The wind and dust really got to us so we puilled the pin and came home yesterday.
The trip summary:
Left on Friday and got to Sealake - luckily I'd put a strap around the KMart rooftop box as both catches had failed (it went back to KMart for a refund with no questions asked today).
Quorn and the Pichi Richi railway was good but the loco set fire to the grass 3 times - everything's tinder dry.
We ended up spending 4 nights at Wilpena which was nice. Walked into the Pound but it was too hot to climb the peaks. No
water or grass anywhere apart from a couple of small patches. Plenty of roos with joeys.
Did Skytrek - pushed the car doors open against the wind to get out at the top but couldn't see anything due to the dust! Met up with Daivd from the Terracan
forum and travelled together as far as
Arkaroola.
The
Blinman mine was good - found some nice native copper pieces and met up with Mrs S & Slave very briefly.
Found one Sturt Desert Pea in Chambers Gorge - the only wildflower of note.
Spent 2 hours at
Arkaroola before deciding that we couldn't bear putting up the tent (the 3 or 4 nice campsites in the unpowered area had been taken). The observatory was booked out for 2 nights by tour groups and the the units were also full. It was hot and dusty.
Looked at the map and considered taking the Strez through to
Brisbane but thought better of it.
Drove to
Leigh Creek & stayed in the motel.
Reluctantly cancelled Warraweena after the wind continued to blow, stayed the night in Loxton.
Rang Qantas on the way to try to get a Qld island with a kids club but all booked out and
Hamilton Island was going to be $5800 for a week!
As a last resort, camped on the Murray at our
Easter spot about 70km south of
Mildura. Absolutely beatiful. The river's high, plenty firewood and no one around. However... at 2am the wind picked up with a bit of rain. We tried to persist but the weather forecast the next morning suggested otherwise. Drove home (or more accurately - tacked!) through wind and rain.
All part of the fun of
camping holidays. We'll try again another year.
Adrian