the campers told me that a change of management has seen some bad reports on Wikki camps) So a free camp on the other side of Broken Hill was what we were aiming for. We saw Broken Hill inside and out last time we did out big trip with the van that almost fell to pieces so don’t particularly need to stay there again. It can’t have changed much in 3 years!

Heading toward Hawker - last look at the Flinders Ranges

Anyway back to the journey. We left Wilpena and headed toward Hawker which every time I think of it I think of the suburb in Canberra. Not surprisingly its nothing remotely the same. We came across some look outs and took our last photos of the Flinder’s Ranges. How beautiful they are and headed out into grassy plains and wheat belt country.

We were able to find a hefty priced service station in Hawker so only put $50 in the tank as we wanted to fill up in Peterborough where hopefully the fuel is cheaper. I was starving and after the big rap the couple at the caravan park gave of the Hawker General Store’s takeaway steak sandwiches, I hadn’t made lunch as I was so looking forward to sampling these great takeaway treats.

Classic ruined house on the way to Peterborough

Trouble is city folk forget that country town folk shut up shop at 12.30 or so and since we got there at 1pm it was all over including the steak sandwich.

I had no choice but to stay hungry and hope for the next town which promised to be a little bigger. It wasn’t and the sign that said SHOP with an arrow pointed to another closed general store. At this stage all I wanted was a loaf of bread.

On to the next town, Oororoo.

Now Oororoo sounds like something Scooby Doo says in a cartoon but it’s a town and it has 2 pubs.  We didn’t know it had 2 pubs it was nearing 2pm when counter meals finish so Greg let me out at the first pub we came to and told me to order something. Great. The pub boasted of all things a few Asian dishes on the menu so I ordered one of those with fresh veggies. I had to wait for Greg to finish parking the van and come in before he ordered – a hamburger. Really? After Yesterday??

Welcome to the closed general store

The little Asian person who was obviously the wife or partner of the publican,  scampered off into the kitchen to organize our lunch. I think she must have turned everything off and had to wait for it all to warm up again as it took ages and I was nearly ready to eat the legs off the chairs by the time our lunch came out. I tried not to scoff mine but it was so yummy that it was hard to not. Greg eats so slowly the grass grows an inch by the time he has finished was missing quite a few chips compliments of me by the time he called it a day. We thanked the publican who we found out was originally from Adelaide and has run several pubs. The things you find out whilst waiting for your lunch.

We had a little walk down the main street as we had sat in the car then the pub for quite a while.

the pub at Oororoo

The street was deserted except for some blokes travelling on motorbikes who had roared in to town for a break, a yak, a leg stretch  and a cold drink at the only other shop open – the milk bar. Classic wide varanders with old fashioned shop fronts boasting broad display areas like they did in the early days lined the streets. There was a good stretch of shops starting with the butcher shop on the corner and I did so wish we could have bought some meat from a real butcher as they said it was ‘locally grown’. But it was well shut. So was the IGA and I was hoping to get to. I have no fruit left and the veggies are looking very scarce and a bit sad. The only thing in our fridge is left over lasagna, some cheese, pickled onions, condiments and wine. Oh and a few soft drinks and an onion. So I really need to shop.

Main street

Everything is shut. Like it used to be in the old days. Even when I was a kid shops shut at 12 on Saturday. If you didn’t have it you borrowed from a neighbor or went without until Monday. People had family time and had to be organized with their shopping. I love the convenience of the city but it would be so nice for people to go back to the way it was and have half Saturday and all Sunday off. Except now if you suggested that there would be a great screaming match about unemployment skyrocketing and the government not getting as much tax from people as they worked or purchased. It will never happen in the city or larger country towns. But for the back of nowhere places, its quite relaxing. The only thing open are the pubs- and in Oororoo there was a choice of 2.

