We were back on the dirt roads, our favourite, and our next stop was Mutawintji National Park. We stayed at the Homestead Camping Ground and it had a great vibe about it. Serene and relaxed, the biggest thing we had to worry about was what walk will we do. We had a couple of nights to spend so everyone was chilled. We have had plenty of strong winds lately and here wasn’t much different at times.
We enjoyed a couple of walks, a gorge walk and another along the creek to native art. The gorge walk was beautiful and led us to dead goat valley. Well that’s what I called it, as there was an uncommon abundance of goat skulls. Sounds creepy but it wasn’t, the gorge was really beautiful.
Our creek walk was much less ominous with no bones in sight. This was a gentle walk and a lovely interlude but there was very little water in the creek. Enjoyable just the same.
With the weather warming up, we are now seeing more and more lizards. These are a few we spotted in the National Park or on the way to there.
Onwards and here we come White Cliffs. The weather was dramatically different here being much hotter than we had experienced since we began our trip. Of course with the heat came the flies and a ripper little dust whirly wind. Being our first time to a small mining town of this type, I was intrigued. We were camped amongst hundreds of discarded small and some not so small shafts with the small piles of overburden alongside. We all made a mental note not to venture into the dark at night for a wee :). It is said that there are heaps of opals to be found in these discarded piles and we strolled around for a bit but didn’t have any great fortune show up. Another young couple camped near by showed us their finds, very small but definitely opal bits. I reckon that we just didn’t know what we should be looking for.
It is now that our trip takes a major twist and the next day saw Fred and I leaving our friends behind. It was with mixed emotions as we didn’t want to leave but we have an opportunity that we can’t let pass by. So after hugs, kisses and maybe a few (lots really) tears, De Trucksta was headed to Mt Barker SA instead of back to Birdsville for the annual races as originally planned.
Stay tuned and we will reveal our next adventure………