Wide open spaces

It was a cold and windy start to the day as we packed up to leave Silverton. Although our camper is relatively easy to pack up, numb fingers and a strong wind definitely add to the challenge. Needless to say we were glad once it was hitched up and we were in the warmth of the car and on our way. Not long after we left Silverton we crossed the border into South Australia, and passed through a quarantine station where we had our fruit and veggies inspected to determine what we could take into SA (they are ever vigilant to stop the invasion of fruit flies into SA).

We weren’t exactly sure where we would stay that night, but knew roughly where it would be. As we dropped in and out of mobile reception, we scoured Wikicamps for tips. Wikicamps is a mobile app and becomes your best friend on the road. It is a crowd sourced database of places to camp, with details of the facilities at each place, along with a star rating, recent user comments and a guide of prices – a far cry from the big, heavy, and often out of date Lonely Planet guides we used to lug around in our backpacker days.

So after a bit more searching we found a place called Carrieton on the road up to the Flinders Ranges where we were headed, which was only about an hour away. Having been on the road for a couple of hours already we thought that sounded ok. We gave them a call to check availability (we soon realised that this is not peak season at all and most places have plenty of space at the moment), and once the lady said they had a large shed with an fire inside, we were sold and headed for Carrieton. There is not much to the town these days. Like so many around here, as industry and transport dried up, there was little need for these towns so their populations have steadily fallen.

The caravan park was a little oasis though, with fresh green grass which is a rare site in the dustbowl that is outback NSW. It even had a cricket pitch so after setting up we had a family game of cricket before the cold set in and we retreated to the warmth of the shed. We stayed their until bed time, chatting with the owner over a drink, cooking dinner, writing journals and playing games. We had passed a guy walking with a pram like trolley with all his gear on it as we approached Carrieton, and a little while later at dusk, he turned up. Brendon was a guy from England who was walking from Port Augusta on the southern coast of SA, as far north as he could, but aiming for the northern coast. We would pass him a couple more times over the next few days as we followed the same route north.

After a morning game of Finska (the one with the wooden blocks you have to knock over with a cylinder) we headed north towards the Finders Ranges. Stu was particularly looking forward to this leg of the trip, having travelled through that area with his dad about 20 years earlier.