So anyway, we had our lunch and a little walkies in the beautiful afternoon sun and hopped back in the car and I drove to the lovely town of Peterborough. Home of the history of trains. I just love trains and railways. Also Pelicans and walks on the beach…never mind… this is the railway history place to be and they even have a great big shed converted to displays of old engines and there is a carriage that you can relax in and have some afternoon tea (we were too late for that) but they have a sound and light show which goes for an hour and its $20 per head and, well, I had to buy us tickets so now I hope its worth it.

We found out about this from the absolutely lovely Tamara who was born in Peterborough and went to Queensland to live for a little while but now lives here with her partner from Queensland and works in the tourist information centre. When you go through the door of the information centre she says, “welcome aboard!” The information centre is an old railway carriage. How cool is that! Then she told us where the free camps were and the caravan park was and where there is a good meal at which pub and sold me tickets to the light and sound show. Good Job! So friendly and helpful she should be the benchmark for customer service! Could not offer enough advice.  Great sense of humor, full of local knowledge and sounded great fun. I also purchased an hour of internet access for $4 which I thought was good enough as I have so much blogging to put up.

The only problem I now have other than the fridge running the batteries down is my computer needs charging again. I can’t charge it on 12 volt it has to be on mains or proper plug in things. On the way over here, because Greg was driving I got the laptop out of the car and started to write up yesterday’s adventure. I can look up and touch type so won’t get car sick. It’s a great time saver and because he is there I can clarify names of places or look them up on the map. I can also multi task as I balance the laptop on my knee, I can reach behind the seat to get my SLR camera and take a photo out of the window of the car. I can even feed Greg sliced apple at the same time. What a star! Yes he is still a captive audience and needs to eat fruit since our diet is getting scratchy for the lack of fresh anything.

However all my carefully stolen charge when talking to the nice couple from Adelaide yesterday evening at the camp kitchen was down to 30% which isn’t enough to blog for an hour without being plugged in somewhere. The trouble with the blog ticket is you can’t log in and out and use an hour it has to be all at once. Hence I was faced with a problem.

We should have gone to the caravan park and plugged in – and plummed as I need to do washing – but that’s the least of my worries. We have no power and a failing battery system and $4 of internet I can’t use. We thought of getting the generator out but at the free camp we had neighbours so didn’t want to stuff their peaceful afternoon with my generator going.

However

I went for a walk, encouraging Greg to have a rest as he did not sleep well last night and we have this thing to go to  tonight.

Then I walked back  as I saw the people next to us hitching and struck up a casual conversation with them starting with ,”where are you off to next?” blah blah having trouble with power, don’t want to disturb you with the generator…”oh we don’t mind the generator we might have a problem if its on at 10pm”… Good enough. They were going to Port Pirie. We have been there and found a good free camp – the one at Laurie park – the one that howled a gale and nearly took my washing line away. So I told them about it and then hastened to show where it was on the map and ran inside to the half asleep Greg and said to him “quick get the generator started they don’t mind the noise so long as it doesn’t go all night”, which he did.

I showed the people on the map where the good free camp was and we had a chat. Then I couldn’t get away and I was getting cold. The sun had started to set and the wind had got up a bit. I made the ‘need a jumper’ excuse we all bade farewell and good luck. They were going to get work up the coast on a 3 month contract. She is a bookkeeper and just gets jobs everywhere relieving businesses in the country when their bookkeeping staff take a holiday. Gave me something to think about. They sold their house for a taste of the free life (another couple!)

I came back to our camp, grabbed a jumper. Greg had kindly put my laptop on the charge on the generator and plugged it into the mains of the van so that the fridge could run and the batteries get some relief and not die on us. He went back to sleep on the bed. I poured myself a little white wine in a tin cup, sat outside the van on my camping chair, laptop in my knee, charging all the while and watched the sun set while I typed this out. Its even colder  now and now I can hardly feel my fingers and my wine is empty. All the while listening to our Honda generator purr away with only the odd whiff of its exhaust. Its on economy mode so its really quiet. You can’t even hear it on the other side of the van. Gotta love Honda.

