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.