As anticipated, the Flinders Ranges were absolutely spectacular, if only a bit warm for this Alaskan traveler. I spent a night camped in the outback with nobody else around for a change. The forecast at Wilpena Pound Resort - Flinders Ranges, SA was calling for 37˙C, which translates into nearly 100˙F, so I reckon it was time to get moving back to Sydney, I‘ve covered very than 1,000 km’s since yesterday - more than halfway along!
I arrived in a little outback town late in the evening yesterday to find all the fuel stations closed. The next stop was 260 km’s and it was questionable whether I had enough fuel to make it, so I decided to get a motel room with AC and take a break from the heat. I’d been baking in the van the previous two nights and hadn’t slept much, so I was truly looking forward to a night of good rest until I was greeted by hundreds of tiny, biting flies all over the ceiling and at least one giant, flying cockroach on the wall. I ended up rolling out my sleeping bag on top of the covers (I wasn’t about to crawl in with the insects) and had to don my bug-net top to keep the flies off of me while I slept, very intermittently.
I hope to make it as far as the Blue Mountains today and should have a short run into Sydney tomorrow, where I have one more night in Coogee Beach before catching my flight home on Tuesday (it is 12:30pm on Sunday, Nov. 20 here).
As always, thank you for following along.
Cheers!
Colin
National Parks South Australia
