In my last blog I was just about to meet some people who were hopefully going to travel with me to Alice. Turned out they (a couple) had way too much luggage, not just backpacks but big suitcase style bags; it just wasn't going to work. So after having to break the bad news to them that it wasn't going to work I cleaned the car and wandered around Adelaide. Everything was closed for Anzac day so not much really doing, I couldn't even buy cereal or groceries, I had to eat what was in the car. I did manage to lock my keys in the car but thanks to the help of a friendly Canadian guy the two of us managed to get a piece of coat hanger in and open the door. The next morning as I was logging on to the net to check for any new traveller companion posts my phone rang and it was Paul, an American from Colorado who has just arrived at the hostel. Even though I had booked for another night, I decided there was no point wasting more time doing nothing in Adelaide, and 30 minutes later we were on the road. First stop, supplies for the week, then onto the A1 highway to Pt. Augusta, and onto another road that turned off towards Flinders Range National Park. Seeing as we hadn't organized anything we arrived at the park at around 8pm with the sun already set, so we parked outside the entry and camped the night. This morning we woke up before sunrise (Paul is an early waker, god help me) and drove into the park. The first highlight is the Wilpena Pound, an enormous 'crater' like bowl surrounded by steep hills on all sides. The visitor information lady advised us to take a 6km hike to see the best views; she also advised us to take the $4 shuttle bus that would save 2 km of walking through camp grounds. Following her advice, we made it to the start of the walks (many different walks leave from where the shuttle bus drops you, all of them diverging later on) and set out. After asking around and walking for 4 km we still couldn't find our walk, and after exploring all the different paths we made our way back to the shuttle drop off point. When the bus driver picked us up he said the trail we wanted left from the visitor Information centre, so the lady at the centre sent us on a wild goose chase, we can only presume so that we would use the $4 shuttle bus. The financial crisis is being felt especially hard in Wilpena. After our fruitless walk we spent the day driving around the park, checking out the amazing geological formations and the stunning views. At around 2 pm we left the park, beading back to Pt. Augusta with the final destination Coober Pedy in mind. As the sun set somewhere south of Woomera we were treated to a reminder about why we were in the middle of nowhere; a sun set stretching across the endless horizon, bathing the sky to the west of us in reds, oranges, violets and blues, all contrasting with the shadowed scrub to remind you how big this country is. We were never going to make it today to Coober Pedy to see stopped off in Woomera at a caravan park for a shower. More to come tomorrow including the scintillating 500km stretch remaining to Coober Pedy.
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