The small but keen crew for the extended Easter 2000 trip to the Flinders Rangers consisted of trip leaders Ron and Glenys, Kate and Wade P in the well-loaded Challenger, Big John and myself in the Rodeo (Pie Van). In the end we decided to join up because it made the best economical sense for a trip like this. We all met at McDonald's Goodna for the easy highway run to Gilgandra for our first overnight stay.

Early chatter on the CB consisted of the things we had forgotten. I had not given Big John's parents Ron's detailed itinerary of the trip. Big John had forgotten some empty tupperware containers and Ron his digital temperature gauge. The good news was that Glenys had spare containers and I had a temperature gauge.

After a very cold night - about 5° on the grass plus very heavy dew - we set off for another easy highway run to Broken Hill. Unusually for this time of the year, western NSW and Northeastern SA were having a locust plague. Our cars were covered in splattered insects, in places it was like driving in heavy rain. We were now out of the farming country and into the vast outback where the roads are straight and lonely. The night in Broken Hill was milder, only about 8°. Once we crossed the SA border just outside Broken Hill we changed time zones, lost 1/2  hour and after the small town of Yunta we hit the dirt travelling towards the Flinders, which we could see raising up ahead of us.

Our first Flinders overnight stay was at Rownesly Park, an operating sheep station that has cashed in on the 4WD tourism boom. Being the middle of Easter it was very busy so our campsite was well away from all the showers. It was all shaley ground that was hard on the tent pegs but overall it was not a bad spot. The nights were windy and cold but days were mild and sunny. We spent Easter Monday touring. Our first stop was a short walk to some Aboriginal rock paintings, then the Wilpena Pound info centre. No, we did not do the six hour return walk into the pound. One of the highlights was Stubbs Lookout with 3600 views of the surrounding mountains. The dirt roads were good, mostly nice and smooth and undulating along the ridges.

From Rownesly Park on Tuesday we set off for Chambers Gorge for our first bush camp. Our campsite was nice, right on a dry creek bed bank. Only problem, we did not take a lot of notice of the silver leafed burr we set the tents up on. The small needle sharp thorns went straight through the tent floors. Soon after lunch, we set off for our first serious 4WD trip via the dry creek bed up through the Gorge. I managed to bog the Pie Van in 2WD on soft sand. Once we were in 4WD we were away again. We all thought it reminded us of the Rats Castle drive in Sundown NP, only it was longer. After a milder night but still windy we travelled further north via Lake Frome, a dry salt pan, to Arkaroola Resort. It is a defunct sheep station, now operating as an award winning outback resort with camping and motel accommodation. It was bought in the late 1960s by a geologist named Sprigg. He and his family turned it into a wilderness sanctuary and resort. Our first night at Arkaroola, we did their space observatory tour with a computer driven telescope. On the night we were lucky enough to attend a talk given by a noted Melbourne geologist who was visiting the area with students. He spoke in detail about how the ranges were formed and the types of rocks found around the area. The best part of the night was when the big powerful searchlight pointed out a lot of the star formations. With little background light it was a lot easier to spot the formations, like the shape of an emu in the black holes in the Milky Way.

Next day we toured the area via the easy back tracks, stopping off at some spectacular lookouts and even and old bat cave that was once mined.

Peter G in his '91 L wagon, with the new smart John P rear bar fitted, arrived on Thursday night. He had left a few days later and did a marathon driving effort to catch up. We spent our last day at Arkaroola touring more back tracks, which required some low range work in places. The climbs were steep and rocky just like the rock form at Glenrow Station. We visited waterholes shaded by giant gum trees, more spectacular lookouts, even a radioactive spring, Australia's only remaining volcanic activity and an ochre wall. During the early mineral exploration days they found out the hard way that the best place for the tracks were on top of the ridges, not down along the creek banks. Hence the famous ridgetop tour that Arkaroola do in their own Landcruiser trayback utes, with paying passengers sitting in the back. Because of the rocky terrain their tyres wear out in 11,000 kms.

After a warm night, the warmest of the trip so far, we set off for the return trip home. A back track that was a short cut that Ron planned to use was closed, so we stayed on the main tracks to Camerons Corner which is the boundary post between SA, NSW and QLD. It has an airstrip and pub and that's about it. The drive from the Strzelecki track to Cameron Corner and then onto our overnight stop at Tibooburra was fun. A good smooth road over the dunes carefully avoiding the odd water hole between the dunes. The Tibooburra road was undulating with tricky bends over the crests. At Tibooburra Big John, Peter and myself succumbed to camping and we decided to rent an on-site van. Our final night was spent in Cunnamulla after leaving the gravel roads back to Queensland at Moccundra. Being the last night we all decided to rent on-site vans.

The final day, Monday, was an easy highway return run home. Overall it was a great trip to an interesting area with good company. Thanks to Ron for all the organising.

Facts, Figures and Moments

All three cars travelled around 4500kms. The  Challenger averaged 15 L per 100 km, Peter's L series averaged 10 L per 100 km and the Pie Van used 559 L at 12.18 L per 100 km. The dearest diesel was at Arkaroola at 97.9 cents, the cheapest at Brisbane 76.9. Petrol prices were similar.

The Pie Van developed an oil leak that we thought was a front crankshaft seal. It became worse as the trip progressed and all up it used 5 litres of oil. The leak was later traced to a loose oil filter housing. Also we had to do some running repairs to the Pie Van's fridge carrier. It fell to bits from the rough roads. While Big John was driving he broke off the radio arial on a low hanging branch. I had to suffer his tape collection for the rest of the trip .