port augusta to clare

there are many things i love about australia. campsites are not one of them. after a poor sleep disturbed by bleating sheep (waiting to be crotched! the sheep equivalent to a brazilian...) and road trains wooshing by, we were awoken this morning by the sound of dirtbikes revving their engines (modern-day sheep herding perhaps?) it wasn't painfully early when this happened, but it felt painfully early to us. SA is 2.5 hours ahead of perth at the moment, thanks to daylight savings. at one point along the drive, we were 45 minutes ahead. then it's an hour and half. and then daylight savings. best not to get me started on that one.

so after a quick pack-up, we were back on the road. we stopped in port augusta to pick up some supplies for the next few days. most of our perishable food was taken from us (or quickly eaten by john beforehand) in Ceduna, to prevent fruit flies from migrating into SA or something like that. port augusta is the (and i quote) southern gateway to the flinders ranges, which we are not venturing into unfortunately. port augusta has been called many other things by my south australian friends, but i choose not to repeat them here)

we drove through the flinders to mt remarkable national park. in my opinion, if a place uses an adjective in it's name, for example mt remarkable, mt glorious, lake amazing, field of wonder or other such places, they generally are not remarkable, glorious, amazing or wonderful at all. they are generally rather lackluster. it's like when your mom says that a boy is "really nice" because he's not nearly goodlooking enough for your taste. "namely" places have to suck you in somehow, sell themselves to you. places that are truly naturally beautiful generally don't have to stoop to such levels. but i get duped all the time. i can't help it. how can you pass up something called mt remarkable? and then once you're there, it's too late. you might as well get out and explore anyhow.

we weren't able to climb mt remarkable today. it was a bit late in the afternoon and the friendly lady at the caravan park told us we'd need at least 5 hours to do it (so probably really only 3). so we decided to do some bushwalking around the area instead. it turned into a short trail run and was rather enjoyable actually. not remarkable though. just enjoyable.

from there we drove to clare. the scenery around here is much like the wheatbelt in WA. except that the areas not covered in gold coloured hay (or dirty coloured sheep eating the leftovers of the gold coloured hay) are green. and the landscape is actually rolling hills, not flat flat fantastically flat. it's quite pleasing to the eye.

we've settled into the clare caravan park for the night. it's a nice little place. it has grass and trees and lots of space. and more importantly, no sheep. it's by far the nicest campground we've ever stayed at in australia. i suppose i could've guessed it would actually be a nice place. it's not called "camp astounding" after all.

xo