Bessie goes off-road and gets dirty

Bessie, the Toyota Kluger SUV, had yet another jaunt away from the tarmac, tackling some thin single-track (for SUVs that is) rolling, rocky hills with some steep ups and downs that made white-knuckles of Jen's hand gripping the HS bar. We'd joined a 4WD tour as a "tag-along" and were handed an UHF radio to keep abreast of the various plant and animal life and geological formations from our long white-bearded tour guide. There were some reservations about Bessie as she was only an AWD - one of the other tour guides would normally not allow such vehicles on his trips - but she stood up to the test with flying colours without barely a slip up. The rewards were immense as we were driven onto private areas of the Arkaba Station, with incredible vistas and cliff-hugging driving tracks aptly named Stairway to Heaven (coming down the otherside ? Highway to Hell?) Weather was a bit inclement with morning thunder showers and a heavy deluge as we trekked back to camp after the morning festivities. What originally appeared to be an area devoid of moisture had suddenly become a bit of a mud pit (especially around our caravan). Fortunately, the afternoon brightened up and we had our chance to hike into the Pound. It was listed as 7.8 kms round trip to the top of one of the lookouts inside the Pound so we were a little tentative as the kids generally put up a bit of a fuss when we say we're going for a walk. ("Is it going to take 500 hrs?!" ....Aidan) There was ne'er a comment though and we made great time up and back, finding lizards, wild goats and a number of roos along the way. Even Piper made most of the trip on foot - as we were coming down from the highest lookout some out-of-shapers coming up the otherway were amazed at the spring in her step and I explained she was a bit of a mountain goat - which she of course took to heart and announced to other trekkers coming up the same path. Back at camp we got ourselves organized for the next part of our journey which will take us up to Woomera, Coober Pedy, Uluru, King's Canyon and finally Alice Springs where I've got work for 2 weeks. Now we'll really get an appreciation of arid, dry and barren!