SA revisited and places new.

We drove into Ceduna just after midday on Easter Saturday and you could have fired a shotgun down the main street quite safely, there was no one around. There were only about 6 people in the supermarket. This supermarket is the one eagerly anticipated by everyone crossing the Nullarbor to stock up on fresh fruit and veg again, having eaten it all before going through quarantine on the outskirts of town. I had a false memory of it being a great supermarket – (although the quality of fruit is not as good as WA). I was a little shocked at how high prices were for lower quality items – I just bought bare minimal essentials and we drove out to check out a caravan park.

The first one, The Airport, was out of town and looked dusty, old and tired. So did the receptionist (manager) and we decided to try another one closer to town. This was cheaper but if anything a little older, even the sweetest, cutest cat lying on the reception desk couldn't convince us to stay– as the town was completely closed with not a single cafe open we decided to quit Ceduna completely and drive on out of town for another night on the road.

We stopped just 45kms out of town in a lovely quiet spot with lots of shade. By the time we rose the next morning all of our fellow campers had gone.

 We had a leisurely start, getting under way around 10am. We had a coffee stop at Poochera and then in Wudinna for lunch. As we left Wudinna we stopped for a couple of photos of the Farmers' Monument'. It looked v. v. East European to us, turns out the sculptor was Croatian.

Then we carried on into Kimba, “Halfway across Australia”. We didn't want to stay in the caravan park here so checked out the two other options; on a town map both sites were shown but the one at the 'Miners Camp' near the Rec and Football ground indicated that showers were available – that was our choice.

It was busy when we arrived but we got a place under a tree and settled in. I grabbed a towel, soap etc and headed off to the shower, I was stripped off and stepping into the cubicle when I spotted the box for the $1 coin to operate the water !! I quickly pulled on a top and trousers, back to the van, got my $1 from the van and tried again – success. It was on a 3 minute timer and those 3 minutes went very quickly. A great spot – well worth a donation.

The next day we headed across the last of the straight bit – into Port Augusta.

We went to the information centre to ask about wifi. They gave us the code for the library, and told us that this code could be used in any library anywhere in South Australia. It was either that or McDonalds. It was Easter Monday but we were able to sit outside the library (just around the corner from the info centre) and although it seemed to take ages to connect, we managed to check all emails.

Then we drove out of Port Augusta up into the start of the Northern Flinders Ranges. Into Quorn.

We were treating ourselves to two nights here, in the lovely caravan park.

 We were pleasantly surprised to find that there is free wifi in the whole of town!

Most caravan parks have a book exchange either in the laundry or office. Here in Quorn it was in the laundry but they had obviously had rather a lot of Germans in lately, there were only 2 interesting books in English, the rest were in German. Luckily we had just 2 that we wanted to swap. Later on we went for a walk around town and found the op-shop, and got 3 more books.

                          

We also needed D batteries for a torch. We had looked in Merredin but they hadn't got any, in Ceduna they looked a bit old and were around $54for 2. Here in the supermarket in Quorn they didn't have any either but suggested we try the rural traders. They had them – at $11.80 for two !!!!!!!! “You must be joking, that's 3 times retail”.

That afternoon we finally got some 'caravan park' entertainment – watching people trying to park their van. It took about 20 minutes to 'help' the driver reverse the van and then another 20 -30 minutes to set everything up.

After our restful stay we were ready to move on, we were away by 10am and headed north to Hawker. Hawker is smaller than Quorn and the one store sells everything. Today the one staff member was in the Post Office so that 's where I paid for my purchase. First time I've ever bought wine at the PO.

We had a coffee and snack at the Sightseer Cafe. Very nice coffee too.

This is the view from the front of the cafe...

 Then we continued north.

We stopped in Parachilna to confirm that the Prairie Hotel served dinner every night of the week, that done we continued north to Leigh Creek. Here we stopped for lunch and drove a little further north to see the huge coal field that, by it's growth forced the removal of the old Leigh Creek township, to its present site. The coal is anticipated to last until 2025 and seems to be slowing down in production, they used to run a 2.8kms train to Port Augusta daily. What will happen to Leigh Creek I don't know, the town has a very temporary feel to it, everything is transportable and can be packed up and moved on overnight. Here's a thought, maybe they could use the abandoned coal mine / huge hole in the ground to house spent nuclear waste (SA is on the short list), the town of Leigh Creek could house the workers (the infrastructure is already there) and there's a rail line to cart the waste up (no risk of road accidents), and it is in the middle of nowhere,the environment is not an issue as they've already scoured the landscape by mining brown coal for years!

We were not willing to drive over 100kms on a dirt road in the motorhome so sadly decided not to go on to Arkaroola, one of my favourite places in Australia. We turned south again and were back in Parachilna by 5.pm We parked just past the hotel and then walked down there for dinner. The Prairie Hotel is famous for it's Roadkill Tucker, Feral Food.

We both had the slow cooked Harissa Goat, I had mine with Couscous and Michael went with chips. I couldn't resist dessert and had to have Quandong Crumble pie with Quandong icecream and cream. It was splendid.

