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.