The Farm in Caltowie to the Flinders Mountains

We woke up on Friday morning on the farm in Caltowie. Patrick forced me to get up early and watch the sunrise. I was mildly cursing him under my breath for dragging me out into the freezing cold at dawn when it WAS NOT EVEN A SCHOOL DAY. That is, until I saw the sunrise.

From the farm, you can see for miles and miles. The sky everywhere was filled with pinks and purples and golds.

It was magificent.

We hurried back inside for a warm breakfast with the family.

Then Patrick and I were escorted outside by Andrew's nieces to milk the cow!

Patrick took a turn first.

As soon as I sat down for my turn, the cow decided it was time to "do her business," hence my disgusted face. Notice I am the only one making a face. Allison and Jane thought it was hysterical. Why do these things always happen to me?!

I finally got my turn! I definitely am not a professional, but it did work! Allison, who does this everyday and is awesome at it, took over for me and really showed me up! She had the whole thing finished in like 5 minutes!

We said goodbye to Andrew's sister's family and headed for the Flinders Ranges where we were scheduled to meet Andrew's brother John and his boys for a hike. We took a wrong turn, which turned out to be a happy accident. Though we were a little late, we got an unexpected scenic view of the Flinders!

Andrew and John decided that we should all hike Mt. Olsen Baggee, which overlooks Wilpena Pound. The Pound is a ring of mountains within the Flinders.

About halfway into this thing Patrick and I were wondering what we had gotten ourselves into.

It was a tough climb!

But we kept looking back and seeing the breathtaking views of the side of the mountain we were on. We could only imagine what the Pound must look like on the other side.

And then we got there.

And it was amazing.
And we felt proud of ourselves for finishing a pretty hard climb!

And then we had to come down.

Which I had thought would be easy, but wasn't as much so as I had thought.

We stayed the evening at the Jackeroo Cottage in the Flinders at Willow Springs. It was one of my favorite places that we stayed! Cozy and warm with a fire in the fire place.

John and his boys stayed for dinner. God provided plenty of food and we enjoyed the fellowship with them. We even broke out the Hersheys and graham crackers and made s'mores in the fire place! John and the boys had never had any of these things so they were intrigued.

Saturday morning we set out for Adelaide, but wanted to do a few more things in the Flinders before we left.


We explored Sacred Canyon, one of my favorite things we have done so far! It's this canyon that you can walk through and it's full of Aboriginal artwork and symbols.

Finally, we packed it in and set out for the 5 hour drive to Adelaide. We were planning to stay with another of Andrew's brothers and his wife and parents and go to church with them on Sunday before heading to Kangaroo Island for the next week. The drive to Adelaide was beautiful. It was late afternoon and the sun was shining.

We saw the sun set over a field.

Another beautiful day.

God has been so good to us!