 Ahh the life!!

Saturday afternoon what else should you be doing? Now my word document part of the blog is up to date and my computer us up to 95% so I should be able to blog like crazy tomorrow before we go to Broken Hill.

Friday 29th August

Friday 29^th of August 2014

Yesterday we didn’t get in the car once. It was great. First time since we left home on the 9^th we didn’t get in the car and drive.

So since we had our ‘day off’ sitting in the car today we decided to go exploring the gorges that are around, doing a loop through Parachina and Blinman on the way home. The Parachina pub is supposed to be renown for fabulous food so we thought we might go and do lunch there.

We set off toward Bunyeroo Gorge which is a dirt track. Greg had pumped the tyres back up on the car as there is quite a bit of bitumen to travel today but it made it hard as much of the track is riverbed and that’s full of rocks.

The yards outside the hut. The hut was nothing to look
at really so I didn't photograph it. The yards were interesting

First stop was a hut which is used for walkers on the Heyson trail – which is an enormous walking track I hadn’t heard of until now. Part of it ran behind out camp and it was the big hill I had climbed yesterday morning.

Then there was another lookout which was just stunning. As we parked our car in a normal car park – you get so used to parking with a van attached that this was refreshing! Some people were returning to the parked cars – then they pointed out to us that we were 4 ACT number plate cars in a row – all the way in South Australia! So we exchanged greetings and ‘where do you live’ (mostly from north side and near where we live) and then where they had been and where they were staying – they were all travelling together and were staying in the non powered sites too but on the other side of Wilpena park from us.

Scenery around the hut

They left and we took photos of the stunning scenery and followed on. It soon became apparent that there were that group, another couple in a Pajero and us all leapfrogging each other on the track as we stopped for photos. There was just so much to see and so amazing. Rock faces and formations over 150 million years old in the most stunning patterns and colors. It was the slowest trip ever but we didn’t care – this was what the trip was all about and we were not about to rush or miss a chance to take photos or just enjoy the scenery.

From the lookout where we met all the people from Canberra

Bunyeroo Gorge runs into Barachina Gorge an then you kind of drive out of it and on to a dirt road that had bad corrugations. About 10km of that and you strike the highway and Parachina is only 20km up the road.

Parachina is nothing much. It is a railway still operating, and there is a pub, some houses in a semi decrepid state and millions of flies.

The car park was full – to our dismay and we were starving so thought we might have to wait ages to get anything to eat.

In spite of its rave reviews and ‘must see’ status, it was a little disappointing to note that the bar in the pub was tiny and the pub was all about serving food. Rustic tables were set about in 3 main dining rooms adorned with indigenous paintings for sale. We went and found a table – as you do, there were no ‘wait to be seated’ signs and it’s a pub.. only to be told that we weren’t allowed to just sit by the very brisk manager of the pub. We could order and wait for a table.

 

Steep country side and quite sparse.

Since I had not packed any lunch and we were both starving as it was 1.30pm SA time which is 2pm our time and we hadn’t had anything since fruit for morning tea, we waited. For some reason we both ordered a burger off the very limited and extremely pricey menu. Anyone would think we were at Circular Quay in Sydney with these prices. $38 for a tasting plate which 2 could share or 1 could have as a main. Burgers were $18 and you could chose from emu, camel, kangaroo or beef or vegetarian. Fish and chips and a few other things.

The wonderful rocks

Big river gums waiting for the next rain

Massive rocks millions of years old

This track goes down to the Gorge.

Driving the Gorge, this was a nice bit - it got very
rocky from here on

Normally we share a burger as we both don’t need to eat that much and don’t want to feel stuffed full but for some reason we both  forgot to share and got an Emu burger each. One with fries the other without. You never get a discount for not having fries. Ripped off. Anyway I decided to get a cold drink and didn’t want a boozy drink as I needed to drive after lunch so got a can of Solo. I nearly choked on it when she charged me $5.50. What a bunch of thieves. You don’t even pay that much at a Royal show, football or some overpriced festival.

