Chillin" in The Flinders

 Well, so much for plans.

Found a cheap camp in Pt Augusta, to fill up with water, empty the toilet cassette and lets head North.

$10 for a patch of dirt, but water and dump site available, all good, probably a dozen vans in by the end of the night.

 So North we head through Hawker and a quick stop to look at the Pichi Richi Railway Museum and  Memorial park.

         

And onto Parachilna, a quick stop to "Air down".

                                        

And a few dry creek bed crossings

And found a wonderful camp besides the Parachilna Creek, right at the Gorge in the Flinder's Ranges,  stunning views.

Our morning view from bed.

We have done a couple of day trips, looking around, just up the road is the start (or end) to Heyson's Trail, an epic 1200km trek down to Cape Jervis.

We Did It, Ah gottcha, Of course we didn't

                   And also into Blinman, an old mining town, and enjoyed a coldie at the pub.

Blinman, old Kibble Bucket sculpture.

 Roads aren't too good and have spoken to a few who have done tyres on it. We were planning to head into Arkaroola, however the weather has turned extremely hot 35+, and the nights not much better, still a bit of a breeze so coping ok, only 1 night which was nearly unbearable but have pulled the pin on Arkaroola, you can't do any hikes in this heat. And then to add salt to the wound, as we plan to make a move and head on, the heavens have opened up, thank goodness we left the Gorge, although it would be beautiful with water in the creek.

The down side to this however, is they have shut the Oodnadatta Track, which of course was our way North, so now we are in Leigh Creek caravan park, getting tthe washing done, topping up with water and ahaving a bit of a clean up, before now, turning around and heading back to, yep you guessed it - Port Augusta to access Stuart Hwy to drive straight up the centre.

So disappointing as we were both really looking forward to doing the Oodnadatta track again, to get back to William Creek and see some of the sights we missed the first time around 12 years ago.

As they say, you always have to leave some things undone for next time round, so now there is Arkaroola and William Creek on that list.

All in all though, can't complain with views like this for the past week.

     

But I cant sign off till I do this.

 

♫      High On A Hill was a Lonely Goatherd,

                 Lay Ee Odl, lay ee odl, lay hee hoo     ♫