Mother and son journey: in the middle of nowhere!

So last time we were at this story, mum and I were camped the night at Copley, a town of about 30 people in the middle of ….. well nowhere, really!

I’m not a morning person. I can get up and get going, but it takes me a bit to, how shall I say, adjust to the new day. Mum is a classic ‘light switch’ waker. And early, too! So this was to be an education for me. You don’t get to 70 years old (and a widow for 20 of those) without developing a routine. Mum and I had to work out a routine together. I knew I would have to adapt. After all, Mum had her routine first, I arrived somewhat later in life!

The first change for me (other than the mind numbing early wake up call) was my dietary intake timings! I generally wake up, stagger through a coffee and then get going for the day only to slow down in a couple of hours for breakfast. This was completely unacceptable to Mum! “You can’t go anywhere without a good breakfast!” she cracked (’cause to me at that time of day that’s what it sounded like! Something cracking!).

So the routine, whilst initially confronting, became ruthlessly efficient and very well drilled over the next couple of weeks. Just the way Mum likes it:

1. Up and breakfast. For Mum this was cereal and a cuppa, me the other way round.

2. Because I took a little longer for breakfast, Mum would pack her things (couple of minutes only) and put the bags outside the door.

3. Mum would go to the shower while I would pack my things and the whole campertrailer (only possible with the right campertrailer).

4. Mum would return to me having just started the car. Last minute pack of her toiletries and we would drive to the shower block where I would have a very quick shower/rinse, and away we go.

This whole process would take between 20 – 30 minutes depending on our level of motivation. Not bad for go to whoa! Only once did we have the need to really press the process because of weather, but I’ll save that for later in the story.

We moved into Copley to the famous Quandong Bakery for a latte and a Quandong pie (a must if in these parts!). And here it started. Mum and I both enjoy a simple pleasure, so it was great to be able to share it together for 15+ days; a nice cappuccino or latte in a cafe. Not in a takeaway cup on the move, actually sitting down and having it in a cafe. So whilst being very early on in the trip we were definitely heading to the middle of nowhere and didn’t expect to be able to enjoy this simple pleasure. But, so far so good. It now became a daily challenge! How would we go?

Then on up the road we proceeded towards Lyndhurst.

I thought I was on to a good trick, because I have been to Lyndhurst a few times before. It’s the last LPG fill for, well, a long, long distance. Also, because of the heat, the tank is under huge pressure, so it fills your car tank much more than any other LPG pump I’ve ever been to! That is, until they are out of gas! Yes, I snookered myself not filling earlier. I could have filled at Leigh Creek but I didn’t so that meant forking out for unleaded about 460kms earlier than I had planned. Not the end of the world, but a bit of a pain. One might term ‘1st world problem’.

Farina is an abandoned railhead town between Lyndhurst and Maree. It is a fascinating collection of old stone ruins with plenty of interpretive information boards about the how, where and why of settlement in Farina. It is a reminder that civilisations are made of cities and towns and they come and go at the whim of commerce and/or nature! This was morning tea. And hot!

We then wound our way through the maze of roadworks to the junction town of Maree. I say junction, because the Strzelecki, Oodnadatta and Birdsville Tracks all depart from this point. So other than the Lake Eyre Yacht Club (with any sign of water more than 200kms away), what did we see?

Talk soon,
Camp in Comfort, Scottie B

Are there any routines you get into whilst travelling? What is the one thing you simply cannot do without on a road trip?