Our lunch arrived and the burgers were lovely but had a decent sized patty and very little salad. The chips were not the best and covered in chicken salt so were a bit salty even for me who likes salt. We managed to get a table on our own which was nice. The waitress took pity on us. We were to sit at the end of a big table which had a family eating lunch with small kids but a table for 2 became available. One of the wait staff – who were lovely moved us and we were very grateful. The way those kids were eating was enough to put you off eating for ever. They were also noisy, yelling and running around. What ever happened to table manners?

I priced the art work which I sat next to  $5500 and the artist was from the Gibson Desert area so not even local. They also had overpriced jewelry for sale – you’d have thought that this place catered for the rich and overindulgent that live nearby except there is stuff all around for miles. Its not like it’s a convenient choof down the highway like the Southern Highlands are for Sydney’s elite rich.

Pretty colours in the rocks

Totally disappointed with the Prairie Hotel – we made tracks for Blinman. One of our last points of interest on our little tour of the area today. We traversed the Blinman Gorge which was pleasant but no where near as exciting as the other two we had seen that day.  Blinman wasn’t that far and soon enough we were there. We stopped at the historical landmark which explained a bit about the history of the town which is reduced to a handful of people at most, then Greg needed the loo and I checked out the local store which was rumored to have great pies. There weren’t any pies left but the store owner was a big friendly and chatty lady who was giving out tour information to about half a dozen people who were travelling in 2 cars. I told them where we had been and suggested they go back that way – they were staying at Wilpena too. They happily trundled off. I bought a reasonably priced bottle of cold drink as I was sick of drinking water all the time and we had a yak and then it was time to go.

We went back to camp. I drove – in the faint hope that the internet had been restored. It hadn’t. Greg decided that I could use his phone’s hot spot to at least get some of the blog days up on the site so I busied myself with that as fast as I could so as not to use too much data and Greg sat in the sun with his IPad designing our next point of destination.

I managed 2 blog days and photos – but then my computer started running out of charge so I had to take it and my charger and go find a free electricity source. I had spotted some power outlets at the camp kitchen. When I got there, a couple were just sitting at the picnic tables chatting. I found a power plug that worked (2 tries) and then we spring up a conversation.

Parachina Railway building

They were from Adelaide and up for the weekend after going around Clare and buying wine for the last week. The conversation got around to activities of the day and I told them about the Parachina pub. They had come through Hawker that day and most wonderful steak sandwich at the Hawker General store. It was so big the guy even took a photo of it on his phone which he showed me. It was indeed large and tall. Not overly priced either. They both exclaimed on how delicious it was so since we were going that way tomorrow, I made a note to  stop in and sample this fine fare. It got a bit dark, they decided it was happy hour. I decided the computer had charged enough for me standing around waiting for it so we bade out goodbyes and ‘have a nice time’s’ and parted company.

The Parachina Pub. Looked good from the outside

Blinman General Store - lovely people there

Because we still felt over full from lunch I heated up a frozen risotto (one that Greg made back in Canberra) for dinner in my wonderful little caravan oven. I just put it on low and it heated it up from frozen solid in an hour or so. Nice and easy dinner.

We lit out choofer fire and mesmerized by the fire and the wonder of all those stars we sauntered off to bed fairly early. Hitch and travel day tomorrow.

Thursday 28th August

Thursday 28^th August.

We decided to stay at Wilpena for another 2 nights. There is so much to do here and from then on we will go back via Peterborough and Mildura to Canberra. The thought of holidays over is very sad.

Got up not too early as I just didn’t wake up at dawn for a change – yesterday was such a big day. However I had lots of energy and couldn’t wait to see what was over the steep grassy hill on the back of our camp.

