Link to the previous page we drive again… 
So a 6-day break with a pitch right by the water in an old fishing village. Today we did a nice cycle tour around the bay, which was quite challenging, all uphill and downhill. Doesn’t sound so bad now, but you can’t go downhill quickly or take a running start up the next hill because you always have to be prepared for cyclists riding next to each other on these narrow, winding paths, especially nice when you’ve just gained momentum.
Vegemite
Alongside the Sydney Opera House, kangaroos and emus, Vegemite is an Australian landmark.
So much so that you can order toast with Vegemite for breakfast everywhere, a spread similar to Tartex, but tastes terrible, contains all the B vitamins and 7% salt (!) and has an ugly dark brown colour. Every supermarket has loads of the stuff in different sizes. If you want to get fully involved in Australia, you can’t avoid it. At some point I picked up the first jar (it doesn’t look very appealing either). It was terrible, or maybe I miss the flabby white bread with it, but that would be going too far. As the saying goes, try everything three times, your taste buds have to get used to new things first and so far it has always worked. But even after the 10th time, I just wanted to get the flavour experience, thousands of Australians can’t be wrong, it didn’t work. Normally when I hear ‚healthy‘ my taste buds start dancing – but not here – so throw it away ? ( Mum said……). So maybe I’m lucky and it’s not healthy at all, then there are certainly exceptions. But sh……IT IS SUPER HEALTHY! Now I put the stuff under something else and see how it works and slowly the addictive effect sets in. So that’s it.
The fact that this stuff of all things is eaten so much must have something to do with the two explorers who died of vitamin B deficiency at the end of their tour. They baked bread from a local fruit that causes the vitamin deficiency. They wanted to imitate the locals, but they watered the dough well so that the poison causing the deficiency was washed out. How did they know that?
The sun is shining beautifully today and the „arctic“ winds have died down. Today we did another loop along the coast on a dirt road. The balancing went quite well, we’re slowly getting the hang of it. On our way back inland. We were really looking forward to the Gawler mountains, but the road was too disastrous and with a heavy heart we had to give it up.
And then came the surprise. After dinner I was just about to spray the RV with EM to soften it up. There was a good opportunity to wash it after months, when I got into a „conversation“ with an Aussi and he offered to show us the second largest rock (Wudinna) after Urulu. He dismissed my objection that it was perhaps too late for that, as the sun was about to set, with „it’s only 12 kilometres“. And then we set off with 4 WD. The interior was covered in a thick layer of red sand dust and I had just put on a pair of freshly washed (and that’s saying something here) long dark blue trousers, the rear right window was out, the front left window was only half closed and the right window was open. I was almost pulled out of the car. Luckily, I had grabbed my only warm jumper at the last moment (which has been eagerly awaiting the washing machine ever since). But not only was Neville, as he was called, speeding like all 4 WDs drivers, constantly looking behind to chat to me, I was getting all woozy. At some point we stopped „we have to walk the rest“, then we went over hill and dale, through dried up water channels, through the bushes. By the time we reached the „stone“, the sun was setting. It was already crazy and the onset of dusk did the rest. This atmosphere. Fortunately, the twilight lasted until we had climbed the stone. By the time we made our way up the mountain, there was only a broad red stripe across the entire horizon. I lost my breath a few times and when I turned round and saw the incline I thought: the way back could be fun. At the top, the panoramic view was overwhelming, the light, the twilight, the red evening sky. I just thought we had to hurry back so we could see something, but Neville explained the whole landscape around us until it was dark and you could tell he loved the country.
And then we had a starry sky – indescribable. The Milky Way stretched brightly lit in an arc along the fimament, incredible. Then came the descent. I was really looking forward to the way back, as I was already feeling a bit anxious about the steep descent. Luckily we had enough torches with us and Neville made a very safe impression (although I wasn’t so sure about driving after I saw him take a good swig from the bottle) and brought us back safely. ) Then it was a long walk along the dry waterway, we crawled under bushes and I was sure he didn’t remember where the car was, but eventually we found it. Despite the late hour and the darkness, Neville didn’t miss the opportunity to give us an interesting lesson about the water supply in the Peninsula Outback, with examples. He thundered along the narrowest, most hidden paths. Once again, I just hoped that we would find our way out again and that the car wouldn’t get stuck. Sometimes it was just over hill and dale. But we found our way out and when he showed us his farm and wanted to have a beer with us, we declined, but that didn’t stop him from having one himself.
This only slightly rusted „beetle“ stood
in his garage – for his sons
Then we sped off in the direction of the RV. When we suddenly drove in a completely different direction, I thought again, but now he doesn’t know where our RV is, but he just wanted to show us an interesting thing that has to do with the water supply. If the water no longer reaches the remote areas, you can fill up a tank there, the money is then transferred on good faith (like many things here).
My curiosity is now fully satisfied, the water is piped here over hundreds of kilometres from Port Lincoln. We were constantly driving past the water pipes that run through the wasteland. The nice thing was that when I said that it must be quite difficult to cultivate so many fields with so little rain, he said that he enjoyed the work and what you do with pleasure is not work, and with the water, well, one year it rains more and one year less, that’s just the way it is.
Yes, it was a shame that we couldn’t talk further the next day – the way there was a no-go for our RV, he would have liked to show us his fields and I would have had a few more questions.
