It’s said a picture paints a thousand words. My blogs so far average about 700, so you could say I generally paint 0.7 of a picture. Getting to even 0.1 on the road from Quorn will be difficult as there nothing much along it. But here goes.
We fill up in leafy Quorn and head out. John is lead navigator. Not a hard job today. ‘Marree: (today’s destination) 339 kilometres, turn left.’
After a few early interesting curves, everything goes dry. It is spectacular in a flat sort of way.
Comments between Land Rover crews dry up as we travel; the old Ghan railway a permanent silent companion.
Emus get voted the most intelligent creature. They run away from photographers. And there is no emu roadkill. Deprived of his full English Sunday breakfast, James contemplates searching for an Emu egg.
We stop in Parachilna – a one horse town. The Prairie Hotel is shut on Mondays. Reservations are recommended even on good days.
There is a small tribute to the Ghan railway. But perhaps its most interesting feature is the public loo block. Beside the taps, on the stainless-steel sink in the corrugated iron bathroom are two twee bars of soap.
At eleven in the morning a young couple enter the shower room together.
What they get up to is none of our business, but we can’t help overhear the lady of the pair chastising her partner for what he has done with the soap.
Lyndhurst, above, has absolutely nothing of note and no one around. An automated fuel station and a notice on the locked service station door that says ‘Welcome! Come on in for a chat.’
We arrive at Marree just after lunch and head for the pub. It’s free camping in the yard, if we eat there – and highly recommended. John’s excitement grows as the pub sign says ‘Pool’. He’s brought to reality by James who explains it’s another kind of Billiards.
The camping yard is just that. Corrugated iron fence, converted containers; could be any Expeditionary Force Forward Operating Base. All it’s missing is the watch tower, machine gun post and sleeping sentry. But it gives us overhead protection and shelter from the wind. And it’s a great meeting place to gather HUMINT. John drops by to tell us that the road ahead is clear for tomorrow.
Four hundred and eighteen words. So, just over 0.4 of a picture. It’s more important that people get the picture about the reason for this trip, though. And that is to raise money to support our four charities. So, if you haven’t already, please share the story and the gofundme link with your friends and colleagues so that we can give more the opportunity to contribute.