I jogged up half of it until I was puffed out and walked to the top. A vista of rolling hills and mountains so pretty that I took photos on my IPhone and sent good mornings to everyone. Then I went further but realized this walk was more than a few kilometers and turned back. Running shoes aren’t exactly good walking shoes over rocks and things. I did a round trip of the complex and returned to camp by which time Greg was up. We decided to have showers in their amenities block which is not far. We found they had the best hot showers we have had on the trip yet. Actually any caravan park.

The camp is quite peaceful but there is a girls school group here making so much noise, I thought they were going today but they are going tomorrow. Bum

Also I was hoping to put my blog up on the site but the resort internet is broken. Bigger bum. So I just told them the reason we are staying here is the internet and they said hopefully it will be going tomorrow. It was supposed to be going this afternoon. We had the nicest coffee this morning and the worst muffin. Where to people get off selling stale food and not offering to put it in the microwave rejuvenate it. At least try and disguise the fact it was made last year and had been in a freezer ever since. That’s when we found the internet wasn’t working.  (after walking over to the kiosk lumping my laptop and his IPad with us. Of course his smarty Ipad thing works as he stuck the independent internet in it.

That has really irritated me as Greg is having a snooze now and tomorrow we will be driving to the various gorges around and seeing Blinman and so forth so after driving all day, having to suffer a slow outback internet to try and upload story and photos as well as having to cook tea is a drag to say the least.

The easy walking track to
the Homestead

We were told that it often comes on line in the afternoon. It wouldn’t be a problem except for the fact that Greg wrongly assumed that his little Telstra internet thing he got for his IPad would work on my computer. It doesn’t. then he said that I could “simply email my word files to his IPad” which also requires the internet. (Really!?)This blog’s entries are getting further and further behind and I should have just got my own dongle internet thing. Personal hot spots are well and good until they run out of data. What do you call them then? Cold spots? Useless as a Zit spots?

Anyway, it was a splendid day so we went for a walk to the homestead which is 6.5km return. I did worry about Greg and his energy levels so decided to pack a picnic lunch and water etc. Why he decided to wear jeans and a black TShirt is beyond me as it didn’t take much walking before he was very hot. Jeans aren’t exactly the best walking attire. I had my hiking shoes, shorts  and shirt originally worn on my Kokoda trip so very was comfortable.

logs piled high swept down in a flood

Anyway Cameras, spare batteries and memory cards, off we set. Greg needed a few stops along the way for a rest. We walked past the river bed that had so much dead wood in it. Fallen trees washed into enormous piles. I have never seen so many logs. Apparently there was a massive wild fire up stream, so hot that it burned down to the roots of the trees. Then there was a flood that just picked them all over and washed them away as they had no anchor point. They all banked up here and there is so much wood its amazing. None able to be chopped up as it’s in a National Park. Apparently now a little marsupial mouse lives there and the termites are doing their best to remove the trees.

the back of the homestead.

We finally reached the homestead which I thought would be a lot larger. Very cute. It has been restored but there is mesh on the windows to stop idiots getting in which ruins a good photo and it was further ruined by a dozen or so water bottles there, left temporarily by people gone somewhere else for a minute. Not far from the homestead were a lot of information panels about the people who lived there and why they eventually abandoned the homestead. Although they grew a good crop of wheat in the valley of the pound, the shear distance from where they had to transport it and the state of the roads or rather the roads they had to create – all to be washed away in the next big flood got the better of them and they gave up and went back to other regional centres. There was also another statue like we saw at Chamber’s Gorge of the two aboriginal fellows and the dreamtime story of the pound. The story of the pound was so interesting.

A waterhole not far from the Homestead

Dreamtime Story

Yurlu Ngukandanha – the Kingfisher Story

Yurlu, the Kingfisher, decided to go south for a ceremony. On the way he made a big fire, a sign that he was coming. The remains of that fire is the big heap of coal still at Leigh Creek today.

