The burgers at Morgan on the Murray were worth the stop – watching the ferried cars crossing the great green Murray. We had good pizza at Coober Pedy, and the pies are Ok all the way to Yulara. But Ciara ate the pasta from the salmonella queen at Erldundra and needed a day to recover. But the food at Mt Ebenezer is way better. We cooked for ourselves and were cooked for at Yulala, home made egg, lettuce and mayo sammos take you a long way round Ularu. The food at Kings canyon Station is good, with creamy milshakes. At Kings canyon we cheated with an esky full of fresh meat cooked on the barbie and home made hot cross minus buns, yes the bistro was expen$ive and disappointing and camel meat works on a camel better than it works on a bun, regardless of the chutney. The kids had fun weith the Roadies at the Outback bar and after a walk round Kings Canyon, a few beers and a bottle of red the grownups nearly enjoyed it as much as the kids.
In Alipings we stayed at a swish hotel, the steak and lamb at Barra on Todd was OK. In Adelaide we ate at Decant – where the ingredients are sourced within 100ks of the pan – and it was great, then ate breaky at Alfredos on Hutt St, where chubby city blue cattle dogs schmooze for treats and we had fab eggs benedict, baked omlettes and hazel nut pancakes before indulging at the Central markets and the IGA of the year for a yummy picnic at Glenelg.
We came home with a beautiful new fry pan and can’t wait to put it through its paces.

My host and I are too scared to ring the RSPCA to find out what has happened to them. We had to wean them from mum dog as she had started to fit with milk fever (nine little munchkins were literally sucking the life out of her). I fear that they were perhaps too small to survive without her, or lots of substitute care, which the RSPCA may not have been able to give. The RSPCA in Alice are amazing and must often have to deal with such litters. In a place like this little community, where there is not a vet within 900km and a litre of long-life milk costs $4, diesel costs $2/litre (still!), a 4kg bag of dry dog food costs over $20 and most people are living on pensions or unemployment benefits, getting dogs spayed is not really a priority. And people love their dogs and are reluctant to kill puppies when they come along. As one old bloke said of his little mate, “I couldn’t finish him, he should have a chance to see the world too”.

If those puppies had been fed only on milk and weetbix then their flesh would be clean and white like baby veal – without that over gamey, imo, doggy flavour you can get with canine casserole.