Parachilna to Maree

Headed off from our beloved Parachilna Gorge at around 10 a.m post Sam finishing 2 days of school work. Amazing kid, sometimes it can take two or three days to complete one days work and other times he can zoom through it like a speed train. It has nothing to do with difficulty level just his frame of mind at the time. We have learnt that on days when tears are approaching we just let it go and start again the next day or two days later rather than push to an inevitable breakdown and explosion. Sometimes the work is extremely repetitive and perhaps boring for Sam or perhaps this is just behavior that stems from missing the structure of school and his friends, could be rational although seemingly irrational six year old behavior or maybe it's because his mum is just not the best grade one teacher. I must admit at times it is frustrating knowing that he can do it but the door is locked, nobody's at home or as he puts it his brain has gone missing.

We have been discussing going overland to Holland and driving into Krijtmolen 11 to surprise Luuk's family in a few years time, however the thought of home schooling three children would be too daunting for me even to imagine. Although, considering difficulty navigating these countries, unforeseen dangers, civil war and border issues, communism etc schooling may be the least of my problems. This will be my little project after the Aussie trip, if we survive this one. I have nearly finished Jon and Jack Faine's book about their overland trip from Aussie to Paris and there are many challenges, although they seem to overcome them easily by kicking the footy ( Is this Australian's answer to everything?), giving a bribe or finding alternate solutions. There don't appear to be any direct threats to their life which is comforting and makes me even more keen to research to possibility.

The road to Marree was amazingly inspirational and beautiful. There is something really magical about the flinders ranges. I would have liked to have explored further but this was not possible with our present caravan as it is an onroad caravan and we have to take it a little easy. We are already stretching by going extremely slowly over the secondary sealed tracks to get to Coober Pedy or finish the Oodoonodatta track. In Lyndhurst today, while refueling and enquiring about flights over Lake Eyre, the manager said we were crazy doing it with this caravan. As previously stated we have seen similar get ups who have done it and also enquired with tourist information so we'll push ahead, even if it means a few more tyres. All the fittings in the caravan have been reinforced whilst back in Ballarat so that shouldn't cause any issues. Didn't stop to see any of the ruins today or other sites however managed to see 5 emu's dead on the road. They are not small animals and I pointed out that this would be a real road hazard, especially at night. I thought that whomever had hit these poor animals should of at least cleaned up the mess. Beautiful animal to watch running along side the car, crossing in front of you ( no wonder they are hit regularly as they choose to do this with no warning whatsoever), it is sad to see them so frequently hit. It is strange to see few kangaroos and so many emu road kill in this part of the world.

We stopped at a free camp in Marree, next to the hotel. Hot and bothered, a little dehydrated from too few sips from the Adelaide water, we stocked up on over a week ago, and headaches all round. There is no charge here however you can pay a gold coin donation for a shower. We also discovered a great, cold, cold swimming pool which we asked if we could also use for a gold coin donation. The guy in the pub said " go ahead love, needn't worry about a donation, just enjoy and have fun". What happened to the mentality that nothing is for free and it gets more expensive the further north you go. Maybe the kids just had beautiful smiles and looked too cute. Of course, we left a donation anyway. I find it very forward thinking and clever really, all these small towns trying to survive, offer free accomodation as they know a lot of people travel frugally and stay in free camps so why not entice them into the town where they may spend their money on a meal or at least petrol or shopping. Every little bit stimulates the small town economy. On to Coward Springs tomorrow and possibly William Creek for a flight of a lifetime over Lake Eyre.