Day 5 Thursday 15/8/2024 Peterborough to Rawnsley Park, 25

It was a quiet, dark night. Of course, it’s always dark when we aren’t hooked up to power and we don’t have the light of the two green dots on the microwave. Now there’s cloud building and it looks like the forecasted rain is on the way.

As Woody refuels the car, I’m intrigued by a derelict old hotel building that now seems to be a very large home to a flock of pigeons. The countryside isn’t as lush today and once again we follow a disused railway line.

The upsweep of the Flinders Ranges comes into view as we meet VeeWee at the ghostlike town of Carrieton. She’s been here for a couple of nights and praises the caravan park. The pub is still operating, there are panoramic vistas of the surrounding hills. There are a collection buildings of uncertain status, of habitation that is. Splendid murals adorn both the toilets and the swimming pool building. Signs on the toilet doors request that they remain shut to keep the dust out. There is a lot of dust, red dust.

We leave Carrieton behind, pass through Hawker and head for the hills. The view from Arkaba Lookout is stunning in all directions.

Continuing on up the highway we reach the turnoff to Rawnsley Park (sheep) Station. The unsealed road is good, very good and it’s only 3kms to the camping area and office. The shop is stocked with plenty of basic supplies as Hawker is the nearest town. There is fuel available and a car wash area for getting the muck off.

The powered sites are terraced up the southern hillside of the property with views across the narrow valley to Rawnsley Bluff. What is it with us and park maps? Well, out of the three of us we manage to get two right. Poor Elle gets all setup and an irate couple arrive complaining that she’s on their site, we insist that they should park further up the hill not realising that it is actually a road. Ok, it is hard to tell what is road and what is a campsite as everything is red shingle and anyway Elle now has a much better view.

VeeWee, the dogs and I take a walk through the park to the unpowered area, where there are some lovely spots for tents and campers. There is a good view of the Bluff, the dam and sheep in the valley.

The wind picks up, but it is still warm so we perch ourselves behind VeeWee’s motorhome and hope for a good sunset, but nature has other ideas. The staff had mentioned to us that the homestead delivers fresh lamb packs every day around 6pm so we bolt over to the shop but today it’s only sausages. We book a table for dinner in the Woolshed restaurant for Saturday night and retreat to the van for chicken sausages in the air fryer.

Accom: $46.00, Fuel: $112.36, Towing Kms: 181Kms