Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We took a brisk two hour climb to the top of a scenic viewing area at Wilpena Pound, so getting out of the place nice and early didn't work out as planned, especially as we ended up asking the park ranger for directions. When we did set off, I think we saw about 8 cars all day. Thank goodness we didn't break down at any point, because it felt like there was only us within a 200km radius, and that probably wasn't too far from reality. The heat at times was difficult to cope with, and it just felt like being in a desert. We parked up, and walked down to lake Eyre where there was still not a person in sight, apart from us three. We walked through and dodged all grassy areas, due to Antony being scared that a snake may pop out at any time. I reckon I've got some good pictures of me on the basin of Lake Eyre, which is partly down to the expert photography skills shown throughout the trip by Jamie. When we were down there, we were swarmed by flies. We saw what looked like a tour bus pull up in the distance, people got out, but by time we got back to the camper, they had gone and it was just us again, all alone in the middle of absolutely no where. We dodged cows/camels/kangaroos, and we also saw Terminator in the field. I wonder if Arnold Schwarzenegger knows that Terminator is lying there in a field in the outback. Who ever made that (if he is a local) had absolutely years to perfect this piece of art, due to there being absolutely nothing else to do in the area. Whilst we're on the subject of random things, we saw one sheep there on its own in a field. He must have been a bad lad over the years for someone to place it in the middle of absolutely no where. Same goes for the odd cow and bull we saw on the way too.
Having another long bumpy drive across barren land, Jamies top bunk that he had assembled was about to show us that it wasn't made up of stern stuff. The first thing to fall from his top bunk was the pasta, which he mumbled 'not my pasta", and then the next thing he said was 'argg not my bed'. When we encountered another bump in the road, he shouted with passion 'NOOOO.....PLEASE....NOT MY WEETABIX". If he had loved the campervan as much as the weetabix, it may not have been in the state it was. When he reads this, he will argue that it was me that made the majority of the mess in the rundown camper, but I'll argue over the hills that it had nothing to do with me. The last stuff up there on the top bunk was his wash bag and the trainer. This kept us entertained for at least five minutes as we watched with our eyes glued to the wash bag and the trainer. The trainer won, as the wash bag eventfully fell after some strong resistance. All this took place when we had found a new gear on the camper, which made the fuel a little more efficient and economical.
We were running out of petrol, but we had enough to get to the next place. The place being William Creek, which is the smallest town in South Australia. We said things like 'Christ, thank God we're not staying in a place like this". We went to get petrol and the sign on the door said "closed until 10 tomorrow". Oh dear, looks like we had no choice but to stay here. We had a wander round and went into a campsite. A campsite only by name really. The place had an air field, and actually had a plane on it. If only one of us was a pilot, we'd have been able to get of there. We went to see if we could find someone in the 'William Creek hotel", but even the hotel had no one in it. The showers were the most disgusting yet, and flies were everywhere, but the stars did looks amazing. When we were cooking, we saw one car go past, and that made Antony even more scared than he already was. When we woke up, he said immediately "we're still alive Rich....YESS". We shouted up to the top bunk (which was all fixed again) "Jamie, you there?" The reply was "yep I'm alive.... well my top half is anyway"
We waited for the petrol station to open, and Jamie and Antony wandered in. We weren't getting away with not paying this time, but he did only charge for 2 of us as I hid myself away in the back of the camper. He only charged for us for using the non electric campsite, as we didn't use the electric, but it did get me thinking.......as if there was electric in that terrible horrible place. Antony went into the petrol station with no shirt (well it wasn't exactly a petrol station what we're used to), and the man behind the counter said to him "you wouldn't do in England, so why do it here?". Well in England it isn't bludy 45 degrees Celsius is it pal. He said how he hated people like us coming into the town (TOWN HA), well the reply should have been straight forward "If it wasn't for people like us, you wouldn't be in business", but if we had said that, he'd have probably picked a gun up and shot us, so we were getting the hell out of there. Antony went on about how we should write him a letter and tell him to change his attitude as the town was probably a vibrant area before that moody so and so turned up and everyone left. Well writing him a letter wasn't really on the top of our priority list. Jamie wanted to tie all his bed and the rest of his Weetabix and Pasta together so there wasn't a repeat of yesterday, but that had to wait too, we just wanted to get out of there. We were on our way to the next town, which was around 160km away. Bye William Creek, we won't be visiting you ever again.
Later on when we were around 30km away from that hell-hole, we looked at a tour booklet and saw that one tour company actually did a tour to William creek and advertised it as a fantastic place to camp under the stars. The stars were good, but it was definitely not worth sleeping in that place just to see them. It rivalled Hull in being the Worst place I have ever visited, and it even made Castleford look desirable. The next blog will be Coober Pedy.
- comments