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Monday 22nd May 2023 We said farewell to Moonta and headed north to Port Broughton as our first stop. Rags remembered this place from our previous trip; a one street town leading to a long jetty which faced a beautiful old hotel flanked with pine trees. And so it was. We walked most of the town, had a coffee at the bakery with a bambury, a pastry shaped like a pasty, filled with currants and citrus etc. Very tasty.
Then on to Melrose via Crystal Brook (where the Jeep dropped its big-end) through the pretty town of Laura, (adjective put in for our Laura). Stone Hut, about 20kms further was our next stop, the group we travelled with a few years ago raved about the pies they had there. They hadn't lied, Judy had a Thai beef pie, Rags a kangaroo and red wine pie both washed down with a local ginger beer. Absolutely delicious. Their aviary next door was a walk-in affair and we were both 'attacked' by a Major Mitchell parrot which kept on biting our heels and another which adopted Judy. Lovely, until they screeched and convinced us that they wouldn't be over welcome at home.
Melrose was our next destination and after we had set up the caravan at the Melrose Showground we went back into town t explore. We found the information centre and after collecting lots of information we headed back to the showground to relax. Lovely spot, there were several other vans there all well spaced in a great environment. Local volunteers come out in the evening to collect the "donation" which goes to the local sporting clubs.
Tuesday 23rd May 2023 Today we slept late so it was about 10 before we arrived at the base of Mt Remarkable - this was why we were here, to climb it. The map we were given showed the start and along the route to the summit was written 860m. No problem thought Rags, what is hard about that? Then came the reality; the notation gave the elevation, the distance we had to walk was 6.5kms. This was along rocky tracks, across 'scree' sections, every time we came to the ridge there was another ridge in the distance. We didn't count how many ridges we went around but in fact we circumnavigated the mountain eventually. We finally reached the summit where
we met a group about our vintage including a gent who was 80yo.
A 30 min break here where we put our feet up and had a something to eat. The 'oldies' left soon after we got there, we wondered if we would catch them. The way down was easier, 7.5kms down. However, walking across many sections of scree slowed us down, plus the downward slope put strain on our knees. We never caught up with the oldies until the very end, they beat us by several minutes. Totally it took us 6 hours to walk the whole distance, not too bad.
Back at the van we had enough energy left to take in our washing, prepare our meal with a few drinks, and retire 'gracefully' at about 2000 hours!
Wednesday 24th May 2023 Off this morning to Wilmington, 23 kms up the road, for a coffee before going to nearby Alligator Gorge. Unfortunately, only one place served coffee in this small town and were only open Thursday to Sunday. So on to Alligator Gorge.
Here we again met the oldies we met yesterday. They also only wanted to see the gorge, not walk it.
All of us were a little sore. It would be lovely to meet these people again some time, their positive attitude to life was wonderful. After admiring the gorge from the lookout we parted company and returned to Melrose where we had lunch at the local bike shop/cafe. Good combination.
Back at the van we looked at the weather forecast after seeing the way the clouds were racing across. It was showers tonight and tomorrow. After checking that there was a vacancy at a caravan park in Stirling, south of Port Augusta at the same price as Melrose we made a hasty exit.
Comfortably sited here, we booked in for 2 nights to weather out the expected storm.
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