Gismo Queen and her King

Flinders Ranges

It's amazing how much impact the weather can have on travelers. We awoke this morning and after dropping the blind, I could see blue sky and sunshine! Sure, there wasn't a lot but it sure does improve one's outlook on things.

We still didn't rush into the day. It was cold and the sun did come and go. After doing the breakfast dishes, I noticed action outside the Bushtracker and deducted it was time for our vaguely planned BBQ cleanup. Yep - we sure know how to have a good time - it was time to have a joint cleaning party of Weber Baby Q's!! A couple of buckets of boiling hot water and some scrubbing later, it was time for morning tea. Over delightful goodies Jude baked a couple of days ago, we planned the rest of our day - around food! We decided to head up to Blinman, after Greg and I had such a good experience there last August.

We arrived in time for a Cornish Pasty at the general store (a genuine Cornish pasty with meat and vegetables at one end and apple at the other end for dessert) although there was only one true Cornish pasty left (we let Neill have that), two normal pasties left and I had a beef pie which was also very good. Neill and Jude then left on their tour while Greg and I finished our coffees, walked around town, and spent the better part of the hour talking to Mary in the mine shop. She was an interesting character, although not a local, having only lived in Blinman for four years. She, and the busload of tourists who arrived in town because they couldn't do their original scenic flights due to wet airstrips. Apparently, they had rung ahead to say they were coming so the general store could make enough coffees. We had been talking to the girl in the general store over lunch. She had only just arrived in town, being a Portueguese backpacker. I wouldn't have picked Blinman as the ideal location for a backpacker and even she admitted she didn't know how long she would be staying. She must have busier than ever this afternoon though!

We drove home carefully, as there were kangaroos everywhere and Neill was a bit scarred, after making contact with a kangaroo tail on the way up which damaged his foglight. Home just before dusk, we started the campfire, which prompted our new neighbour to come over for a chat (a common trap in caravan parks). Turns out he and his wife are heading to the same concert in Birdsville so we chatted for quite a while, until they went out for dinner and we settled in for the yummy casserole Jude had made earlier in the day in the DreamPot.

It was a pleasant if cool night in front of the campfire. We kept warm with the rest of our firewood, washed down with Baileys. We felt a little guilty for scarpering when we saw our new friend from next door returning but we were quickly tucked up in our warm caravans and planning to move on tomorrow morning.

posted by Tracey @ 9:28 pm