We’ve come back down to earth after leaving the relatively pristine environs of Wilpena Pound. As soon as we hit the long, dry, flat plains of what I hear some people call, the real Australia, it seems like another country. As you go further north it becomes dryer, the towns become smaller and the deserts loom large. There are mountains but there is little or no accommodation, so we would have to travel too far by car to start our hike.

And they have a new hike here that opens tomorrow. It starts in Leigh Creek and ends at Aroona dam. We had permission to start out on it today and it took us a while to get used to the parched stony ground, the small eucalypts, the salt type bushes, the flys and the heat (would you believe?) And we got lost.

Not that we got lost, lost, but had missed the sign. Normally we would have gone back to find the sign but Corrie was thinking otherwise, so we walked on until a fence appeared. There was a hill to our right, in fact a line of them which were with us on our wrong hike. So we climbed the hill and I walked the hill line home, up and down for five hills. One had no trees. Another one had a few, with fifty wild goats sitting under the few. The next had two kangaroos and still a few trees, while the rest were bare, but what they all had, were small, sharp red rocks.

 

I came off the last hill to meet Corrie on the wrong road, drank water and shamefully found the guide pole a little obscured by a fence post, so followed it but could not find the next one. I sincerely wish them well on their opening tomorrow and will definitely be there if they start before 7.

We are still uncertain where we will be tomorrow as we try to sort out options with our intermittent wifi and no phone connection. So we call in to the pub whenever we get a chance, not for a drink, but to see if they are connected, and, we will call in to the service station, not to give the car a drink, but to get a sim card. 

Leigh Creek is an unusual town. At times, it seems, it’s mostly tourists who bring life to what the publican calls: a forgotten town, thus troubles with nbn for example. Trees are dying along the street because they used to be watered by those who have long gone, according to the guy who was cutting them down. Shops, and residences behind tall sheets of asbestos are closing down rapidly, and at the same time they are opening their first ever hiking trail tomorrow. There must be someone who believes in Leigh Creek, we just hope it’s not too late.

And one more thing, a road from Leigh Creek has this sign, thought you might like it.