The cockatoos were out and about while we were fueling up in Hawker this morning and Nina managed to capture a flock of them in flight. There after, as you can see from the rest of the photos, we spent the day sightseeing by following a series of rough unpaved scenic roads or tracks through gorges or steep sided creek valleys. Morolana Road, Brachina Gorge and Bunyeroo Gorge. We found these gorges quite fascinating. In this incedibly dry country where most of the vegetation is low scrub, the creeks are an avenue of very large River Gum trees.These trees survive in this place by driving their roots down hundreds of feet to find the creeks water that is often still flowing underground.

We spent the night at a wilderness campsite in the Flinders Rangers National Park, great scenry, nice weather and pit toilets as the only facility.

This was our first experience with National Park wilderness campsites on this trip and the experience maybe highlights that on some things the world is taking the reliance on technology too far. You see all campsites in Australian National Parks must be booked and paid for online, there is no self registration available at NP campsites. Well there we were in the Flinders Rangers, no cell reception (for the last 100 miles), no towns nearby, and we would like to stay at a campsite that is 20 miles down a road designated 4wd (4x4) only.

I can see how this system works during school holidays when city families may take a short, carefully planned, holiday in the outback; but how does it work for less organized travelers outside busy periods? Well some people find a way to book even when internet is difficult, others simply don't pay, and some rangers (we have discovered) allow an informal pay later system.