Marree

June 8 in Australia 🌙 14 °C

Big breakie. We started with a cup of sago topped with Quandong, yogurt, fruit and nuts. Honestly, didn't love it. It was followed by bacon, eggs, bread, tomato, and a sprig of something. I was still mostly full from dinner last night, and really the first item would have been sufficient. Could only finish half of the second course and even then I was bursting.

Spent some time admiring the artwork. Very decent hotel considering it is in the middle of nowhere.

Back into Flinders Ranges, quite bumpy, lots of campers along the gorge due to the long weekend. An emu crossed the road in front of us, zoom in pic 4.

We arrived at Wadna, an Aboriginal cultural centre run by Christian and his wife Gabrial. Spent some time sitting around the campfire listening to aboriginal stories about the creation of the Flinders Ranges.

After that we went to the Ediacara Foundation at Nilpena. Picked up a ranger that gave us a talk on the area as we drove around. The fossil sites are an ancient sea floor from the Ediacaran and Cambrian eras. Way back when, the ocean bottom basically had a mat of algae lying on top of it and various organisms evolved to eat this mat. They were simple, had limited means of locomotion, and had not yet evolved to prey on each other - they just co-existed with each other and at the algae mat in different ways. When the Cambrian period happened, the organisms had then evolved to eat each other, evidenced by the such biological features as eyes, hard shells and weapons (claws, teeth, etc).

The fossil record in the area shows both eras. They have a large piece of it on display, with a presentation given by projecting images onto the rock (this is the illuminated table in the photos).

We then headed out to Farina, but first saw some Brumbies along the way. They were very fat due to all the greenery caused by the recent rains.

At Farina we stopped for coffee and snacks. Farina is another town that was once prosperous but then died out when the train schedule was changed. The shop is run by volunteers, and there were a huge amount campers in this area. There is an honour based fee camping. There is a few old ruins about, as well as an underground bakery that is still used by the shop - it said not to take photos in there but I did (didn’t share any because they were not interesting).

Joe, a local, took us on the tour around the place and shared local history. He also showed us the many frogs that like to live in the toilet (it is often the only place they can reach that has water all year round).

We then traveled to Marree. First went to the airport to weigh in, as passenger weight needs to be spread around on these small aircraft. Then off the accommodation for the night, which were large boxes built in a grid. They were almost like regular hotel rooms inside and quite roomy. Some had murals painted on them.Read more