G'day misfits, well we made it, buggered if I know how, the road up to blinman from wilpena pound should be signposted as "bulldozers only" and basically shut down but it was only 200km's of bone shaking, vehicle destroying dust absorbing nightmare stuff, a lot of the time we were bottom gear and idling, no grass up there only miles of rocks and bulldust,  when we arrived at Arkaroola we thought "oh ****" why did we bother, but we settled in to camp and the usual suspects came wondering around our rig and we got to talking and it turned out that (as usual) we had the time of our lives, we met ten vietnam vets, ( I called them the good old boys) they adopted us right from the start, wouldnt go anywhere without us, nights around the fire were magical, laughing and joking, four of them took their wives and they had a ball, met a single lady (val) travelling around aus. escaping her kids I asked her, as we shared a cup of tea at our camp, how she felt about being around all these big ugly drunken mixed up never do wells and whether she felt "safe" she looked at me, thought for a while ,and said "Dave, I have this feeling as if I am constantly wrapped up in big hairy arms, I have never felt safer or more comfortable, I can walk in to any campsite and know that I am tottally welcome and amongst friends" she had her nissan patrol and camper trailer set up in the centre of the resort and was constantly being passed by all and sundry on the way to the loo or whatever even if it was, obviously, out of their way and I noticed that each and every one of those ugly old buggers said gday and looked in to check on her, as I did, the good old boys are a mixed up bunch of fantastic human beings, full of pills and booze and many issues and rat**** memories that they are working out in their own way, they are on their way to the birdsville races via a couple of "tracks" and of course " poppa smurf" is going up big red ( good luck mate) old coll is going through what he calls "his drunken period" 9am - fall over time, poppa smurf looks after his harem, (coll, graeham and neville and very well he does too, joe is the anchor that holds the lot together, funny as a hat full of arseholes, his storys went all through the night and I still remember them fondly now, we took the ridgetop tour (the squashy ride as I call it) ten in the back of a toyota landcruiser ute with roll over protection and seating for 6, $100 each so no soft comfy ride here I can tell you, but oh boy the views ( when you can see past the ugly twit opposite you) are to die for, fully recommend but check how many is booked first, dont go fully loaded, wear warm clothes and be prepared to get as close as it is humanly possible to a man without becoming pregnant (well at least I hope I am not), we stayed at warren gorge on the way up ( a free camp ten kms west of quorn) fantastic spot with yellow footed rock wallibies eating on the scree at daybreak and dusk,  we also stayed at wilpena pound, constantly a winner in my eyes, on the way back we stayed at wilpena pound again just to get the bulldust out of the rig, met up with about 3 couples coming back from arkaroola so still havent removed the bulldust, oh well always tommorow, filming taking place in wilpena "the last ride" so keep an eye open for that, had all the "film stars" poncing around (hugo weaving no less) well they thought that they were a big deal so I guess self importance is all that matters, oh the falling in the fire thing on the front page, coll did it 3 times while we were watching, reckons it doesnt hurt, as long as poppa smurf pulls him out so I guess it's just a matter of how drunk you get, dont get a flatty up there, $40 to repair a tyre, stupid old goose came down some track or other, too much pressure in his tyres, ironstone went straight through, another bloke listened to the experts, 16psi on stone they told him, ironstone straight through the side, anyway that was my trip, and I wouldnt have missed it for the world and if you "good old boys" are reading this, good luck fellers and all the best that life can bring ya, val just keep the dirty side down and the shiny side up and enjoy the ride, more power to ya, and to the wives, well we all have our cross to bear lol