DAY 3 – Beulah – Paruna

 Good Morning Beulah

We woke to a chilly morning with a bit of a breeze but so peaceful and a spectacular red sky.

Since we hadn’t bathed Miss Kitty before we left, we decided to take advantage of the power & water supplies and give her a quick bath & trim before we left. I say quick but it’s usually over an hour’s work, although today well worthwhile.

It didn’t take long to pack everything down and we were on the road by 11.00am. A dull and dreary day with drizzle most of the way and really flat light making photographs a bit of a waste of time. Our travels today took us north through Hopetoun, Walpeup, west across the South Australian border, and after a very cursory inspection at the quarantine station to check that we had no fruit & veggies on board, on to Pinaroo and up to Paruna where I had seen posts of a little caravan park (and I mean little with only 6 sites) that was just $10 per night including power and availability of water. There was a little bit of concern close to the planned stop that phone reception might be left wanting, and with a big NRL match tonight that could have posed a slight problem. However 3 minutes out of town full reception kicked in, we pulled into our spot around 2.30pm, even managed to get enough sun to dry towels and for Kitty to spend a bit of time outdoors in her pen, and so it was happy campers all round.

The rain on the way up did wash a little bit of the mud we copped through roadworks out of Horsham yesterday but not enough to clean anything. Another job earmarked for a day when we have a decent surface to wash the van on. So far all of our sites have been dirt and would have made too much mess to consider it.

Paruna is a tiny little township that, according to the 2016 Census, has a population of 53. I think that all of them and their cousins attended the football match that was going on just up the road when we arrived. That said the township runs down one side of the main road into town with bushland on the opposite side. There is a general store, a tavern, the football ground, a deserted looking bowling club, and not a whole bunch else apart from a few old houses, barking dogs and (so I’m led to believe) a rooster who has a penchant for announcing the daybreak. I can live with that – I’m hoping to catch quite a few sunrises on this trip so an early morning prompt will work out just fine for both of us.

For a while we thought we might have this campground to ourselves as well but just before dark two other couples pulled in for the night as well. Fingers crossed for a good night’s sleep and an early start tomorrow. Our aim is to get as far north as quickly as we can to make the most of the warmth so hoping to get to Port Pirie tomorrow and then on to Woomera where weather permitting we’ll spend a couple of nights and have time to look around and a bit of down time.

And with that – it’s time to break out the nibbles. Go Storm!