Minus 2 degree start to the morning made getting started a little hard but once we were up and got the kettle and some porridge on the stove, and toast under the grill the van warmed up a little. With no neighbors we decided to try out the borrowed generator, and while it got the heater going in no time we realised it would be way too noisy to use if we were in a camp with others.

After breakfast we headed 58km along the RM Williams Way into Hawker to stop for a coffee. The countryside changed from the arable farmland around Orrorro to rolling almost bare hills dotted with salt bush along the way. After our coffee at the Hawker General Store (a reminder of home!) we checked out a seismograph at the servo which picks up any tremors in the local area.

Hawker is also home to an amazing self taught artist, Jeff Morgan who created several very impressive panoramas of the local scenery. His crystal and fossilised rock collection kept us busy for some time exploring all the displays, most which had been collected by Jeff personally.

After Hawker it was a relatively short drive through some eye catching scenery to Wilpena. The rocky outcrops providing plenty of photo opportunities along the way.

We checked into the Wilpena Pound resort for the night on a powered site and after a quick lunch headed straight out for a moderate walk up to the Old Homestead followed by Wangarra Lookout. The walk to the homestead was an easy walk, well paved and lined with red gums creating a great natural habitat for the local wildlife. We caught a few emus taking a bath in a creek on the way.

The path gets a bit steep heading up to the lookout but it's easily managed if you take your time. We didn't even consider the 6 hour St Mary's lookout that would have given 360 degree views. The three hour walk was more than enough for some of us and lets just say it was a lot quicker coming down than going up.

We still got a good view of the Pound and could see how they used it as a natural stock yard with only one way in. The dream time story at the homestead along with the pastoralist story were well worth a read to see the history of the area.

On the way back to camp we came across more wildlife, seeing several groups of goats, a yellow footed rock wallaby, a wallaby and Joey along with our friendly emus across the road from our caravan.

We cooked up a lovely camp roast for dinner before an early night with the wind picking up dropping the temperature considerably as the sun set.