The Manna House: Silverton to Wiplena Pound

Broken Hill has many churches, so we decided to visit the Church of Christ before going to Silverton.We were invited to lunch by a very friendly couple and had a wonderful afternoon with them learning all about the hidden hierarchy of the local culture...A graders, those who were born there...B graders, those who marry A graders, Blow ins, and Aways (from elsewhere) All very interesting. We felt very Blessed by our afternoon of fellowship.
We arrived in Silverton to find the van park closed for repairs and were advised by locals not to just camp anywhere. Not sure why, as this was about as big an open space as you could get this side of the black stump. We had been told to go to the Mundi Mundi lookout not far from Silverton and a few km further, to Umberumberka resevoir, where there was a small shaded picnic area. That sounded like a good place to camp, so off we went and it was indeed ideal. No one around for miles....or so we thought. An hour after arriving, 4 car loads of teenage doof doofers arrived to spoil the serenity. We headed down the hill to a clearing with a great view of the Mundi Mundi Plains and left them to it. The teenagersDeparted 40 minutes later,and we settled in with a glass of wine to watch the sunset. It was a very special experience. So quiet, red earth and scrub as far as the eye could see and then the stars came out. Just stunning. Wanting more, we rose at 5.50am to watch the sun come up.
We spent the morning looking round Silverton, where many movies have been made. Its a bit of a ghost town, with only 40 people now living there and not many buildings left standing. The pub is a real attraction, with the car used in Mad Max, sitting out the front. We overnighted back in Broken Hill and in the morning, left for Peterborough, about 280km with little in between. As we headed out, a dust storm was gathering in the distance. We looked to be driving straight into it, but within half an hour, we had changed direction to the south and it was going east to Broken Hill , so we missed the worst of it . Stopping for lunch, at Mannahill ( a tiny one horse town with a railway station) we realised that we were soon to enter a fruit fly exclusion zone and we had just that morning, stocked up on Fruit and vegetables. So, the choice was toss it all in the bins provided, eat it or cook it, so the obvious one was cooking.We steamed all the vegies and we are still eating them in the big pot of curry. The fruit was stewed and as we drove through the check point, we passed their inspection with no probs. They only had a quick look in the fridge, thankfully, because I found a stray banana later, that must have fallen out of the bowl and into the back of the cupboard. Peterborough was only an over night stop off on our way to the Flinders Ranges, but was an interesting town. The info centre was in an old railway carriage.
We drove on to Hawkers, a beautiful scenic drive and hardly a car on the road and were the only people in the caravan park. It had a magnificent view of the Ranges and with storm clouds gathering, the sunset was beautiful. We saw the biggest rainbow ever, accompanied by at least 50 drops of rain!
We finally arrived in Wilpena on Thursday and it is impressivly stunning. The weather is very mild for this time of the year. Perfect for walks into Wilpena Pound. There were a few other vans in this huge park yesterday but now, we are almost the only ones here. It is so peaceful.The surroundings are beautiful, the vibe very pleasant. A couple of friendly kangaroos joined us yesterday afternoon and I saw several emus and more kangaroos as I walked around the resort. This morning we went into Wilpena Pound . A shuttle bus takes you to the entrance (saves you 4 extra km of walking) then you can choose any number of different walks. We went to the Hills Homestead and Wangara lookout, about the shortest and easiest , only taking about 1 and a half hours. The the shuttle bus picked us up again. The mild weather (about 24C ) made it very pleasant.
We are staying 3 nights here before going to Parachilna via Blinman., driving through the middle of the ranges. Next week is forecast to be much hotter, so we will head south after Parachilna.