Up early to pack and leave Adelaide with the Wayward Bus company on an eight day camping trip to Alice Springs via Clare Valley, Flinders Ranges, Coober Pedy, Ayer's Rock and Kings Canyon.

I was having a rough morning which probably wasn't a good start when there's a whole group of people to make introductions with so kept myself quiet and out the way till my head cleared. Today's end point was destined to be Wilmena Pound.

First stop was the Sevenhills winery for a brief tour, it's claim to fame is that it was the first winery in the Clare Valley, set up by a group of Jesuit priests. St Aloysius church stands on the grounds with it's spire missing. Something never built due to a lack of funds and materials.

Lunch was a pie in Wirribara. Allegedly the best pies in the land. Had a steak and bacon which did turn out to be somewhat good. Onwards and a stop at the Cheese Tree, a tree with holes in for the making of cheese. Further stops in Quorn and a couple of lookout points once into the Flinders Range before arriving for the night at Wilmena Pound.

The Pound is a large basin within the Flinders Range with plenty of plantlife, kangaroos, emus, galahs, budgies and crows. Dinner (boritos) was the first of many meals we all cooked, ate and cleaned up for ourselves and after setting up tents (for most people) a couple of beers were consumed in the campsite bar, the English and Irish amongst us drifting into a long convo about children's tv from our youths and bit by bit everyone else headed off to bed.

I'd elected to sleep out of a tent for the night and so spent the early part of the night lying in a sleeping bag staring up at the stars. The moon was virtually non-existant, external light just not there and so the view of the sky was black and any and all stars visible in the night sky were showing. Times like that I wish I'd taken more of an interest in astronomy.

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