Today’s drive from Melrose to Wilpena Pound was filled with the good old Who Am I? game. you know – ask any question and only get a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. Some of the mystery people we chose ranged from surfing heroes to school friends. But John really had us stumped when he chose the lady who works in the bakery in Torquay and always has a bandaid on her nose. Go figure. That, plus quizzing the boys on what was written on the plaque on the BIG rock in Hawker where we stopped for lunch, made the 160km just fly by.
John and I have both been here before, but the sight of those amazing red ranges, their sweeping curved profile, reflecting the late afternoon sun will never lose its wow factor.
We arrived at the Visitor Centre in Wilpena Pound and checked in for an unpowered site. Trevor the Trailer has everything we need – power included. This place offers such luxury! It’s a National Park, but we are allowed a fire (and as I sit and type this, my face is glowing from a 5 star fire). There’s barely another camper in earshot, so it feels like we have the peace of the bush. There’s a shower and toilet – now that’s luxury. But wait – there’s a sink to wash your dishes in!
Tomorrow we’re doing a walk to the summit of Mt.Ohlssen-Bragge (I’ll check my spelling tomorrow). John wanted to do the 9 hour walk up St.Mary’s peak (highest peak in the Flinders Ranges), but Ferg and Harry saw the “9 hours” bit and boycotted it. Think I might side with them, if we have to vote.
Tell you all about it tomorrow.

I can report that the coffee is very good at the Old Blacksmiths Café in Melrose. Next time you pass through – don’t miss it.
John was up early this morning (some things never change) for a ride, then a quick trot up Mount Remarkable.
He couldn’t coax the boys into the ascent, but he tells us the view was fantastic. He could see the Flinders Ranges to the north and the Southern Ocean to the south (Spencer Gulf to be exact).
After breakfast, John took the boys for a ride on some of the famous Melrose Trails, in the foothills of Mt.Remarkable, where the single track winds through forested gullies, historic ruins from the 1800s and green rolling pastures on the ridges, looking out to the east. (Did you like all that descriptive blurb Sam? John wrote that) while I walked into town for above mentioned sensational coffee. And did I mention 5 minutes peace?
The perfect sunny day dried all the dew off the tent, the towels, and even the Ugg boots.
The only other campers at the Showgrounds were in a rather large contingent of Grey Nomads. There must have been a dozen vehicles towing all manner of magnificent caravans. Whilst I’m happy to have our fabulous Trevor the Trailer, I sure was a little jealous last night as I’m sure they were toasty warm inside those things. They were probably watching the latest episode in the Julia and Kevin soapy on their satellite tvs. Although I should admit, John and I were sitting fireside (a rather feeble one, of which we were not proud), laptops on knees, on our mobile WiFi, dew gently falling upon us, checking emails (and writing this blog!) – when I saw a newsflash on my laptop about the job swap over in Canberra. We were, however, a lot colder than the Grey Nomads.

I think we’re getting better at the cold nights thing – and it’s only Day Three! We’ve added hot water bottles for the boys, remembered to give them a silk sleeping sheet inside their bags, and added a down sleeping bag under my feather doona. BUT…..best of all we put the foil lid on the tent. I’ll post a photo tomorrow…but suffice to say, it’s the most expensive piece of foil we’ve ever bought! Listed as an “optional extra” when we bought Trevor the Trailer, it’s a thermal blanket. Sheesh. What a difference it made. Still couldn’t squeeze the honey out of the bottle in the cold of the morning, but that’s okay. I had vegemite.
Next – mountain biking at Melrose.

Some of my friends know me as Weather Girl, since I have a bit of a thing about the weather. Note – this fixation doesn’t come close to John’s weather fettish .
So I took a look at the overnight temperature recorded in Mildura last night. And the 1 (one) degree they reported explains why the bottle of olive oil froze.

It would also explain why even my hot water bottle struggled to stop me shivering. It seems strange to wish for hot flushes.

Once the sun was up and the agony over, we were greeted with a beautiful day. We wandered over to see the Lock 9 on the Murray. Quite interesting, as I didn’t even know there were any locks on the Murray. There were pelicans galore, all milling round the base of the weir, just waiting for the fish to pop out.
We continued on across the border to South Australia where we had to dump our fruit for fruit fly quarantine. However, it’s been a long time since I crossed such a border, and now we have to handover our potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, broccoli, beans, capsicums, zucchini, garlic….basically everything I had just bought! But hey, the fruit and veg shops in Renmark do very well. So through Renmark we went, where John “forgot” to stop for my caffeine hit. Words have been said. We had lunch in the lovely town of Burra, an historical copper mining town from the mid 1800s. It once produced 5% of the world’s copper.

It seemed to take forever to get to Melrose, on the edge of the Flinders Ranges. Again, it is freezing. Tonight we will wear even more clothes to bed. We’re camped at the local show grounds, and the boys are off for a ride tomorrow as Melrose has some great mountain biking trails. John already squeazed in a ride before dark.

Here we go. Fourteen weeks, three states and one territory, a mum (me) and a dad, two boys (9 and 10 years old), three bikes, one kayak, 5 surfboards, dive gear, fishing rods, cameras, computers, lots of food – all packed in the new(ish) off road camper trailer. And of course the footy and the basketball. Not so sure we’ll see too many basketball rings where we’re going.

The plan – Flinders Ranges, Coober Pedy, William Creek and anything else in South Australia on the way to the Red Centre. See and do everything there that we can. Go north. Get to Darwin. Go west. Show the boys the amazing Kimberley. Start going south. See the beautiful west coast, Karijini, Gnaraloo – the list is long. Get to Perth. Check the date. Take it from there.
We started today at a civilised 8.30am. I refused to leave at “stupid o’clock”. I maintain that if it’s after midnight, and it’s dark, then you should be asleep.
It was a perfect winter’s day. Sunny and clear, and best of all – not windy.
We stopped in Avoca for my caffeine hit, plus multiple purchases at the bakery. From there, we travelled the rolling plains, where there was the odd wind farm. I love wind farms. I think it’s the serenity of the gently rotating blades. We reminisced about this being the place that John did his very first MTB race (where he won the novice category) and raced against a very young Cadel Evans (who won the Pro category).
On to Mildura. John lived here in 1991 when he first started with NAB. But we drove straight through and on to Cullulleraine (yes, that is how you spell it) and found the mighty Murray River where we set up for our first night. Here’s Ferg and Harry with their fire.

It’s going to be a cold night!