The Lake via Flinders and Orange

What's a road trip without stopping at a few wineries? First stop Orange to check out Word Of Mouth and Borodell wineries. They were so good we had to buy some wine - unlike us. The whites they making out there are truly first class.

Second stop - Broken Hill. Could have shot a gun off on the streets of Broken Hill on a Friday night and not even hit the horse. Managed to find a very well done 'rare' steak. Hmmmm.

Third night saw us sleeping under the stars in our swags in the Flinders Ranges - what a beautiful place. An unexpected delight.

Fourth night William Creek. This out on the Oodnadatta Track near the western shore of Lake Eyre North. There is a pub and a caravan/camping ground and an airstrip - that's it! Not even a horse. We took a 2 hour flight over the lake which is so vast that it is almost incomprehensible. Sadly most of the birds had left and the next shift hadn't arrived. They must have been waiting for Coopers Creek to reach the lake with the water from Cyclone Yasi - which apparently is still some weeks away. Typical QLD - laissez faire attitude to time and agendas.

However we did see black swans, pelicans, silver gulls (AKA common seagulls), chats, banded stilts, avocets (in the distance), gribs, and orange capped plovers. Also saw plenty of stupid emus on the road - "I'll stay on this side of the road - no wait, here comes a car, think I'll dash across, no wait, I'm going to change my mind" and so on...  managed to avoid collecting any.

We headed back to the Flinders after meeting a local who said "You can drive for 4 hours on a shit road to the other side of the lake and it will look exactly the same as this side", so we took his advice and headed to Arkarola on the eastern side of the Northern Flinders. Absolutely stunning! Very Kimberly in terrain and colour. It has recently been saved from uranium mining within the wildlife sanctuary - thank the gods for greenies and protesters!