Day 8 Sunday 18/8/2024 Rawnsley Park to Quorn, 6 – 19

Damn, I think we’re leaving on the best day as the light from the morning sun is showing the ranges off. Further south we stop at Wilson ruins, a town that was surveyed in 1881 and marvel at what is left of the Stationmaster’s house which is now well air conditioned.

Quorn is very much an arid area town. The long main street runs parallel with the railway line and by the number of large buildings that either are hotels or have once been hotels it is obvious that this town has had a serious railway history. On the rail side of the street another ornate and solid structure is the station.  In the block behind the main thoroughfare there are several cafes catering to tourists and an IGA grocery store.

Just across the railway line is the Lions Club RV Park with 8 large sites in a pleasant bush setting. They don’t provide much but it is dog friendly, close to town, quiet and there is non-potable water available.

This is an interesting town to walk around and the generously wide streets which were probably built this way for bullock teams, camels, and stagecoaches make parking easy for caravans and motorhomes. Before the Adelaide to Darwin line was rerouted The Ghan (train) used to travel through Quorn and the well-known Pichi Richi Pass. It must have been quite a place in its heyday. These days volunteers whose predecessors restored the old line, run steam trains through the Pich Richi Pass. Sadly, it only runs on specific days, and we miss it… by an hour. That’s no surprise, is it?

During happy hour a Lions Club volunteer drops by to collect our payments and say g’day. They’re doing quite well out of this park and have a farm machinery shed that I might check out tomorrow.

After a quick meal of meatballs we walk into town to watch the advertised silo light show and learn more about the railway restoration. It’s a funny sight, a dozen or so people sitting on camp chairs in a railway yard staring at a silo, but seriously, the show is great, and we learn a lot about Quorn. We stroll back to camp under a full moon.

Accom: $18.00, Towing kms: 100Kms

Ya wouldn’t wanna do a Wendy

Now, before I forget…the other night at Rawnsley Park VeeWee was roused by the noise of people outside. She took the poodles out for their late evening peewee to find a couple staggering about in the dark. The woman was loudly declaring ‘how pissed she was’ in decibels that should’ve woken the whole park. Now the tracks around the camping area were steep with shale and gravel and rutted with drains. The sort of stuff that would have you turning an ankle if not careful. By this stage Wendy is turning circles with arms outstretched and shouting “Where’d the road go?” and with that she face-plants the gravel with a thump. Hubby is huffing and puffing and demanding that Wendy get up.  VeeWee is not game to intervene and as she said later, there was no way that she could have lifted Wendy either. Wendy’s hubby staggers off and gets an equally plastered mate and with much tugging and shoving they finally get the old girl back on her feet. With a bloke on each of Wendy’s arms they stagger off up the hill. But of course, there’s nothing else up there but our vans and the last VeeWee hears of them they are crashing about in the gully behind us.

No doubt there would have been several people who would’ve woken up next morning feeling pretty sore and sorry for themselves and wondering why.

Quorn, SA (Map Source: WikiCamps)