Wednesday - Day 1

Left Adelaide at 12.30.

We hit the highway and headed north, stopping briefly at Crabtree Winery in Watervale (Clare Valley) for a wine tasting - an attempt to transition from hectic preparation and house tidying mode into our relaxed, sight seeing/travel mode. After our brief pit stop and family history lesson we were keen to put some miles behind us if we were going to make it to Maree to camp for the night.

Stopped at Jamestown to stock up on food and groceries for our couple of nights on the road. Big fans of the local butcher now. We bought some beef, pepper and cheese sausages (sounds like a strange combo but they were delicious) and some rissoles - 10 for $2 - we thought there must have been a mistake, what a steal!

We had originally planned to get to Maree but due to the late start and the cellar door stopover it was a push to get to Leigh Creek. We saw plenty of road kill and as dusk settled Milly had to pull out her seeing eye glasses to assist Jed in spotting kangaroos, emus and sheep on the road/roadside.

We set up camp at Aroona Dam, 5ks south of Leigh Creek. Arrived at about 8.30, just after dark, which was not ideal for our first night setting up camp. But we worked well to set up a quick camp and cook dinner. We had a baptism of fire where bugs are concerned, luckily though they were all harmless, annoying, but harmless. Jed decided that he would invest in a trendy fly net hat as soon as we arrive in Alice and Milly was glad she didn't have to start slathering on the stingoes on our very first night. Happily, once the lights went out, they left us in peace.

Tucked up in our swag looking up at the stars.... How's the serenity?