Ok, back to the Landcruiser gig, this has provided us with 6 weeks of understanding Ozzie and seeing how it works, getting to know the system, how much you can buy with Kiwi conversion and generally understanding the language …translating it to Kiwi.
We needed to get a spare tire so head back into Mildura and met up with Booza and his wife which was cool, he has a good mate who built a Harley trike by himself. Things are falling into place with good bastids yet a again, starting to see a picture forming here.
Post purchase of Скиппи we headed into the outback in the Prado, it was straight into it, one minute we were in a town with normal humans and shops nec minut out in the sandy abyss steering at the earths curvature, a real contrast and the distances between towns is huge like the Russian Siberian outback but more so…..and bald.
I have to admit at being spooked at first although being an experienced 4wheeler and international moto traveller this just had that added feel of real emptiness, we stuck to tar seal for a lot to get the feel but soon enough the tar ran out and it turned to gravel, we hardly lost any time as we were just cruising quietly letting traffic pass us, gave us time to gork out the window and realize yet again how very insignificant and small we are compared to mighty mum nature.
Understanding how brutal the outback could be to the unprepared we were prepped while still travelling lite in prep for down sizing into Скиппи.
We did the top of Camerons corner which is the boundary of the three states of NSW/Queensland and South Australia ..cos..it has to be done.
We came down using Camerons as our directional change, 436 km on gravel …..it was a big haul as the speeds are not big due to road hazards skipping around us and Emus who always have to cross the road just as you arrive.
Finally we came back to tar, still very remote with the scenery not changing but the feeling of safety back in the bag again….weird feeling.
Flinders range in our sights we sorta almost stuffed up having stopped at the turn we should have taken to Arkaroola, anyway we proceeded into Blinman before heading into the National Park at Wilpena Pound.
Very nice place, $48 Ozzie slides to stay the night in the camp in our tent…whoa…cough….cringe…etc.
It was very nice until later that evening when the weather caved in, raining and blowing ….excellent. Next morning the weather cleared enough for us to go up the valley on a hike and see the views before peeling out from camp to go to Aroona ruins.
Another small hike and back to camp to set up, we started to get a fire going and put the tent up and down it came in style, it blew and rained all evening and continued during the night, our Hilliberg Staica 2 tent took it in its stride being well versed with Mongolia storms and Siberian rain, that tent is a piece of treasure.
Time to head back to civilization to get supplies we headed to Hawker then on down to Almerta Station farmstay.
We were worn down a bit with drying our tent out day after day having done 13 tent nights in a row and the last two night being less than ideal, at Almerta Station the forecast was not good with a polar blast covering the bottom of Oz and the cheapest shearers quarters was $200 Ozzie slides per night (Dutch Quantity Surveyor and Chinese Acountant gasping), she said we can stay in the wool shed which has a log fire…same price as a tent site, we bought wood and set up, flash as Michael Jackson we had lighting, power and all and this my friends is exactly where I was writing this.
To say it has been an interesting start is mild but good, sets us up for the reality of travelling which defo has its ups and down, as discussed on our Arctic To Antarctic trip the highs are higher and the lows are much lower and that is called experience…..I strongly suggest experience is worthy as 99% of the time the tests and trials are well overridden by immeasurable feelings of gratitude and accomplishment…just sayin.
Stop, Ural time, you can touch this.
Finally, after 4 years we are now about to realize our long awaited travel again albeit not in Russia and the Stans for obvious reasons, time will tell but the new found 3 legged dinosaur looks set to provide huge grins so we lucky we have lots of space, our phones are empty of pics to keep the weight down ready to take more and show you Ozzie, Ur all welcome to follow us on another andiventure.
The day we bought her.
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