Homeward bound......

We were up early the next morning and soon after breakfast started the job of packing down the camper for travelling.  We said goodbye to our upstairs neighbor and drove out for the last time heading back to Hawker where we had a look at the Wilpena Pound Cyclorama.    Superbly portrayed by local Hawker artist, Jeff Morgan, with special background music by Bruce Emsley, the "endless" painting can be viewed from the ground floor or from the staircase landing.   A 360 degree view of some of the most beautiful country in South Australia as seen from the highest point of Wilpena Pound, St Mary's Peak and the Flinders Ranges it really is well worth the visit.

Leaving Hawker we made our way to Quorn where we had a walk through the very wide Main Street before stopping for a coffee and a slice of Quandong Pie, our last for this trip.  

One verandah in the Main Street lists all the movies which have been filmed here, Bitter Springs, Walkabout, Robbery Under Arms, The Sundowners, Gallipoli, Sunday Too Far Away and The Shiralee.  

Walking around to see the grand old station, once a major stop for The Ghan, it makes you wonder how the town fares now the train has been rerouted and no longer stops here.  Opposite the station are about 5 hotels and guest houses all built, I imagine, to service the train and now look very quiet though I'm sure some still cater to the tourist trade.

We left then heading south and driving through more tiny towns all of which had some quirky point of difference.  Our drive that day took us through mainly sheep and wheat country where most of the properties were in harvest mode and hay bales dotted the landscape for miles.  Some of the paddocks had been cut in very interesting patterns so we stopped and played with these for a while.

We stopped to eat our lunch later in the afternoon in Jamestown, the home of the iconic R.M. Williams, and found a picnic table beside the River where we lunched in the company of a number of ducks and their little ducklings.  They were very cute and kept us entertained until it was time to hit the road again but they didn't like having their picture taken here.

Our drive from here took us through two large wind farms one of which had herds of sheep stretched out in a long line in front of them.  A very different sight.  

We followed the road to the very tiny town of Mt Bryan where we stopped to check out the 44m wind blade.  They sure do look very much bigger from this close up.

It was a big day on the road but finally we arrived at Morgan and crossed the Murray on the ferry and drove onto Blanchetown where we stayed for the night in a caravan park on the River near Loch no 1.   

We had an early night in this quiet little park and were up early again the next morning for another long day traveling and sightseeing.

More about that next time..........