Port Augusta to Parachilna (South Australia): Wow what an experience!!! Port Augusta was a great place to stop for the night and get information about going north. We decided that going along the Stuart Hwy was not the way to go as all the free camps are on the highway and it is difficult to sleep when road trains are passing within metres, rattling your bones, giving a feeling of a fast approaching tsunami. With children that wake 4-10 times during the night anyway this would be a recipe for disaster. We also liked the look of the adventure of the Oodonodatta track although the whole track may pose difficult with our car and caravan as we are not set up for off road. We decided to give the unsealed secondary tracks a go as the tourist information said it should be O.K and other travelers with similar get ups as ours had also reported doing this and not loosing too many tyres or breaking too many appliances in their caravans.

Off we went with Betsy (named after my wonderful grandparents Bet and Syd O'Shannassy ), who passed away a few years ago and made this trip possible and the three musketeers ( kids loved this movie and have decided to fight the bad guys with swords and karate like moves) towards Parachilna. We were elated as we slowed down as emu's crossed the road in the front of us and kangaroos tried to race the Audi for the finish line. Nature at it's best, not in a suburban zoo or even an open plains wildlife sanctuary. We took lots of photos on our way, not knowing what amazing experiences lay just ahead.

Driving on we turned off towards Parachilna Gorge where the famous Heyson walking track begins. This track is 1200 km's and ends south of Adelaide on the coast. Looks amazing but not even in our sights with a pusher and no camping gear. This is one for the retirment years, if still fit and healthy. A km before the gorge you cross two rivers that seem to be spring fed as it is just post Summer and everything remains fairly dry. We stopped on the first river bank and found a great camp underneath some red river gums to shade a little. The warmth is thankfully back as we missed this when in Melbourne as the Winter was quickly encroaching. We set up and stayed for over a week as we fell in love with the serenity and the constant array of passing wildlife including emu's and their young, kangaroos, wild sheep and goats, cats and dingoes and birdlife galore. Sam even spotted a Mulga snake slithering past and on hearing us approach promptly hid underneath a nearby rock, where we stood by trying to get a glimpse, at a distance of course. Very poisonous!!

The kids imaginations ran wild making mermaid costumes, dog masks, making yabby pictures and handbags, dressing up, making bead necklaces and rings, making dams, waterfalls and baths (a cold, deep one tiled with lighter stones and a warmer, shallow one tiled with darker stones), toasting marshmallows on the open fire, baking bread, reading books, climbing mountains, exploring and collecting river stones ( Sam found one which looks exactly like Australia), throwing the pod in daily and removing it and the yabbies to transfer them to a big pot and much more.

Although we had the comfort of our caravan I felt amazed at the feeling of possible survival if we had absolutely nothing. For me, and I think Luuk and the kids alike, it has taken the last 4 months on the road to really escape the mindset of routines, order and discipline that is almost compulsory to survive in everyday suburban life. Now, although a little embarrassing at times, I am unable to tell people the day or date and even worse sometimes the month. I am O.K with the year but let's see how I go after a few years traveling.

We also visited Glass Gorge which was gorgeous Luuk said bursting into laughter at his own incredibly interesting sense of humor. The slate pieces on the ground were up to a few metres long and toally flat on top. You could see the amazing layers that formed them. We then drove through Blinman which was a beautiful small town with a few nice looking cafe's and a great looking pub. Looked very arty. We kept on driving as we were sparsely dressed from swimming in the stream earlier and also heard of the priciness of the small town pubs. On the probably, tertiary road back to camp, Luuk took us four wheel driving up steep hills and along river beds. This kept us all wide awake which really defeated the purpose of going for an afternoon drive to enable Ash and Maddy to sleep after a rough night.

I have been reminiscing over a meal we had in Mildura a few months ago. I chose yabby salad as, for me, this was more of a delicacy. I think I paid 26 dollars for a small entre sized salad which was very nice. I now laugh however, as we pull in, pod after pod of fresh, big yabbies from the running stream next to the camp. Finally we feel joyous as we are no longer feeding the fish but catching good, meal sized wildlife to satisfy the innate hunting instinct we have. I asked Luuk what he had been putting in the pods to give us this newly found lunch and he told the story of going into a fish store near where we were camping one day and said to the man " I am NOT leaving this store until you tell me how to catch fish" after several, no actually hundreds of failed attempts. I think the idea of having this long haired man sitting on the floor of his shop for longer than necessary was enough to spill his secrets. The secret was 'Fish Barley' and By George!, it works. Yabby salad last night and Yabby in white wine sauce for lunch with freshly baked bread and a glass of wine after the kids removed 14 big yabbies from the pod. It felt like we had gone out to a posh restaurant for lunch.

Although this all sounds thrilling, exciting and wonderful this is not without challenges. Luuk reminded me about yet another failing of the car and caravan. Once we arrived and set up camp just west of the gorge, Luuk realized that the rear bumper appeared longer than it should be. On closer inspection the tow bar had broken off due to bad engineering. This meant we were towing the caravan dangerously on the bumper bar. Quick to react Luuk dismantled the rear of the car and sought a welder in the near vicinity, which fortunately was 80 km's up the road. Another 450 dollars later, on ANZAC day ( little did we know the day or date), the tow bar was fixed properly this time. Luuk says it will last at least our lifetime. After reconstructing the back of the car Luuk inspects the tyres. Car tires O.K, recently replaced in Adelaide, but the Caravan tyres had been chewed up on the dirt road. On speaking to the knowledgeable local tyre specialist they informed us the trailer tyres they use for caravans are faulty car tyres. So, there is something wrong with them and therefore not good enough to use on a car but good enough to use on a trailer. Go figure!!! Not having that disgarded crap on our caravan, the kitty became lower yet once again, and Luuk invested in good quality, new, light truck tyres.

After 5 days in the shade we hear a new beeping sound which was followed by a flicking from the fridge and a tick, tick sound. The oven, run on gas, turned off because the ignition needed the power, the fridge stopped as it also needed ignition power and no water as the pump is on 12 volt too. Yabbies just on the open fire when disaster ( not really of life threatening proportion however an upheavel at the time) struck. I started to clean the yabbies and was not happy when my hands covered in yabby poo could not be cleaned and my beautiful yabbies also covered in their poo could not be added to the salad, just yet. We had invited some grey nomads, just newly arrived, over for happy hour and yabby salad, so I naturally wanted to impress. Luuk hooked the caravan onto the car and drove promptly into the sun to recharge the battery with our solar panel. Quite impressive really as the battery had lasted 5 days even whilst parked in the shade. At least we know another limitation and can plan ahead for this so we don't lose power again.

Sam's best joke of this trip was : Why did Maddy get run over whilst crossing the road? Answer: Because he refused to hold an adults hand. I think he's got his papa's very dry sense of humor???