Saturday 30th 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!
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| 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.
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| 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??
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
