Jo and I took the opportunity to return to Merna Mora for 10 days at the end of September, with some friends who do not have a 4WD vehicle. This couple had not been to the area for many years, and their 11 year old daughter had never been at all. As it turned out, some of our plans went out the window when their car broke down at Snowtown, on the way up. Fortunately, we were able to pick them up and squeeze all their gear into the Patrol and caravan.

We arrived at Merna Mora to find it remarkably green, despite one of the biggest dust storms in recent years having gone through the previous day – it later made the news as it swept through Sydney and up to Brisbane. We set up and caught up with the Fels family to hear that they’d experienced all the extremes of weather in the past week. Little did we know that the cycle would repeat itself over the next 10 days!

We took the opportunity to drive some of the tracks that we missed out on over Easter, including the Blackfellows Creek into Nuccaleena, which was spectacular and the Bumbinyunna Ranges area. We ended up doing that drive twice, because the first time was in a dust storm and we couldn’t see any of the spectacular views! It also provided the opportunity to give my friend, Adrian, an introduction to the joys of 4WDing. I think he’s a potential future club member, after this experience.

We also walked through Black’s Gap into Wilpena Pound, seeing plenty of wildlife and flowers, while experiencing the changes in weather that can sometimes occur in this region. We did a separate walk into the Pound itself, exploring the old hut and some of the lookouts.

We also took the time to visit Blinman, Hawker and Parachilna and test the quality of the fare offered by the hotels – all was rated as very good. Leigh Creek is also worth a visit, if only to have a look at the machinery on display.

A trip on the Pichi Richi railway was an eye opener, not least because it gave us the chance to see another side of our Vice President, Dion. He really knows how to drive a train, as well as 4WD’s and submarines! This was on a particularly cold day, so it was nice to spend some time on the train instead of out in the open.

Happy Hour on the airstrip was a regular event for us and we were joined by Don and Phil on a few occasions, but I was very surprised to see Rod Hunt and friends coming past, on their way back from a walk. He was up for the long weekend and entertained us around the fire that night, in his own inimitable style, as many of you will remember from Easter.

We drove the Wowee track, partly to help Don with some re-routing of the track, on our last day on the property. This was two days after they had received 45 mm of rain overnight and experienced minor floods in the campground. We expected it to have dried out by the time we went out there, but found the going rather soft passing the dam on the final stretch. This dam, that was completely dry at Easter, was now overflowing.

Peter Williams