I am still reeling from our road trip at the weekend for at last I feel I have seen the real Australia. Not the esplanades, malls and city sights, but the vast areas of mallee or scrub land, with eucalyptus trees looking as though they have been there since the Beginning. When I tried to gather my thoughts the first evening, lying in a cabin up in a national park in the Flinders Ranges, I could only think of the stars. We drank some red wine and sat and looked and it was as though the sky would not hold them up, there were so many millions. In the morning I looked out of the window and there were two wallabies sitting under a gum tree, and behind them was the sharp outline of the rocky Flinders with the sun just rising.

We decided to drive through the Brachna Gorge and Bunyeroo Gorge, otherwise known as the corridors of time, because of how the rock formations change, from limestone to sandstone to all the other stuff, dating from 650 million years ago. It was all dry, creeks cracked and red, and we saw kangaroos, emus and the wedge tailed eagle.

It was all very wonderful, till we met a creek at the bottom of the gorge, in full flow…Oh my goodness, we thought we would have to go back, not being in a 4 wheel drive, but John managed to manoeuvre around and we got through. Thank God it’s a hire car!

I believe meetings are never just chance.

There is a purpose to everything. So when we drove into the sleepy little hamlet of Port Germein, and dutifully walked part of the way out on to the longest jetty in Australia (1 ½ miles) and admired the deserted tractor and glorious expanse of beach,

we decided to look at the town’s only shop…The Junk Shop.

We met Karen.

What can I say…she got under my skin. She was outrageous. Clad in a patchwork skirt, with crazy patchwork sweater, she showed us her quilt made up of ties, and her other quilts hung on the walls, mementoes of cold winters in the Barossa and Germein where there is nothing else to do. She and her husband are true hippies; warm, funny, true free spirits, and so talented. I noticed on the baby grande piano that she used as her shop counter, was the Bible opened at Corinthians.

We climbed up to the Yourambulla Caves where there are ancient aborigine paintings.

I was a little afraid as we climbed higher and higher, and eventually had to climb a virtually vertical ladder, that John or I might keel over, with a sprain or a heart attack, for we were so remote, and vulnerable. Images of that horrible film, Wolf Creek came to mind, but we needn’t have worried…all we saw was a lizard and curious kangaroos and now I just have aching legs from the unaccustomed use of calf muscles.

It was so sad to see the carnage in the outback, of kangaroos, foxes and emus lying dead. Apparently they tend to gather for meetings in the road at night and that is when they get hit. I was so freaked driving along these straight fast roads that something might boing out of the scrub and jump on our car. We did see some fabulous birds, a ringneck parakeet flew across our windshield just as bold as brass, but the highlight was a flock of galahs rising up into the air in front of us was quite special. They just rose in a pink cloud and settled into a tree, and instantly it was like looking at a child’s painting….the tree appeared to have a pink lollipop top! We did have a picnic…chose a choice sight, in Burnt out Creek!

And John just loved this sign…must be a male thing!

So we are back, and weary from looking and looking. I have two more lady friends to meet this week, so I am lucky, thanks to friends of friends. I have also got back to the Highland Rocks, and the story is moving on…and on…now I have to think how to pull all the ends together. Here in Glenelg the sun is setting, tabouleh and humus are made and Kris Kristofferson is playing and all is well with the world!