Here and there: Twenty One - Outback South Australia (One)

 I've spent a lot of time in outback South Australia; I feel comfortable there with no one else for hundreds of kilometres and the need to be self reliant, prepared and knowledgeable. Getting those things wrong out there means trouble because there's no one around to help. I love that challenge and the the feeling I get knowing I'm completely responsible for my life and that of my girlfriend who often comes with me. The capital city of South Australia is a thriving, vibrant and cosmopolitan city and I love it but there's something special about driving away and to places like this where the air is fresher, the views seem to go forever and when one looks up at night as the fire dies down a person can see the milky way at it's glorious best because there's no man made light for many hundreds of kilometres in any direction. I've been going to places like this for many years and with vehicles of all kinds. Below is one of those vehicles. I'd bought it (second hand) and decided to do a trip with it before I started accessorising it. The vehicle got me there and back...but after I added $28,000AUD of accessories in the next several months the subsequent trips were much easier and better and I did more gnarly tracks each time. *** ***  _{I've driven through this dry creek bed a few times but when it rains it fills up. I had to drive through it once in that condition. The rain had come down hard a few hundred kilometres away and I'd crossed prior...The drive out was lively. (This is why one never camps in a dry creek bed.)}  _{I love this spot. There's always water (mostly always) and when it's up I like swim here. It's a cool spot for a camp.}