Wed 4th Sep – Angorichina to Aroona Ruins
First day’s walking was preceded by pretty terrible accommodation. The anxiety around the night’s accommodation started yesterday in the car when James read out from the Auswalk info booklet that “subsequent accommodation really makes up for the first”. The ‘village’ (caravan park) we stay at was formerly a tuberculosis quarantine hospital, and we are staying in the nurses quarters. This must be a national heritage listed building because diddly squat has been done to it since. A unique feature is James’ bed is in the middle of the living room. It does make me view James increasingly (and affectionately) as a big teenager, a caricature enhanced when he complains about having to wake up early.
The owners Dave and Caroline are a point of much discussion. Dave is easily charmed by James’ passion for Hiluxes. Dave has a very gutteral country affect and knows the tax payer cost of every man made structure in the Flinder’s Ranges. He describes his wife Caroline as a grumpy old woman and we tentatively giggle. When James asks what’s for lunch, we get a curt “food, mate.”, and we quickly realise this was a warning, not a joke. James scales up operation Flirt. Will his natural red head charisma crack Caroline? Stay tuned for tomorrow’s post to find out.
The walk itself is lovely. The weather is perfect and the length just right. I am a little disheartened to learn that I have fallen to the bottom of the fitness ranking in our trio, yet am content plodding along hundreds of metres behind. We don’t see any other hikers all day.
The transfers to the start of the walk and back again in the afternoon are very long (nearly an hour) and it’s here we alternate between the highs of Dave gleefully mocking James’ plastic clip on dragonflies to the cold silence of Caroline. Dinner is at Blinman pub again, which is owned by Dave and Caroline, who bought it after the previous owner went broke. They said if they didn’t buy the pub, they were going to close the village and leave, such is the importance of the institution. James says it’s his best parmy ever, but I think he was just really tired and hungry.
Plastic dragonflies? Please explain…
Juice boxes?! Why?!
Only one drink?
Declan was extremely excited by your comment Claire. He will be penning you a postcard shortly to say thank you
The plastic dragonflies clip to your hat and flop around to ward off flies. Think a modern version of the cork hat. They are visible in the juice box pic. An incredible purchase from Temu
Declan’s offer of one drink per person was negotiated up from one drink shared between 3. He is a generous friend in other ways. It was a yummy whiskey & coke
Well we all know why Caroline is cranky…she is well over Dave and now he has bought a bloody useless pub.
I liked the river bed photo the best but was a bit stressed about Declans notebook. It reminds of a certain petrol notebook from years gone by.
Very excited to watch James’ “journey” mastering juice boxes. He wouldn’t have been able to handle a sunny boy back in my day. Very surprised Temu anything is allowed on this trek. Think how much I can spend there on you Cait to fill your spaces!!!!
Feral goats are the cockroaches of the outback. They will survive anything. Keep up the photos.
Postcards are always welcome!
I missed the plastic dragonflies. But I don’t see the third one… did you lose it?
Glad you have some negotiation tactics and are supporting the local businesses!
How many km’s did you walk and what was the temperature like.
There is a movie where Tom hanks is a kid in a man’s body. James and his juice box remind me of that movie.
Cait, just hoping that your walking buddies check on you every now and then to see if you are ok considering you are bringing up the rear.
Was the walk easier or harder than you expected and would it be easy to get lost on the trek.
Day one was 18km.
I can judge how tired James is by whether he drinks his juice box or not. If totally exhausted and in need of sugar, James will stoop to the lows of the juice box. No matter what he will say “I fucking hate juice boxes”.
Walking buddies are always in front but it’s nice to see James and Declan getting some quality time together. I like to think I am protecting the rear. Declan is working hard on getting James to move to Blackheath, which is a difficult challenge.
The walk today was about what I expected. 18km is not too long but the terrain is uneven, so it does take a bit of focus. It would be easy to get lost on the track because the track meanders on empty creek beds and big kind of sand/hard soil dunes. Thankfully there are track markers very frequently, and we appreciate that investment in the walk. If you didn’t see a track marker for 15min you can be pretty confident you are lost and need to walk back to the first track marker.
The green dragonfly snapped off within the first hour of the walk on Day 1. Luckily they came in a pack of four. Since Dek refuses to wear his, I still have two left for me