Arkaroola/Melrose & Williams Town

---

Leigh Creek/ Arkaroola



We stopped in and saw our old mate Pete again. He hurt his toe so mum and dad had to fix it. He has a big tummy so he couldn’t bend down to see his toes.



The next morning we went to Arkaroola, which is 127km of dirt road. I was already worried because we had to send 4 hours in our car then 4 hours in the tour 4wd. That equals 8 hours in a car but….. it was unreal. We all loved it. It was really scary going up the side of the mountains. We all sat in the back of a troupe. WE had to hang on tight. WE were getting thrown around. It is full of minerals and tour guide me quarts, mica and some iron to take home. He knew heaps of stuff about geology. There is a mine near by that digs up uranium. The bloke who discovered the minerals was a famous Antarctic explorer called Sir Douglas Mason (the dude on the $100). He was friends with the guy Reggie who owned the station. Reggies family still owns the property to this day. It is a private resort and it rocks.!!!! We had a really nice lunch there. We met a really nice Father and son from Tassie on our tour. They were really kind to James. They gave him some cold water. They took some pictures for us and will email them to us.



We were only about 20 kms from home (and it was getting dark) when we yet again blew ANOTHER tyre. Mum freaked out. Dad was really good and changed it. We eventually got back to our van. It was pretty late.



Melrose

We went through an old copper mining town called Burra (I think it is still a mining town) for lunch. It had heaps of really old buildings. You could pick up a key from the tourist info center and walk to all the old buildings and open them up for a look. We were going to stay there but decided to move on. We ended up in Melrose. It is a cute old town on the other side of Mt Remarkable. Lots of people from Adelaide holiday here because it has heaps of mountain bike trails everywhere. We went for a walk. Dad wanted to go for a long one so James, mum and I went for a small one. We got lost. Mum and I snuck out and got an ice-cream. It was the best ice-cream ever. WE went out for tea to one of the pubs. It was packed!! All they served was all different types of snitzells like chicken, beef, kangaroo and even emu (DESGUSTING!!). I had the biggest ice-cream Sunday for desert. It was awesome.



Williams Town

Yeah! We got to stay at a town with my name. It was a really cute town. Mum and I snuck off for another ice-cream. They sell a brand called great Northern. It is unreal.!! The caravan park was really cute. We met a nice man called Bluey. He told us to try the pizza. He gave us some of his so we could try it. The next day I made a special batch of choc chip cookies for him to say thank you. They were delicious. We were all getting very excited cause we knew we only had 2 more sleeps until we got to see Fiona and Janice. Williams town has the best drinking water. We went to the whispering wall (the town’s water supply) to check it out. The wall is so cool. You stand at one end and say something and the person at the other end (about 200m away) can hear you clear as a bell. I think the sound waves travel along the curved surface. You can imagine what dad was whispering. Luckily there were no other people around.

---