Day 14 – September 14 2012

A late start getting away at around 9.30am, as we spent a bit of time looking at the geological exhibits & the seismic information exhibit at & near the Arkaroola Visitor Centre.  Just out of the Arkaroola Township a rare yellow footed rock wallaby waited at the side of the road for us & kindly jumped across in front of us, luckily for it we slowed, a very pretty wallaby with a very long bushy & flexible tail.  The road from Arkaroola to Copley was mainly very good dirt with a few rougher sections through creeks & some washaways.  The mountain ranges were varied, beautiful & interesting, with different shapes, colours, textures (the distant mountains looked dark blue & sometimes purple, closer ones at times beautiful ochre, green or brown dotted with small shrubs) & vegetation as we travelled along.  We passed through two very small aboriginal townships with a strip of bitumen through town to stop the dust before stopping at Copley for lunch at the famous Quandong Café, where people from hundreds of kilometres around flock to eat. (Yes, we travelled about 130km & another 70km & we never came across anywhere else to eat, the only thing they had was an assortment of 5 different kinds of pies, Ron had the road kill – kangaroo, Mike & I had Beef, Rose chicken, Helen & John the shepherd’s, I had a large Quandong milkshake the others had coffee & to make sure that all the pies were tasted Ron had a Quandong pie as well).

On the bitumen again from Copley to Lyndhurst, where we refuelled, before we were back to dirt & our next stop at the abandoned township of Farina (Farina in Latin means Flour).  This town was originally established as a wheat growing area (the land is flat, dry even the rubbishy weeds are struggling to survive) & in the 1880s as a railhead (end of the line) for transporting sheep & cattle to the markets in Adelaide.  The town reached its heydays in the 1930s & gradually declined until the rail line was closed in the 1960s.  There are a scattering of old stone buildings in various states of ruin scattered around the former town & these give a glimpse at the history & hardships that must have been endured, particularly with the large dust storms that were a frequent occurrence.  We spent a few hours wandering around the ruins exploring the history of the town & the railway.

The Farina campgrounds are only 600m from the information centre at Farina & they are absolutely astonishing, closely mown green & flat camp ground scattered amongst some lovely gum trees, with hot showers & flushing toilets, it is a really pretty & unexpected place after walking the bleak stony remnants of Farina.  We set up camp next to Mike & Rose & enjoyed some red wine, cheese & bikkies before exploring the area & reading the other information signs scattered around the campground.  John & Helen didn’t want to set up their tent for one night so they drove to Marree to stay in a hotel for the night.  Dinner under a beautiful clear sky & billions of stars was the perfect finish to another great day.