The night was absolutely freezing so we all awoke early and got to task to get up and get sorted to break camp. The morning routine of Weetbix and honey with milk was clearly a firm favourite so we got that organised and chucked on the primus for our coffee and then disaster…..it didn't work!!!! This was a problem as a stove is pretty important and there wasn't enough Weetbix and milk to last us until December if we couldn't cook anything hot……. We headed off the long way around to a town called Hawker to get some supplies. 4WD track all the way and the views were amazing. The terrain was getting more rugged as we got closer to the Ranges proper and there were so many Kangaroos and Emus bounding around that we had to stop a lot to make sure we didn't hit any. We came across a group of wild horses about 10km out of Hawker and as they dashed across in front of us one of the Stallions stopped and turned back and then stood bang in the middle of the track staring at us. We wondered what he was doing but realised there was one horse still trotting along about to cross and the Stallion waited until his mate was safely over, gave us one last stare then galloped off to the rest of the herd. Amazing.

At Hawker a super friendly old mechanic heard us chatting about buying all the Weetbix in the store to the bemused lady at the counter and offered to look at our Primus. Alter taking it apart in the garage over the course of 30 minutes and putting it back together he concluded that we just hadn't screwed the hose in properly and that's why the gas wasn't getting through. To be fair, the fitting was really tight and it took him a few goes to finally get it on with a wrench, which loosened the thread enough for us to get it sorted next time around. We thanked him for his time, put the 10 packs of Weetbix back on the shelf and headed to Trezona, our next campsite.

We found it after another beautiful drive through the Ranges and set up next to a giant gum tree. We sent the boys off exploring and they promptly climbed a hill and disappeared. Fi went looking for them after about 30 minutes and returned after about an hour just in time for dinner. We'll get the walki talkies out next time....

Next day we did an 8.2km walk taking in the sights. The park is very well maintained despite its remoteness and the walk was excellently sign posted with loads of information points about the Geology of the area. We saw glacier deposits and tonnes of interesting facts including fossilised stromatilites which were over 650million years old!!! Apparently the first living things on earth. The boys were lapping it up and loving all the new things to learn. Harry also found a lizard under a rock, which he wanted to keep, but we had to put back and Bailey was really into learning about the amazing rock formations and why there were different colours, types of rocks etc. All great stuff.

The night was absolutely freezing as the rain had finally stopped and there were no clouds in the sky. I have never been so cold in my life!! Sleeping with thermals, ski socks and a beanie pulled down over my head and face I was still freezing and we ended up getting about 2 hours sleep. The boys were fine in their super warm sleeping bags but Fi and I were struggling in our doona and rugs….

Leaving the Flinders via the Brachia Gorge, which was incredible, we headed into the desert to Farina Station, an abandoned outpost that once had a couple of pubs/hotels, a post office, bakery and school which was now all deserted and in ruins. There seems to be loads of these little places that are now abandoned as people tried to make a go of things then the terrain and the weather beat them back.

A brief stop at Leigh Creek to refuel for the Strzelecki and fill one of the gas bottles when the next disaster struck. "Nah mate, no one fills bottles of gas round 'ere, everyone just uses swap and go cans, cobber" said the friendly Bogan at the service station….Brad, our guy at BCF in Perth had sold us a raw prawn by saying we can fill up our gas bottles anywhere. It turns out you can only fill them up in the bigger cities, which is 2-3 weeks away for us… We should have taken that Weetbix!

Our night at Farina was nice and we got up to see the sun rise from the war memorial. It was absolutely stunning. I had a cold shower as it was a wood burning hot water system which takes a bit to get going so we packed up which is taking us less and less time at every stop and headed towards Innaminka via the Strzelecki track. A dirt track of about 500km that was an old stock route and aboriginal trail through the desert. Yeah yeah yeah!!! This is what it was all about!!! We weren't worried as the Weetbix and milk supplies were now at their record highest point for the trip after our news at Leigh Creek.

The Strzelecki track was hard and rough. Meg (our ford Ranger) and Mog (the camper trailer) handled it brilliantly. We could only go 40kmh in lots of places and some less than that. Numerous river crossings and having to get on the walki talkie to ask to pass road trains, it was all proper driving that was so far removed from our life in London we were loving it. The views were spectacular to say the least. There was dust everywhere and we were all dirty and shaken up from the bumps but by he time we reached the Artesian Bore for the night we were all smiles. The boys jumped out of the truck and ran straight for the well to have a look around. We stopped and chatted to a giant bloke who was filling up a water tanker truck that they use on the track and he gave us some stark reminders about the dangers of the bush. He warned the boys not to run through the bushes as there are Black Taipans everywhere (the most poisonous land snake in the world) and that at night we should lock up our eskys and food as there are heaps of dingoes in the area. We listened with great interest and then when he said there are yabbies in the well Harry and Bailey turned and ran into the water and spent the next 3 hours fishing for them for our dinner. They managed to catch 5 with their bare hands (Harry caught them all and Bailey watched and encouraged him from the bank) so it was a great day all round. Dinner of yabbies followed by chicken curry and a piece of chocolate to celebrate Fi's 42nd birthday topped it off. It seems that our withdrawal headaches from no booze were also behind us so we hit the sack and were asleep by 8pm…