 Absolutely superb. It came to $90.50, well worth those nights on the road, not in a caravan park. We left the hotel as the sunset and had a very relaxed, content evening in.

As we had continued our drive south we wondered what the white spots around all the road kill, black marks on the road were. Then as we approached another carcass and a mob of crows we realised. The white spots were because there's time in between vehicles for the crows to take their time eating. Eating and ****ting. That's what the white dots are – droppings.

The next day we were on the road by 9.30am and stopped in Hawker again, this time I bought stamps at the Post Office and when buying fuel I congratulated the service station on providing disposable gloves. Diesel pumps are notoriously dirty, even if separate pumps for trucks and others it is always a question of standing in a dirty patch or the pump itself being a greasy contaminated mess. We carry a pack of disposable gloves in the door pocket but seldom do we find them provided by the service station. Once again congratulations and thanks to the service station in Hawker.

We were going to have another lovely coffee at the Sightseer Cafe, but as we approached the entrance the sound of children running around unsupervised met us, we had coffee in the van.

Just south of Hawker we turned towards Carrieton, where we stopped for lunch, and then drove through Oororoo onto Peterborough. We were now in the Southern Flinders Ranges. The whole area seemed to have been developed in the 1880s, some towns have survived better than others, but it is never far between towns.

In Peterborough we parked and walked the main street before heading to the Motorcycle Museum. When we were here in 2011, I sent Michael off to visit this museum on his own. He's been raving about the place ever since so this time I joined him. We were lucky enough to meet the man behind the museum, what an enthusiast. What a great museum, the only fault would be that he needs more room! I seemed to find the right things to say when I said which one I'd rescue if the place was on fire – it was the one he'd save too, then when he told us that his uncle had 15 Rover cars that he was hoping to be able to display too – I said 'why Rovers”, he seemed to agree with that sentiment too.

Then he brought out his latest pride and joy – a 1950 Gloria, Italian Autocycle. What a beauty. The standard of this man's work is astounding.

We had to drag each other away and finally got to leave Peterborough and head onwards. We drove out to Terowie. Terowie is famous for the site of a major speech by General Macarthur, when in 'retreat' from the Japanese in the Philippines – it is now a virtual ghost town, there are some residents but it struck us as the sort of place you go to hide yourself. (No one asks questions about you because they don't want questions asked about them.) BUT the overnight camping offered down at the railway precinct is quiet, level and clean.

We had a walk around town and then settled down to a lovely, quiet night, just the two of us in town.

The next day we got fuel and then drove a few kms to the small country town of Jamestown.

Jamestown's claim to fame is that it is the home of R.M. Williams, the country- clothes maker, but as we parked up I spotted another claim – a butcher who was “The Longest Continuous Service Butcher in SA” True or not, it caught my attention and I bought a couple of steaks for dinner.
Michael spotted a business slogan of another kind...

From Jamestown we drove on to Gladstone. Gladstone's claims are – the old gaol (built in the late 1800s and closed in 1975 ), home to the soft drink maker - Trend Drinks, and for being one of the two places in the world where you can still see the three railway gauges - broad, standard and narrow.

 We had lunch in Gladstone, checked out the rail history and then headed on to Crystal Brook. It had the nicest name of our three towns but Crystal Brook did the least for us. Not a welcoming place. There was the option of camping in town, next to the railway, in Jubilee Park so we drove to check it out. Our information said that there were 3 marked bays, we couldn't see any bays but there were 5 cars and caravans, a truck, dogs roving, and a couple of caravans just arriving. It was rather dusty and crowded.

The other option was 5 kms out of town at Bowman Park. We headed out there. It was a lovely spot, just 3 caravans parked and lots of room. We parked in the shade and thought that the chap from one of the caravans was ultra friendly when he came over to chat. Turns out that we'd missed the sign saying that the park was closed. It's closed for a private function. His daughter is getting married tomorrow.

He was very kind and said that as we'd only be the one night and the wedding wasn't actually until 2pm tomorrow, we could stay the night. So we settled down to enjoy the scenery and listen to the kookaburras. A lovely spot.

The serenity was spoilt a little when more guests arrived after 10pm and sat around talking until the wee small hours. Still we were intruders in a private party.

The next day we were up and away by 9.15am, we returned to Crystal Brook town and were amazed to find Jubilee Park deserted. All the campers had left early.There was another butcher, with another slogan - we didn't shop with this one!

We drove on to another small town, Laura.

Laura celebrates it's Folk fair every year, the first weekend in April – we're in luck, the fair is on.

We parked and went for a walk around, nothing caught our eye but we did find the two statues of Laura's famous resident – C. J. Dennis. The old one – just a bust and the new one – a fine tall statue.

We left Laura after lunch and were intending on staying in the hamlet of Murraytown, in it's community campground. When we arrived in Murraytown there was a sign for Booleroo Centre, 14kms.
 On a whim Michael turned and we were off to Booleroo Centre..........