We had that last moon lit night at Angrochina Village and packed early because we expected a hot day - yes we could have stayed longer - there is much to see, the mountains are old and yet noble - with colour and texture and form and stance - need I go on.

The Parachilina Gorge offered some very fine camp spots but without services of any kind - in some places there was still water in the creek. In all places the road was very good so we zoomed along happily. I was sad to spend so little time here, but there are few locations away from towns that leave me cold - some are just better than others.

We did a lap of Parachilina - the Parie Hotel seemed like a slab of Rundle Mall air lifted into the outback - I had no inclination to hang around.

The ride to Leigh Creek was uneventful except for a brief stop to photograph the remains of an old Ghan Rail bridge.

Leigh Creek was a good place to refill the tucker bags, update the travel BLOG and catch up with some news from home. Kieran and Jesse are having a little boy and Evie is missing us - we are missing her too.

We rode out through Copely and onto the road to ASrkaroola where they had message after message saying, Site One Road Surface trail, and so forth all the way to about eight - every one was bad. Then the trial was over and the road got better and better the further from Copely we travelled. None the less it was slow going with corrugations and we had Earnie on behind who likes smooth roads the best.

The first 35k just made my mouth water, the hills, the colour, the textures, the light, the shapes and spaces, just love this landscape down here.

By the time we got to Telowie Gorge Mal needed a rest, so we stopped under the shade of a gum tree for an early afternoon tea.

As we rode down from the gap, their were wide sweeping fields of green grass - it was like a huge shift in colour palette.

Well we got excited because we planned to stay in Gammon Ranges National Park, but alas was not to be, CLOSED for feral animal control. They could have got Me if they had let us in. So we rode on the extra 30 odd Ks to Arkaroola.

The road to the old homestead is quite fine, however the last 4k is rather rough and we were glad to put down the side stand and seek out the accommodation office.

We finally found a lovely spot down by the river bed and set up camp in a place which promised plenty of shade. We also booked the half day ridge top tour for the next morning.

The Ridge Top Tour

The tour is a really good one, the youngish driver Ben had his work cut out for him, crawling up very rough sections and creeping down some steep sections where it would be hard to walk. He made it seem so simple but really it was a tough scramble up the track that winds for 21 km along the ridge line to Seiler's Lookout.

We came back to camp to find it well shaded, so I caught up on some sketches and Sue tested her makeshift bird hide in the creek.

Later in the afternoon we bumped our way along a rough track on the bike to visit an old smelter. Tough ride.

We decided to make a move South so we packed up and headed off on the 130k gravel road to Leigh Creek.

We stopped at Iga Warta - an aboriginal settlement for a cool drink and ran into Kirra and Kersharn, who we had met at Trezona - so had a brief catch up.

Not far down the road several guys were mustering goats and tried to get us to stop for a cold beer. I foolishly declined - a km or so down the road a shap rock let all the air out of our back tyre. We fixed it up but had difficulty getting enough pressure in the tyre with our hand pump. So we stopped in at the next station and one of the ladies helped us use the compressor - well by the time we were driving out onto the road the guys had caught us up and insisted we return for a cold one. This time we obliged - what great folk, John, Jeff and the lads are.

WE managed to get back to Leigh Creek without any further trouble and had a gusty ride to Hawker for the night.