In the meantime, I can understand if farmers use Roundup, it makes their work a lot easier, but do you have to cultivate so many fields? Many people also really believe that glyphosate is no longer in the grain, well, in Germany it was found in every conventional (wheat) bread. So I understand – but I don’t want to eat it, I’m already stuffed full of DDT and already take enough vitamins and minerals, so I couldn’t afford any more poison. Fortunately, there is an organic line in almost every supermarket, which unfortunately has come a long way (e.g. Italy) and actually runs counter to my attitude, but unfortunately there is no other way and if you are used to spelt you don’t like the flabby wheat anyway, besides spelt is a strong grain and needs neither fungicides nor pesticides.
Today we had to refuel at Shell for the 2nd time in 30 years, boycott held up well, I’m quite proud. I’ve just checked, unfortunately not much has changed there, or perhaps the „donations“ to the WWF have become even higher? Have too few people boycotted or not long enough? But it’s so simple.
We got into such a sandstorm today that we couldn’t see the road at all.
Wife: „Oh God, let’s pull over to the side and wait“, was of course an inappropriate comment, as it was impossible to see what was on the side or where the side was at all and then there was the constant feeling of a 4 WD thundering on the back, who knows that and just drives by feel. So, all the windows and flaps are firmly closed and yet all you breathe is sand dust. The headlights are still reflected in the downpour or in a snowstorm, but in a sandstorm – nothing, it’s scary.
Then suddenly there was forest as far as the eye could see. I have no idea where all the greenery suddenly gets its water from, the trees here are all shallow-rooted.
Then it went from Iron Knob to almost Port Augusta km-far at millitary restricted area.
Now we are already reaching the foothills of the Flinders Rangers.
Flinders Ranges
We want to explore the north first and are already very excited. The route was lined with kilometre-long mountain ranges, sometimes closer, sometimes further away. We didn’t miss the opportunity to climb a mountain, following our motto: let’s see and then not be able to turn back, we once again did a proper hike and mountain climb. Gerhard, fully concentrated on taking photos, realised too late that he was standing in a road of ants and was busy removing the giant ants from his shoes and socks.
The mountain ranges were of an incredibly diverse geological nature, which makes them so interesting and unique and once again you can only marvel at them and I am reminded, as I have often been here, of the phrase: be realistic, believe in miracles. When you are so close to nature, you realise again what miracles take 
place every day anyway, just thinking about it.
When you think about how big trees grow from a tiny seed, when you take a close look at a flower, the variety of colours and shapes in such a tiny seed, when you see how nature knows how to help itself if you let it.
We spent the night next to a group of ancient trees. The trees had a huge circumference and almost every 2nd tree was completely hollowed out, only the bark was left standing and these trees were still alive, had large crowns and were lush green 
trees were still alive, had large crowns and were lush green. We stood in front of them and marvelled.
And it was cold again, so cold that we used too much electricity and the next morning our RV wouldn’t start in the wasteland. After a lot of swearing, Gerhard set off to ask for help, luckily there were a few people staying the night who went above and beyond to help each other.
But on into the national park. The first thing we are greeted by is emus. I love them too, because they show themselves at any time of day and not just at dusk or dawn like the possums in Adelaide, which were only seen at night, gambolling around our RV or balancing on the fence to climb the next tree. All the documents say that you should keep an eye out for kangaroos after dark. Once again, there were many kangaroos at the side of the road, even though there are no road trains travelling there. And then we experienced at first hand how quickly this can happen, why don’t the writers know that kangaroos are already out and about in the afternoon?
The first kangaroo that hopped across our path just before our RV came out of the bushes so suddenly that we got a huge fright. The only reason nothing happened was that we were travelling very slowly as the stony path was downhill. And it was only the afternoon. The second one was grazing at the side of the road, we drove slowly to watch it and when we were almost at the same height it suddenly jumped and ran across the road in front of us. From then on, we drove very slowly and by the time we reached the third one, we were well prepared. And that’s what I love about the emus, it doesn’t happen there, the kangaroos are cute, the emus are clever. We haven’t seen an emu run over yet.
The further we got, the more kangaroos – whole herds – we couldn’t stop marvelling, there were probably around 100 of them in total. It was enough to make us groan: PLEASE NO MORE KANGAROOS, PLEASE SOMETHING DIFFERENT!
After a long search, we found the dumping point (for emptying the on-board toilet) and the water connection. Due to water shortage, this is probably no longer signposted.
In the next village we wanted a drink in the old pub: closed on Mondays! A group of 8 cyclists were quite shocked that they couldn’t get any water. The village, like many, had hardly any inhabitants left. But as we had just filled our water tank, it was of course a pleasure to be helpful and we filled the group’s water bottles. How on earth are they going to get through the Flinders Rangers with a bottle of water in the heat that is now prevailing again….
And now towards Adelaide. We had to get to our IVECO service centre, which was already waiting for us impatiently, as it still had to do some work on our campervan. Nearby we discovered an RV park, practical but noisy as it was right on the motorway, but it was so beautiful that we stayed there for 4 days.
We now have a few weeks until Gerhard travels from Adelaide to Berlin for his mother’s funeral on 4 June. It has taken so long to get the appointments.
We will use the time to drive to the south coast to Melbourne and back along the Murray River before it gets even colder. It takes some getting used to when autumn recipes are constantly being published in the magazines at Easter time. Woman: Now they’re already publishing autumn recipes at Easter time! Man just looked, he got used to it faster.
But of course we also had a suitably festive and delicious Easter!
And then we discovered a constructive contribution to the upcoming Australian elections :