Gismo Queen and her King

Flinders Ranges to Leigh Creek

The morning dawned clear with high clouds, so we took that as a good sign. It was pack up morning so there was the usual arrangements to be made. However, we were on the road by 10:07am - a pretty good departure time for us!

33 kilometres down the road, we were back in Hawker. Neill needed fuel so we pulled up alongside the servo to wait when Neill noticed that one corner of our stone stomper was drooping. We had lost a bolt out of the shackle so I went into the service station to see if I could buy a new one. This perplexed the workers in there who were all most helpful in trying to come up with a solution. At one point, they asked me where we were heading. When I replied "Birdsville" they ruefully replied "no, you're not". The road from Lyndhurst to Maree is still closed - which we knew. We just thought we would try and get closer to be ready when the road does open. Anyway, we soon had a solution to our shackle and that was fixed, so we drove around the corner for morning tea.

Over the last few days I have been on a mission to find the best local quandong pie. Quandong is a native fruit a bit like a peach. I bought some quandong jam yesterday in Blinman and enjoyed that for breakfast! In hawker, I again had a quandong pie but it wasn't the best. I still enjoyed it!

Back on the road again, we started heading north. The blue skies were expanding, the clouds becoming high and fluffy, the temperature warming - we were quite optimistic. We did have a river crossing to contend with, but nothing like the other day. We got to Parachilna and decided to stop for lunch - in our vans. Neill got talking to a fellow traveller in the carpark, who had just come out of Farina - which is just north of Lyndhurst and hence on the closed section of road. This guy said the road was improving, so again, we were buoyed by this news.

Another hour up the road, we arrived in Leigh Creek. Last year, when we stopped here for morning tea, the town was a bustling town with a population of several thousand, most of whom worked in the nearby coal mine. However that mine closed at the end of 2015 so the town is down to a population of 200. A lot of the shops have closed. Apparently the whole town is up for sale, if anyone is interested. The purchaser would probably have to come up with a new industry to sustain it though.

We filled with fuel, then headed around to the caravan park, which is pretty good for this part of the world. Quickly setting up, we headed into town to stock up at the supermarket - which had most of the things we needed. It is amazing how quiet it is through the streets though.

Back at the caravan park, it was time for pre-dinner drinks. No campfire tonight, but there was a lovely sunset and it was looking like a cold night with clear skies.

We did enjoy our lovely homecooked meal in Café Patriot (our caravan), washed down with a bottle of red wine (just no campfire tonight, Dave!). Over dinner, we checked the road status on the SA Govt website, and the first section of the road has opened today! Hooray, we thought - until we double checked and saw that it was only for 4WD vehicles under 3 tonne - with our vans on the back, we are well over that. Still, we thought we'd wait until the morning and see what tomorrow's conditions are like. If that is still the road status, we can only get another 41 kilometres up the road. It's a real waiting game - will we? won't we? - but now as I write this, the rain has started coming down again. It looks like we might be hanging out in Leigh Creek for a bit longer yet......

posted by Tracey @ 10:01 pm