Our Ridge Top tour at Arkaroola was great but pretty darn cold and no sunshine to show off the beautiful colours of the rugged ranges. The trip hasn't gotten any easier and up that last bit I had to close my eyes a bit! The views are spectacular though and we could clearly see Lake Frome with some water in it. Just as well we booked in for dinner that evening as we didn't get back till 5.30pm and it was cold and wet - so it was lovely to warm up in their lounge enjoying a drink then we enjoyed a yummy meal - and we didn't have to prepare it or do dishes. We also saved our firewood as we went straight to bed when we got back to camp.
Look how cold we look - and stuffing our faces with lamingtons!!
Unfortunately it rained in the night and next morning it continued to drizzle so it was rather tricky packing up and trying to keep clean and dry. However, we set off and travelled across to Copley where we had lunch and then onto Lyndhurst where we fuelled up and unsuccessfully looked for the Safeway supermarket and Bunnings (haha) However, we came across a group of vechiles just off the Strezlecki Track! The track is closed after some rain but these people (about a dozen cars, campers and even a caravan) were part along and struggled to get out and boy oh boy, everything was covered in red mud!! They'd take a lot of pressure washing to get things clean.
We were going to travel on the Strezlecki Track but not now!!
We then only had to travel 26kms from Lyndhurst to Farina - the place we've heard so much about and couldn't really grasp what it would be like. It has amazed us - the number of visitors, the restoration program, the picturesque and well facilitated campground and the bakery - all in the middle of no where! We arrived mid afternoon, found our spot and immediately hung out our clothes to dry in the sunshine! Just across the way were Lyn and Kevin Sambrooks and Tony and Rosie Laughlin so it was quite a Kerang reunion - especially when Laurie and Marion Grey came across. We all shared the huge fire to cook our camp oven roasts and had a lovely evening together.
Today we've had a rest day looking around the ruins and catching up with the Greys in the bakery. The town was settled where the narrow and standard gauge lines crossed over - plus the early settlers and SA government thought this would be the future food bowl for SA!! How they ever thought that is unbelievable as the landscape is just stones and not much grass.
You can see us set up in the background. The campground is pretty, has showers and flush toilets, rubbish bins and bbqs - far more than we expected! There would have been over 50 camps set up here last night.
The program, run by volunteers, takes buildings looking like this and restores the stone work to save them falling down completely.
This old Post Offce has had its stone work restored.
Here is Laurie baking his bread in the underground bake house. Also on the menu are rolls, scones, buns, pies, pasties, sausage rolls ....... You only have to beat the rush to get them! We had to line up for a loaf of bread at 8 am!
Tomorrow we'll head towards Peterborough with Broken Hill and Silverton our objective. It will be good to be in touch with everyone - we've missed that. Trust everyone is well - as soon as we get some service I'll post this blog.
So till later, love from the 4 travellers xxxxooooo 😘😘
No comments:
Post a Comment