Cold Pizza in the Morning


We started last weekend with Ellyn picking up the rental car after work. All day in the office, people were telling her all about the Flinders Ranges and how rain could wash away roads up there and they hoped we didn’t get stranded. When they asked what kindof car they rented and Ellyn responded a Hyundai Getz (small, economy car that appears to be “the car of South Australia” as they are everywhere), laughter erupted. Fabulous.

She went to the rental car place and filled out all the paperwork and got the keys. As she went to the parking lot, she realized they’d reserved the cheapest car they could, which included a manual transmission. (This was done the week before they ended up getting an automatic so surely that would happen this week too…). As she clicked the key fob, a two door, hatchback canary yellow Getz lit up. Wow – as if we weren’t going to stand out enough in the outback, throw in a bright yellow car. And, it was manual. So the first time she would be driving on the wrong side of the road in two years was going to be in 5 o’clock Friday afternoon traffic with a stick shift? No thanks. The guy came over and asked if there was something wrong (apparently she had a worried look on her face?!) She quickly went back inside and explained the situation and by some stroke of luck, the salesperson gave her an automatic. This time it was red and four doors. Oh yeah.

So, they packed the car and hit the road. It was a relatively uneventful trip except for the fact that Ellyn was holding her breath while John was driving as he sped through isolated outback roads with kangaroos just waiting to jump out and get us. Luckily, we made it to our destination just before 11, unscathed. We followed the sign to “Reception”. Let us just say, it didn’t look very receptive. The blinds were pulled, all lights were out and there wasn’t a sign of anyone having been awake for hours. Ellyn used the phone and followed the directions for late check in. She dialed the number at least 3 times and it just rang and rang. John did the same thing. Ellyn was deciding how she was going to lay the seats down so they could sleep in the car that night when John thought they should keep going the way he originally wanted to (away from the reception sign). We approach another building that appears to be somewhat of a reception, but again, not very receptive looking. At least when John uses this phone, we get an answer. “Do you know what time it is? Its quarter past 11.” “Yes, sir…I’m…sorry?” Needless to say, our cabin was unlocked and the keys were in it. We get to the cabin, get settled in and sit out on our little bench overlooking the property before going to bed.

The next morning, we get up early and go speak to the man that we woke up oh so late (11:15pm). He was a bit more welcoming this time and gave us a map with a driving route that would show us a great portion of the Flinders Ranges. We did the tour, stopping at a few lookouts that were truly spectacular. (Here is one of our favorites: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVcWkALiXig )We marvelled at the vastness of “nothing”. We saw “heaps” of kangaroos and emus roaming wild and free.



For lunch, we stopped at a true outback town. Tony, the man at the place where we were staying, described it as what used to be a true outback town, until they “sealed” (paved) the road to it. Well, if this isn’t an outback town, I don’t want to go to a true outback town. We think we counted about 15 buildings, and that included the houses we could see from the main/only street. The town name was Blinman and the Lonely Planet states the population is 20. Yes, TWO ZERO. We see the North Blinman Hotel but Ellyn is convinced this isn’t where we are suppose to go for a great steak sandwich; per Tony, we are supposed to go to the Blinman Hotel. But really, can a town of 20 people support a North Blinman and a Blinman Hotel? We think not. We head in and place our order. There are 2 other patrons at the bar and none in the restaurant. We see two workers. John asks the girl taking our order if the Lonely Planet is correct in its population count. She says yes, the last person born here was about 30 years ago. Ladies and gentlemen, we have entered the outback. (See video of Blinman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFkKqmIwFuw )

Upon leaving Blinman, we drive on numerous dirt/rocky roads. The driving tour we were doing basically took us driving north along the Flinders Ranges, then we drove across the ranges, and then south beside them before crossing back over. On the side where we were driving south, we were surrounded by nothingness. (See “nothingness”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsiUbdYpEps ) We drove through some gorges which was interesting to be so low and driving through the mountains. Ellyn did start to get nervous and understand why everyone kept asking what kindof car they were driving when she saw some of the roads they were to go across. She was looking for other non 4 wheel drive cars and had not seen any on the dirt roads since they’d started. She got excited when she thought they were meeting one, thinking surely they’d be okay in their Getz, but she then realized it was a Subaru Outback, I mean its named after our current location!! But her nervousness did not heighten until they reached a small pond blocking the road with a car on the other side of it, apparently refusing to cross. We got out to survey the scene and see if the Getz could make it through. Ellyn thought no. John thought yes. Given the alternative was to backtrack over an hour, John decided to go for it. It was decided Ellyn should stay out of the car so not to distract John with her “ah!” and “ooos!” and “watch out!” John made it through with flying colors! As soon as he got through the small pond though, he hit a large rock! Glad this car was a rental! Now John has a new found confidence in the Getz given that it was just driven through the small pond and was still running. Great, like he needed any more confidence after his driving performance the night before.

