Port Augusta - Farina: Flinders Ranges

Was the first person awake today morning. No surprise at 6 o'clock in the morning. Me and tents/sleeping bags just don't seem to get along. I had a restful night, but I can't seem to sleep in (yet). That'll probably change after I have slept in it for a while.

Anyway, after packing up my gear and marking a few camp points in the GPS, I said my goodbyes and left to go shopping again. Talking to the others yesterday and seeing what they had I found I was lacking in certain things (tea for example). So first stop was the cheap two dollar shop to get things like an extra bucket to do the washing, cutlery, etc. After that I fuelled up completely and went to Woolworths to do all my grocery shopping for the long trip into expensive terrain.

 Then I was of into the Flinders Range. Not a lot to say about a lot of travelling. Hot weather and mountains left and right with shrubs and gumtrees in the creeks. Until to a town called Quorn the road was rather busy, with trucks and vehicles. Lots of twists and curves between the mountains and a railway line criss crossing the road now and again. After Quorn the road got empty, only a vehicle every five minutes or longer. Lots of animal body's lying beside the road, from kangaroos, to wombats and wedge tails. Some fresh body's where covered in wedge tails which took of as soon as you come along. Basically a massive bird of prey (2m wingspan) and if they don't take of fast enough when a truck comes they go splat.

Reached a town called Hawker after a lot of straight driving and got on to the B83 road, also known as the Outback Highway. Drove for a few hours, with the mountains more to the right and Lake Torrens somewhere in the distance. Only way I really saw the lake was because distant hills looked like UFOs floating of the ground due to the heat on the lake. Reached Leigh Creek after another period of driving and went to the fuel station to fuel up. Only used a third of a tank, but I wanted to check that the Oodnadatta Track was still accessible. I don't want to travel 400 km up just to turn round, drive all the way back down to Port Augusta and then take the Stuart Highway up to Alice Springs. The internet page of the government proclaimed it to be all right, but a local person would know a lot better how things are. As all was well and the next time it was supposed to rain was on Tuesday I carried on. When it rains the track becomes pretty much impassable, even for serious 4WD. I read a blog of a 6WD Land Cruiser getting stuck.

After Leigh Creek the road turned in to a gravel road, which it will most likely remain most of the time. Passed a few other Outback travellers and ended up at a place called Farina, where they have a camp site with facilities. A nice thing out here after a day of sweating, even with AC on. After a shower the flies has disappeared as well for the night and after cooking some dinner I just sat back and did some star gazing. No light pollution what so ever. I nearly fell asleep in the chair due to a warm breeze passing through, the flies gone and the birds all asleep.

Track of the day at GPSies.