Day 27 of our Big Trip of the Simpson and now the Flinders Ranges

We woke up early and took some more photographs at sunrise of the ruins at Maliprinka.

Last night we went up to the pub and for a town of 15 people it was rocking. There were a couple of guys standing by themselves so I went up and talked to them. Soon up popped the question of where are you from. Smithfield he said, Ah Sydney so we are just up the hill from you. No Smithfield he said again. Smithfield if you didn't know is a little settlement south west of Maliprinka about 100k’s away. “Nothing happening there so we came into town”. Turns out he has a job grading the road that runs along the Dog proof fence. He maintains 160 kilometres of it. They grade it continually to stop the sand burying it.

Beers at the pub were nice and cold and only $5.00 for a stubby. $5.25 for Coopers… we were definitely not going to be ripped off here. Their showers were just what we ordered. This morning we were up early to do more photographs and then a bit more exploring. Louise made her mandatory cemetery stop and then we went off to find Poole’s grave. Poole was the 2IC of Sturt’s ill fated expedition of 1840’s. Poole died of scurvy near here in 1845. When they buried him they blazed a tree with his initials and year of death. The tree they picked is one of the slowest growing trees in Australia as well as being one of the hardiest. It is a member of the grevillia family, or so we have been told.

We then went looking for Sturt’s Cairn. Sturt had decided to get his men to build a stone cairn on the highest hill was about 9 k’s away to get the men’s mind off what a wretched position they were in.
We pulled up the truck at the parking area on rock and had about a kilometer walk and a 100 metre climb to the spot. The photos show the Cairn and the country that it sits in. You appear to be in the middle of no where , and it indeed it looks desolate. The white country you can see is a white rock farm, all they do is grow white rocks with some sparce vegetation in between. Small pickings for the shepp to graze on.

After more photos we set off to Tibooburra where we will stay one or two nights and explore the Sturt National Park. This area is the driest and hottest in NSW, or it is claimed to be.

As I type this in the Tibooburra Camp Ground it is 23 degrees and quite lovely, and the beer cold.