Day Four - Tuesday 23rd April - Wyperfeld National Park to Murray-Sunset National Park. Stubble and salt.....and more salt.....and wind!!

Firstly, I have to apologise for the lack of photos – difficult to sort out with limited connectivity. The other weird thing is that my beautiful paragraphs seem to disappear when I publish the Posts. It sort of looks like verbal diarrhea, so sorry it’s so hard to read. I’ll try and work out what’s going on! We all had a warm cozy night’s sleep thanks to various combinations of thermals, socks etc. and a slightly warmer night. As we hadn’t showered for two days it was time to christen the shower in the caravan. It worked beautifully and Ewan watched the amount of water we used - apparently one bucketful was acceptable!! We packed up our abode and we were off, headed to Walpeup for coffee and a few essential items. As we passed through Hopetoun Liz stated that we were not stopping : I think she was experiencing PTSD from the coffee the previous day! Walpeup was full of surprises: no supermarkets or shops to speak of at all, yet another closed primary School, a lovely Pioneer Women’s Garden and a Silo Art that wasn’t in the book!!

The silo was a very vibrant and bright depiction of a young boy soldier from WW1 and his horse. The interesting thing was that it was fenced off as the silos next to it are a working concern. We could see it from the street and appreciated the colours and creativity of the artist. Further up the road we spent some time having a delightful shop in Ouyen. Ewan goes into withdrawal if he doesn’t spend some time browsing a hardware every few days so his eyes lit up when he spotted a large Mitre 10! We feel we have to assess every bakery (and the coffee!) available and the Ouyen Bakery was a big success. Ewan was keen to have a huge creamy apple turnover. Liz and I decided to share a pastie in lieu of the fact that they didn’t sell dim sims (she is seriously addicted to steamed dim sims!) Our other important purchase, apart from yet more diesel, was 15 kgs. of firewood. Liz and I are desperate to christen her new jaffle iron and to have a campfire. In the free camping grounds, you can’t collect firewood nearby so we decided we’d cut to the chase and we’d buy some firewood. So of course, today was almost 30 degrees and there’s a lot of wind and it would be far too dangerous to light a fire! Murphy’s Law! We seem to be on an exploration of lakes that have no water.

Today we saw lots of lakes in the Murray Sunset National Park, and they are all salt pans. Fascinating to see and some of them with a pink bloom due to a very clever algae that manages to survive in water that has 800 times more salt than seawater. At this time of the year they are very hard as the water evaporates in summer. The way the salt hardens creates weird shapes but they reflect the bits of grass and plants that the salt clings to.

There used to be a salt extraction business near where we are camping at Lake Chrosbie. It only closed in the late 70’s but would have been hellish work. During WW11 some Italian POWs were used for labour and lots of itinerant workers were employed from the early 1920’s to dig up the salt and carry 60kgs bags to camels, a purpose-built tram (but only for a couple of years) and eventually trucks etc.

As we walked and drove around them the birdlife was stunning, but we have yet to see any Major Mitchell cockatoos. I’m on a mission to take photos of birds so that Os (aged 5) can identify them in the book of Australia’s birds that he received for Christmas. So far, I have failed miserably as they keep flying away!! I’m hoping for a postcard to buy!! Over the last couple of days, we seem to end up driving at dusk – the perfect time for taking out a kangaroo or two. But, touch wood, we have managed to avoid a few kangaroos and some emus who seem to think it would be a good idea to cross the road just as we get to them!! Currently I am sitting typing this (to be published next time we have connectivity) overlooking Lake Christie.

We have set up Liz’s tent sandwiched between the car and the caravan as the wind is fierce and everything we put down seems to blow away. Ewan is making a wind break to shelter the gas so we can cook dinner. We are likely to enter South Australia tomorrow so, after consulting the guidelines, most of our veggies are going into a stir-fry as we aren’t allowed to take them in. And it will be fruit for dessert!! Another lovely day and we’re adjusting to the great outdoors with all of it’s challenges! Your happy and contented correspondent Dianne