As Yurlu was travelling, there were also two big Akurras (Dreamtime Serpents) going south. Yurlu continued down the valley still making smoke, leaving coal behind him. The two serpents also went on southwards and entered the Pound through Edeowie Gorge and camped at a large waterhole.

That night some people in the Pound were holding a ceremony. When they looked into the sky at the stars to see if it was time to start, the stars they saw were actually the eyes of the two Akurras.

The male Akurra told his mate to go to the south-west, while he went north-east to surround the people. When Yurlu reached Mount Abrupt he stopped and looked into the Pound. He could hear the sound of the ceremony. He threw a firestick into the air; it turned into the red star, Mars.

While this was going on, the two Akurras came up on each side of the ceremonial ground and ate up all the people except two initiates and Yurlu.

St Mary Peak is the head of the male Akurra and Beatrice Hill is the head of the female serpent, both watching the flight of the initiates. Their bodies form the two sides of the Pound.

 I wish to acknowledge the Adnyamathanha people of the northern Flinders Ranges as the owners and custodians of the Kingfisher Dreaming and the Yurlu Ngukandanha story, and to express respect for their heritage and culture.

 I copied the above from the sign. Hope I don’t breach copyright.

 

This statue we saw in Chambers Gorge is here too. Different colours though.

There were other walks further on and there was a walk to the look out. The look out was up a hill so we decided to do that one first. There were 2 stops at the lookout, one was looking in one direction and enough climb to get the old cardio system going, the other was further and it was very steep although the track excellent and the view was to the other side and of a valley between the two ranges that made the pound – so called as it looked like an area to keep things in. Its circular except for an opening at one end. Just like the story.

Both Greg and I walked to the first look out and then we started climbing to the second where it became apparent that it was a lot further than first thought – there were no signs saying how far to the top so I asked Greg if he wanted to stay where we were while I went to look and see whether more climbing was worth it.

 

Inside the pound - the mountains form the boundary

I must say it was a challenging climb as in gradient but lucky for me I had my hiking shoes on and the soles of them just grip and you feel very secure in footing. I call them spiderman shoes. The track must have gone for another 200 meters or so but very steep and the view from the top was wonderful, You could see down through all the valleys for miles. Conscious of the fact that Greg was waiting, took it in as fast and quick as I could, took photos and started the return trip.

Met up again with Greg who had found a brown snake sleeping in the rocks about 3 feet below. I decided it was high time to get going. Greg had appreciated a rest and we continued on to the bottom where we had the 3.5km return to camp. The longest walk Greg has done in over 6 months. Hence we came back and he had a snooze. Me thinking that I could get all my internet blogging done. WRONG!

Met a lovely family on the way back to camp so I had a chat to the Mum. They took their kids out of school for a term and did some travelling but had to be in Adelaide for the weekend as they had pre booked some accommodation and didn’t realise they were running short on time having done so much other stuff. They were from Lismore so have quite a journey home to the north coast. She is doing a blog as well which I will have to look up – I think it was called ‘Doing a Blockie’ like as going around the block. They had 3 boys who were all very well behaved aged 9,7 and 5 – about to turn 6.

Back at camp the girls on the school camp were so noisy – nobody speaks to each other they all yell. Anyway they must have been called away to do a quiz as there was relative silence except for a teacher’s voice. Then they were let free to do as they please so the noise resumed. The teacher offered a game of cricket to the girls and they improvised the bat by using a 3litre water bottle which was empty and from somewhere an old tennis ball was found. They had a great time and so did I watching from my camping chair in the sunshine, whilst typing. They only stopped when it started going dark by which time it was time for Greg to get up and I was in the shade and getting cold…. and it was happy hour.

I had decided to make lasagne out of the milk that had been open a few too many days and the cryo sealed mince from Marree. I must say the little oven in the van is really good and the lasagna turned out really well, although thrown together in haste must have done the trick. Our choofer fire was lit and I didn’t want to be stuck indoors!

We have been thus far so lucky with the weather as the sky was clear and the stars again magnificent!