Food in the Bush

Damper in the Camp Oven (made by Missy J)

Still thrilled to view wild emus racing beside the car (but no where near as excited as Noodle the sausage dog).

Flinders Range and The Outback

Stunning..
We experienced the Flinders Range of Arkaroola   on a 5 hour, 4WD excursion. We jostled and tossed in the back of an open-air Toyota Ute. This vehicle was a climbing machine. It tackled the steep and rocky roads, dry creek beds, and river crossings with ease. We climbed three peaks that offered a real geological buffet and eye candy of natural wonders. Fab views from the top of SA's highest peaks.
Currently Arkaroola is under threat of mining exploration for uranium.  This land is a most unlikely a fast buck because of it's remoteness and inaccessibility so no one seemed to worried.

Folks here mention the word "water" like a ghost of the past. After years of torturous drought this year was green with wildflowers and wildlife was making a booming comeback. A first bit of greenery in 50 years locals say.

 

 

 

 

The Road to the top of Flinders

Trip Tracker

Jan 31-Feb 25. This is our tour to date.

On the Road to Flinders Nat Park

About once every two hours a lone vehical would appear out of the melting distance and shoosh past in a cloud of red dirt. There is no paved road, no mobile coverage, no shopping centers, post offices, groceries stores, no people, no nothing. Where did everyone go? Not even a the grey nomad that we planning on tailing.

We are routing distances between petrol stations and road closures before we depart. We are now in the Outback.

We needed to go down or up the center of the country to fathom the distance and remotness. We are on the edge but it feels like the center.

Closed for renovations so we didn't get our camel steak. The next sign said "feel like grazing?" 

Chocolate, Roo's, Nickers Outback

Adelaide' Central Market Choclate Fountains

Quorn- a orphan

Forgotten nickers. They hung out for three days while driving outback.

Pictures of 1000 Words

Granite Island Rock

Noodle walks the plank

Yet another title for me.

Big Tree, Little Possums

Wilpena Pound

Aboriginal Cave Art

The Wilpena Pound. (which is really just a sunken valley.

Out of Range

Out of Range

The pictures and postings are piling up as we have been out of range.  Here some of our highlights with our ratings (5 star max)

Port Elliot Bakery ***** (Le Fleurier Peninsula) 

Best pies/pasties ever !(we all agreed).

Victor Harbor and Granit Island***  

The snorkeling was good. Granite Island walk -unimpressive

Aldinga Beach ****  Other then the scary shark stories from the locals ...beautiful beach and impressive views.

Mclaren Vale**** Excellent info  centre and  olive oil tasting places poping up all over the place.  Four stars only because I am still partial to wines from the Clare Valley:) Chocolate factory didn't have enough free samples for the kids.

Adalaide**  Hot, loud, too big, however the poeple watching at The Fringe Festival was good.

Clare Valley*****Taylors Cab Sav an absolute winner. 

Burra** If you like old mining stuff then visit.  Desperately in need of a better bakery.  Neighbouring  Mintaro has  more character.

Wilpena Pound**** Weird and wacky sunken valley but difficult to grasp unless you take an air tour. Excellent aboriginal cave art.

Aldinga Beach 

Where To Next? 

Judy does a Verjuice tasting

One of the many beautiful vinyards of Mclaren.

The Murray River

The days travel route had taken us from Coorong SA to just outside of Tailem Bend SA (a tumble weed sorta town). In the heat of the scorching, midday, sun we found a greener then green camp spot alongside the mighty Murray River. The river's edges were lined with willows on both banks and offered the much appreciated shade. Warm enough for swimming the river proved to offer hours of entertainment and  some culinary delights. After loads of local advice on yabbie trapping , the kids proudly caught the first, ugly, little yabbie. The ultimate yabbie-catching-tip came from the guy at the local bakery. The magic secrete...add a few gum leaves to the trap along with your bait. The suggested super bait was lambs hearts which was just to rude to bother with. The two day fishing toll was 25 yabbies, 6 carp, 1 perch, and a turtle. We apologised to the turtle and gave it back to the river. We feasted on yabbies beside the river. Consensus was they tasted just like lobster:)

The Mighty Murray

The first Yabbie

Dexter of the fish world.

Salt Creek Roadside stop

On a lone Highway near the 42 mile crossing in Coorong exists a slightly (very) tacky, unassuming, must stop for travelers passing through the Coorong.  Salt Creek Roadside Stop  is the quirky kinda place that makes the driving distances between departure and arrival seemingly shorter. It is a restaurant, convince store, caravan/holiday park, petrol station,information, fishing shop, and postal outlet not to mention the a virtual museum of dead,  stuffed, hunted things. From the outside you would have known it was such a jack of all trades.

Hungry for the Shark Burga and the Coorong legend Mullet, we sat down for a meal.  The owner threw in free showers with the meal.This was an offer too good to refuse after a few day in the salt spray of the Coorong Nat. Park.  The meals were enormous, delicious and well priced. Other then the servers struggled with the English language (apparently we do too),it gets our highly recommended stop. 

The Locals

Do Gooders of Salt Creek