The journey doesn't end...Murray Sunset National Park

Well, we did make it home (albeit 7 months ago now!) and had a very bumpy landing (no power to the house for 2 days for a start and great difficulty coping with all the stuff that we had at home after 9 months of living out of a car and trailer/tent and so many people in the big city!), but we are slowly getting used to it. (It took me a good week to work out how to use the stereo and then there was the microwave...)

We have learnt that we need big gasps of air out bush (or desert) to keep us 'OK' and keep us connected to each other as life at home keeps pulling us apart.

So last Easter holidays we ran away to the Murray Sunset National Park hoping for some peace & quiet. We got it on the whole...until the hordes arrived 4 days later on Good Friday...and camped on top of us! By Easter Sunday, we were done, and packed up and came home. We didn't need to camp that closely to others when we live in the inner city.

Things that we did while we were there...

Fiddling around with the car

A little bit of driving around the sandy and eroded tracks...to explore the massive National Park (all up we drove about 500km in the park)

Throwing seeds in the air to watch their aerodynamics

Walking on salt and tasting it

Eating damper, pancakes, Easter eggs, and roasted pumpkins.

And we did watch some crazy people get themselves out of being intentionally bogged...what can I say, it was Easter!

We did learn that most of our kitchen camping stuff had disappeared back into our house (oops!), and that whilst camping on our trip by ourselves was fine, short trips would be more fun with another family or two (need to find another family, or people that would like to go 4wding and camping where there may not be showers into interesting places - takers?).

Next stop is Mungo National Park, NSW these holidays...although we have decided to stay in the Shearer Quarters at Turlee Station instead of camping as the kids have all been sick. We really wanted to go there on our way home back in October, but it was closed due to wet roads - it is a very sensitive area and has very old fossils in it. We are hoping that the roads are dry when we get there!

The Flinders Ranges

A time to rest at Parachilna Gorge,

A time for catching up on family journal,

A chance to get really muddy,

Mountains to drive up,

A time to wait at Brachina East Campsite in the Flinders Ranges National Park,

for our friends, the Brieffie's to arrive,

for one last camp,

before they go west, and we go east.

We moved together down to Port Pirie of all places to shelter from the forecast storm and to spend a few more days together.  Interesting place...check the next entry...

Finally onto the Oodnadatta...and finding a magnificent camping spot

Slow start to the day in Coober Pedy, which turned out in our favour, the road to William Creek opened at 11.45am.  Hurrah!  Refuel, restock and the rest and we were on our way.

It was obvious as we went through the Dog Fence and the Woomera fence that someone had been on the road when they shouldn't have been - it was cut up pretty bad. 

There was a lot of water beside the road the whole way as well, and birds flying this way and that.  We had to remind ourselves that this was normally a desert!

After turning onto the Oodnadatta at William Creek, the road did get a little easier, we've certainly been on harder tracks.  We kept moving as we suddenly realised that in our rush to get out of Coober Pedy, neither of us had got cash out!  Free camping for the Dunleys from here to Maree! 

We pulled in at the Curdimurka Siding, having no idea as to what it would be like.  It was brilliant.  The boys had a great time playing imaginative games in and out of the buildings (where the welcome swallows were nesting) and we sheltered behind the corner of the building from the wind. 

A pair of brown falcons flew around, as well as the many galahs, cockatoos, orange chats and welcome swallows.  What a delight.

The flatness of the land provided the most brilliant of sunsets that I could capture.  What a delightful place.

A little bit of the mud that we picked up on the way...

and the wires from the trailer broke...again...

art along the way...from people with great imaginations

From here, we headed towards Lake Eyre.  We were not lucky enough to see actual water there, or in fact to get a picture. 

These were the only pics we got before the last of the batteries ran down...

When we got to Lake Eyre South, all photographic devices stopped working...and those who know me well enough will understand this...I curled up in the sand dune and cried.  Such a beautiful place, and no way of taking pictures.  Anyway what I can say is that it was incredible, soft sand dunes leading down to the salt lake.  The dune were covered in poached egg paper daisies and pig face and grasses.  It was all green, with yellow, pink and white flowers.  The plants were moving around in the wind and making sand patterns on the dunes. It was peaceful and quiet.

Whilst I was crying and feeling sorry for myself, Matt accosted the only other traveller we had seen that day, and asked if I could take some photos on his camera (it was way too flash to put my memory card in).  He was so kind to let me.  I am not sure if A) they turned out B) I will ever see those photos, however, it did stop me crying and it was terribly kind of him.

At Maree (I was still a little sulky about the no photo thing, but had managed to now delete enough photos off the phone to start taking some photos), we made the decision that as we had been travelling for a very long time (We left Darwin on 3 October and it was now 1 November with only a maximum of 2 nights stop anywhere) that we were travel weary.  Time to stop somewhere.

 Matt pointed the car to Parachilna Gorge at the top of the Flinders Ranges, and there we went.

time to rest