Willow Waters to Farina

---

After our wander up the hill, we headed back up the road to Hawker, where we topped up the tanks, most of us phoned our better halves and we headed toward Wilpena Pound, which is in the Flinders Ranges NP.

Wow! The meteor story was true. Any photos we took cannot do justice the sheer size of the crater that was caused back in the day. If you are ever up this way you should take the time to check this place. Not only is it a beautiful and bushy spot but the story of the people that tried to run cattle, sheep and then grow grain, is amazing. I managed to pick up some good shots of some of the wildlife, including various birds and a slightly friendly emu, but it really is a place you need to experience for yourself. They have put in a visitor centre, shop and toilets and it was here, in the shop –not the toilets – which I bought the hat you can see in the photos. I’ve wanted one of these buggers forever and the old girl in the shop reckoned I looked handsome, so any of you knockers out there can bugger off J

After we’d done the walk up to the old homestead we kept trucking north toward our goal of Farina. On the way we got onto the first bit of substantial dirt of the trip. It even got to the stage where we had to pressure down the tyres and rolled through a few creek crossings! We almost had to lock in the front hubs – but not yet.

We eventually arrived at Farina ruins around 6pm. It was getting n for dark so Paddy, Neil and I, who arrived around half an hour after the others, due to me taking photos of the massive kick-ass coal mine out of Leigh Creek. It was bloody huge! We set up camp and had quite the god night, cooking a communal meal of vegies, except for Neil who had beef surprise, and a few bevvies where we continued to solve the world’s problem.

---