We continue back to our cabin, making a few stops along the way, mostly for Ellyn to try and get close to the wild kangaroos. (We tried to document getting close to some, see the video. The people we talk about “coming” who we thought were going to yell at us for messing with the wild animals, actually were just trying to get by and our car was in the way! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd_n0O280bI )We saw so many that by this point, John isn’t getting as excited about them anymore. Don’t worry…Ellyn still did.


They get back to their cabin and get some fire wood. As Ellyn fixed glasses of wine, John was supposed to be starting the fire. About an hour later, we finally had a campfire. Apparently, John was using the wrong type wood (who knew you used different firewood in a different country?!). John even went to another fire near by and asked for some tips! (We’re sure he looked like a very serious fire builder as we did not have a flashlight and had to use the flashlight on our cell phones. We really looked like we belonged.) John did say to Ellyn more than once, “I was a camp counsellor for two years; I know how to build a fire!” We were able to enjoy the fire for about an hour before heading to our dinner reservation at the Woolshed. Now, given our current location and the fact that this place was called the Woolshed and housed in a tin building, we didn’t get dressed for the occasion. We were still in our clothes from the days (jeans, tennis shoes, fleeces, hats, etc.). As soon as we get to the door, we realize we were a tad underdressed. How exactly does one manage to be underdressed in the middle of nowhere? At least they still let us in and thank goodness we had a reservation. It was 7:30 and there was one open table in the whole place. (We later discovered they obviously were very busy from about 6:30 to 7:30 and dead after that. There were only 2 servers and by the time we left at 8:45, we were one of the last tables.) One would think that after trying to pet kangaroos all day, eating one wouldn’t be at the top of your list. WRONG. Kangaroo fillet for Ellyn! John ordered a salmon pizza (go ahead and make fun of him of ordering salmon in the Australian outback, Ellyn did). The food was delicious though and as the plates were being cleared, our server asked if John would like his pizza wrapped up. “Yes, please.” To which the waiter responded, with a singing tone, “Cold pizza in the morn-ing!!” (We recorded this on video simply so you can hear how hilarious it was. We repeated this saying multiple times over the past few days.) We head back to the cabin and our smouldering fire, throw a few more logs on and enjoy some wine and dessert by campfire. It was wonderful! We even saw a shooting star! John admitted his wish was to hit a kangaroo…not so hard to hurt it or the car, but hard enough to see what it would feel like. Um…so Ellyn will be driving from now on!

Sunday, we get up and pack up the cabin and head for the mountains! We’d decided to do the “highlight” hike to the top of Wilpena Pound (natural crater in the midst of a mountain range). It was a 6.1 kilometer hike that was rate “difficult”. Ellyn considers herself relatively in shape and enjoys hiking, but 12.2 kilometers return and difficult…this should be interesting. Much of the trail was relatively flat and we saw more wildlife. There was a long stretch, or should we say long incline, that was VERY STEEP and rocky. But, we made it to the top! There were two different look out spots with great views – one of the Pound and one of the Flinders Ranges. We hiked back down and were impressed with the fact that we did the hike much quicker than the standard hike time.
We hiked to the top of the mountain behind John.

We made it to the TOP!

Our steep/rocky climb back down.

We headed to another small town for a very late lunch. Hawker’s population was just a few hundred people and one would think they would be excited to see new faces but the woman at the deli where we stopped literally barely spoke to us. John said multiple times, “How are you today?” and she didn’t even respond. Then she made some smart comment about why foreigners don’t like beetroot, “Aussies love beetroot.” For the record, Ellyn had the beetroot and it was good.

The drive back to Adelaide was a gorgeous one as we drove through some rain and it made the grass (once we reached an area of the state with grass!) very green. There were gorgeous rolling hills and again, vast nothingness.

We are sticking around Adelaide this upcoming weekend. The KPMG Social Club is hosting a Quiz Night Friday night, then we are getting bikes and riding out to the beach on Saturday and Sunday, a group of rotationals from KPMG and their spouses are headed to McLaren Vale (a wine region).