Noddy's adventures

It’s been a huge couple of weeks for Noddy, his cat and his travelling companions! We left behind the wineries of the Clare Valley, and the old mining town of Burra and headed north. The land opened up to more wheat and grain farms and we saw a few farmers harvesting as we drove through. We headed up through Hawker, the base of the Flinders Ranges, the largest mountain range in the state of South Australia. The mountains we could see were not rolling hills, rather they used to be the sea floor 540 million years ago that were pushed up during movement of the ancient continents.

The major landmark here is Wilpena Pound / Ikara – we first hiked to a lookout, drove around it and then flew over it. The South Australian government have applied for World Heritage status, and the traditional owners (Adnyamathanha people) are back caring for country and share their Dreamtime stories and heritage with visitors.

We stayed at Rawnsley Park station, and did a bit of 4 wheel driving on the tracks on their property. We then stayed unpowered and with no water connection for six days, firstly on Willow Springs sheep station which is 70,000 acres/28,300 hectares and then on a free camp site in Parachilna Gorge. This was the first test for us and our caravan, we learnt a lot and did OK with the 180 litres of water we carried. The last two days were cloudy so we were using more power than we were generating and storing.

Noddy has now taken an unscheduled stop, we are in Port Augusta for Easter as our travelling companions need to wait for a cruicial part for their Ford Ranger. This also gives us a breather as we haven’t really stopped for a few months, so we have time to wash the red dust out of our clothes and caravans from the past two weeks! Miso is also enjoying the break.

As this update is too big for photos, have a look at Noddy’s video here https://youtu.be/xXgeed8K2vQ