Wednesday 22nd February

At Quorn we turned off the B82 onto the B83 to Hawker. We were a bit worried because we had no further directions after this. However we saw a sign for Rawnsley Park Station which took us up Wilpena Road but we didn’t see another sign until we came upon the station after about 30km. We did stop at the Arkaba Hill Lookout to check the paperwork and swap drivers. Arrived 5.15pm. A bit worried by a notice in Reception about the National Park being closed, but the lady assured us it really only affected one road. Bought a National Park pass - got the senior’s rate.

Our unit (cabin) is very nice - one double and one single bed plus full kitchen. There is a shop on the site so we could possibly have bought food to cook for ourselves but we don’t know yet as we only found out about the shop 5 mins before closing time. As we write we actually know where it is. Booked for dinner at 7pm at The Woolshed. We saw an emu a few yards away as we drove up to our cabin!

Walked across to The Woolshed. Very smart. The Boss, Jon Dean, was very interesting. Has a winery as well, and used to go to UK every year, selling their wine (Dusty Dog), except now the exchange rate has made it too dear. Used to base himself in Porlock where he once worked. His mother-in-law is from Essex, so we told him some Essex Girl jokes that had him in fits. He told us that we’ve picked the quietest time to visit (only 4 covers in the restaurant tonight, but they have to stay open under the terms of the lease from the sheep station). Next month as the weather cools down it will be heaving and they’ll be doing 60-100 covers a night.

Excellent food (cooked by wife Sally). Anne had pizza with artichoke etc, Les had Lamb tagine. Jon let us run a tab to tomorrow. Came back and typed up diary and started Trip Advisor notes. Bought $5 internet access and caught up with email etc.

Thursday 23rd February

A slightly restless night - the room got quite warm as the aircon is too noisy to leave running, and the fridge is quite noisy especially when it kicks in.

Made a drink just after 7am and got up about 7.45. Usual breakfast of bananas and biscuits and coffee. Had to iron a few bits.

Went first to the shop at the caravan park - bought some postcards. They don’t do fresh fruit, so we bought a carton of preserved fruit and brought it back to the cabin before setting off.

Went up to Wilpena Pound Resort stopping at Stokes Lookout on the way. Had a coffee in the shop. Discussed the possibilities of a scenic flight with the pilot but it looks like the only way we could get a reasonably smooth flight would be to take 8.15am tomorrow morning, so decided against it.

Carried on north towards Blinman, taking a detour up to the Stokes Hill Lookout. Carried on steadily up to Blinman passing loads of emus and kangaroos at the roadside. Stopped for lots of photo shots including the Great Wall of China.

Got to Blinman just after midday and after a quick look round this very small town we went into the Lime Tree Cafe and Gallery. Nice lunch and a look at the pictures etc and had a long chat with the German lady who ran it. The lady said that on Christmas Day there’d been a terrible storm which had the cut the roads and telephones for two weeks.

After lunch we drove along the 32km dirt road through Parachilna Gorge. Not too difficult and again lots of photo shots and good views. Not sure how this route would be after rain because it crosses the river several times and at some of these points the river is extremely wide and obviously gets very deep [Post holiday note - a few days after we left there were torrential rains and floods -  see the photos we found on a blog by clicking the picture on the left].

At Parachilna we turned south and had an easy drive about 30km southwards on the main road back towards Hawker. We realised that the railway tracks that run parallel to the road a few metres from it are in fact The Ghan line from Port Augusta to Alice Springs. Sadly we didn’t see a train.

We then turned eastward onto Brachina Gorge Road (unsealed). Anne took over driving at this point and had the toughest driving of the holiday so far. The Gorge was narrow, steep and very rough. At many points you were actually going along the river bed and at some points driving through running water.

Unlike the Parachilna Gorge much of it is only one car wide but fortunately we seemed to be the only people on the road. The Gorge is known as the Geology Drive or the Journey Through Time and there are lots of signboards indicating the names, type and age of the nearby rocks. The great majority of the rocks are sedimentary but the geology is made difficult by the intense folding that’s taken place and with the addition of a 40cm thick layer of debris caused by a giant meteor strike some distance away. It’s not an area that you can easily ‘read’ in geological terms. Fortunately the last 10km of the road was much better.

Back on the main road we turned south to return to Wilpena Pound Resort for a cup of tea. On the way by Wild Duck Lake we came across a group of three wedge tailed eagles around a fresh kangaroo carcass. Unfortunately we spooked them as we pulled up and then the crows came and the eagles didn’t come back.

After refuelling at Wilpena and having a tea we returned hoping to see the eagles but again they took off at the sound of the approaching car. Gave up and got back to Rawnsley just before 5pm.

Had shower, typed up notes, downloaded photos before going across to Woolshed at 6.30. Another amusing evening especially taking to Jon. He’s met Rick Stein. Sally had cooked a salmon frittata for their own dinner and he offered some of it to Anne. A really nice evening. Put various destinations into the satnav, which is now charged.

Went outside in the darkness and looked a the stars. Amazing - could see the Milky Way and another vague ‘cloud’. Les managed to get some halfway decent photos. A very warm day - temperatures around 35c and getting warmer daily, but everybody tells us that we’re lucky and that it’s cooler than usual.

Friday 24th February

Up, breakfasted and packed fairly early so away by 9.20am after a longish chat with Lizzie the lady on reception (owner?) who was English and went to (boarding) school in Norfolk.

Back down the road towards Hawker and then across the Moralana Scenic Drive.  Again this was an unsealed road and we didn’t see a single vehicle on the whole 32km. We saw lots of roos and some emus as well as several small flocks of green/turquoise parrots - couldn’t get any photos. We stopped briefly at an historic site - the Old Cueing Yards - where they used to shoe the bullocks that they used to draw timber from the forests. The drive was a mixture of yesterday’s ones - some reasonably wide easy bits and other bits where we were driving along the riverbed.

Emerged onto the western road to Hawker and stopped at the Surveyors’ Memorial. It was the start of a 68mile long  baseline for the original government survey of this area. In theory you could see Lake Torrens from here but we weren’t sure. You could see some of the original 3,200km telegraph line from Darwin to Port Augusta. This was in use until the mid-70s.