July 30th: Awoke to sunshine amongst the mud puddles! Breakfasted at the Quandong  cafe, and then hit the road armed with some quandong goodies. We went via Hawker and Lyndhurst and then Parachilna, stopping in for some Bush tomato chilli jam at the Parachilna Hotel. The trees dwindled in number till we were left with a salt bush covered type plain. In front of us across the road ran an emu and not long afterwards an echidna. We then saw a pair of wedge-tailed eagles by the side of the road. We arrived by a dirt road diversion to Marree, where the pub had no room for us to park our van behind it! We were directed to the overflow car park at the caravan park- a muddy gravelly paddock very recently set up to take caravans, presumably because of the demand due to water in lake Eyre. We were told that there would be no other vans there, but actually it was full of vans! The caravan park itself was a bit weird with a few scattered single toilets mainly occupied and locked! We nearly got bogged going through the mud to get to our site, but of course survived!

We set up and went to the pub for a counter tea.

Our flight goes at 9.30am tomorrow morning.