After leaving Adelaide yesterday morning we travelled north for a few hours until we reached Port Augusta, the self proclaimed "crossroads of Australia" translated as meaning "there is absolutely nothing to do here but you have to come through this way to get to wherever you are going - in every possible direction". From here we veered of to the north east towards the Flinders Ranges for another several hundred kilometres until we reached the small (we'll say 'town' for lack of any other better words to describe it) of Copley and then continued on a further one hundred and thirty kilometres along unsealed dirt roads until we finally arrived in Arkaroola around seven o'clock in the evening. The journey through the Flinders Ranges was pretty spectacular as the roads traversed the rugged mountains and we witnessed a glorious blood red sunset behind us as we travelled further onwards until we were surrounded by darkness and the last fifty or so kilometres along narrow, winding, animal infested dirt roads seemed to last forever!

When we finally arrived at Arkaroola Village we set about trying to find somewhere to set up our tent, which proved a lot harder than we had imagined as by now it was pitch black and although someone had pointed us in the direction of the campground there were hardly any lights on except for a couple of camp fires that some people had lit. After a bit of off-roading and nearly knocking over a couple of camps and an old woman, we ultimately decided to play it safe and pitch up near the amenities block as at least we could see a little in the yellow lights. And after bending many a peg trying to get them into the concrete-like dirt, we eventually had everything in order and were ready for some much needed rest after so long on the road.

We awoke this morning feeling remarkably refreshed and it was only then that we saw just how remote the whole area was as the campsite was surrounded by the mountains of the northern section of the Flinders Range and there were only a few other campers that had made the journey. The 'village' that was referred to in all of the promotional material was nothing more than the reception area, a bar/restaurant and a garage all housed in the one building. Once we had showered and dressed (and seen just how much dust and dirt was now covering everything in our possession) we set about trying to find the big yellow bus that we knew was lurking around somewhere in the area. After some searching however, we were beginning to wonder whether or not Helen and David had managed to cross the roads to get here in their old converted school bus and we popped into reception to enquire. After we were pointed in the right direction and had walked around the side of one of the staff quarters, sure enough there it was and we headed for the door to announce our arrival.

There was much catching up to be done and the only way that seemed fitting was over a hearty breakfast and many cups of tea and as they were trying to get through all their food before going onto staff meals the next day, we thought it only polite to help them out! Helen told us that when they first arrived they couldn't believe how remote it was and they still weren't sure if they had made the right decision in coming to work for so long and had phoned us the night before not realising we were already here to tell us that they would understand if we didn't make it because there was nothing but dust and rocks. It seemed that we had all heard the word 'sanctuary' and assumed there would be some sort of wildlife or animal shelter and had all managed to ignore the 'wilderness' part! However, they were glad of a familiar face and it was great to see them again after so long and after breakfast we all headed out to do one of the walks around the back of the reception area.

The walk took us around the rear side of the complex, along the side of a couple of the more gentle inclines, through a valley between the mountains and in a giant loop around the pinnacle rocks until we arrived back at the campsite several kilometres later. After showing Helen and David our new improved travelling and living arrangements (they still remembered old Bruce in all his glory) we headed on back to the bus where Helen stayed while we continued on with David to tackle the Griselda Hill Climbing Track. As the name suggests this wasn't quite such a leisurely stroll and we were soon clambering over rocks and trying to work out which path looked the least dangerous and where the ground might be less slippery. When we had reached as far as could the views back down across the village were pretty good but we couldn't help but wonder just how we were supposed to get back down again as it had been hard enough on the way up! We left David up at the top as we headed back down again and once we were back on solid ground we set off to investigate what there was for us to be doing the following day.

We spent the evening relaxing in true Aussie style as we watched the sun setting over the mountains before further catching up was to be done whilst consuming many ice cold beers in the process. Before long it was time for us to leave Helen and David to get some rest as they are starting work tomorrow morning and we headed back to our tent across what seemed like acres of dirt, but what in truth was no more than a few hundred metres or so.