Hi All! I'm writing this at the Wilpena Pound Resort Bar, unfortunately the connection is not allowing me to upload photos so sorry about the absence of pics! We have had a rather eventful few days which has resulted in a spending an unscheduled extended stay here at Wilpena. The highlight has been that our dear friends Rose, Evie, Lili, Orlo and Saxon have also decided to stay on with us - we have had enormous amounts of fun exploring the Flinders Ranges with them. Our adventures started last friday as we departed Broken hill for Wirrealpa Station at the north west corner of the Flinders (about half an hour W of Blinman for those who are familiar). We made the decision to take 230km of dirt back roads from Yunta to get there, saving ourselves what we thought would be lots of time! Unfortunately there began our downfall. We ended up blowing a tyre about a million miles from nowhere and driving 60km on average dirt road at dusk with average spare tyre on car, no more spares to cover distinct possibility of another flat and kangaroos everywhere! Fortunatley we arrived at the station safely and spent a fabulous couple of days exploring. However our tyre woes continued. There are no spare tyres for our car in the whole state and our decision to get a spare wheel also meant that we had to extend our stay in SA whilst we waited for tyres and wheel. After much deliberation we decided to travel in convoy south to Wlipena Pound, Rose was ready to take us all should we get another flat on the dirt roads. Our arrival was safe and Rose and kids checked into the Wilpena Resort whilst we set up our trailer in a powered site (the $15 heater we purchased the day before we left has been gold!). We've done three fantastic walks culminating in a walk to the top of Mount Oulsen Bagge today which in on the edge of the pound. This was rated a very difficult walk - we ascended over 400m in only 2.3km and it is not recommended for young children. However we were not deterred - the thought of visiting Wilpena Pound without seeing it was too much! The kids were amazing, great little walkers and not a single complaint or whinge (probably too buggered!). If they are feeling anything like I am tonight, then I reckon there will be some sore bods tomorrow. Anyway I was hoping to post a photo from the top, will have to try next time.
A few of you have asked about sleeping in the trailer. We have all settled in surprisingly well. We're wearing thermals and pjs to bed and kids are really comfy on their thermarests. The last two mornings we have all slept in til nearly 9am - true Fuller/Montague style (have been having late nights with Harrison kids watching DVDs in resort room whilst parents drinking at bar!).
Tomorrow we are picking up our spare tyre and an open roof rack to store it on. Then we head north to Leigh Creek before starting up the Oodnadatta track.
Must go, am almost out of time. Sorry about spelling mistakes, no time to edit! Em x

We finally left on our adventure at 9.20am Monday! Our first stop was the Blue Mountains where we saw the three sisters and a really steep cable car which freaked me out a bit. We had the yummiest bacon and roll for lunch. Charlie said it tasted so good he dreamt about it! Our next stop was Orange where we got a tour of our friend Ross's farm in the back of his ute - it was freezing cold! We went to the top of a hill which was 3000ft high, the next day it snowed on that hill! We didn't arrive in Dubbo until late and it was pouring with rain so out first night was spent in a motel. Day 2 was a boring 10 hour drive to Broken Hill, not much to see on the way. Again, we arrived late so this time we spent the night in a cabin - so much for our campertrailer trip! The next morning we drove to Silverton and found a cool campsite at Penrose Park. It has lots of different animals, talking birds, goats, parrots and peacoks. It also had heaps of cool swings. Charlie and I both got about a thousand bindis in our bike tyres so Dad had to buy new tyres. At 5.00pm we went for a beer (pink lemonade for us) at the Silverton pub. then we drove up to watch the sunset at Mad Max's lookout. The next day Dad tookk us down an old Silver mine. We got to wear hard hats with head torches on them and go down deep underground. There was a 7 foot Danish man and the ceiling was really low, even harry had to duck sometimes. We went doen 100ft and I was scared the roof was going to collapse on us. The man told us that boys as young as 8 went to work in the mine for 12 hours a day. By the time they were 13, most had bad lung disease and died! That night we made a campfire and toasted marshmallows, they were very yummy! Today we are driving to the Flinders to camp with some of our friends from Adelaide. Bye!

Day 1

We left at 9:20 and our first stop was the Blue Mountains. WE saw the three sisters and a cable car you could go down

The Weekend Before

Two days to go and an awful lot to do! No pics yet, but we are getting very excited:) The weather map is showing a super cold snap to move through NSW mid next week with lots of rain, could be a wet and chilly start! Stay tuned for Tess's updates as we continue our adventure.