Wednesday Wanderings with Australian Rural Romance authors
Wednesday Wanderings – how fitting that we set off on our Easter holiday on a Wednesday.
It was a stressful start, first time going a long distance with our new off road caravan. Had we packed everything? Had we stowed everything correctly? What would fuel consumption be? Would the caravan - and us - survive the journey? This was quite a different way of camping for us or as it’s better known - glamping.
At the first sight of the distant mountains the tight shoulders began to loosen, the glances in the rear view mirrors lessened, we relaxed and let the calming vibes stretch their tendrils towards us and gently wrap us in Flinders Ranges tranquillity. And so it was for the next six days.
Photo credit: Scott Snodgrass
We are lucky enough to have friends who live on a station and we camp around their shearers’ quarters. There is as much to do or as little to do around the camp as you desire. The fellas always seem to find a job, the women a good book and the children something to explore. Meals are a shared event with many hands making light work. There’s nothing like eating roasted meat while sitting around a campfire out under the stars watching the full moon rise. On Sunday morning there were joyful little voices discovering brightly coloured eggs amongst the bush and then the fun of peeling back the foil and devouring the chocolate.
Of course we’re not completely slothful with any number of beautiful walks to take every day to help keep the overindulgent eating at bay. Then there’s a drive or a hike to check some of the vista in another part of the region. I think the landscape is beautiful and yet the words rugged, desolate, unique may better describe it. Inhospitable mountains and ridges give way to creeks and plains where native flora and fauna battle with introduced species. Pastoralists try to maintain the balance between keeping stock, preserving the land and sharing with tourists. Heritage is there to be explored with sentience; a reminder that this country was inhabited by indigenous Australians whose culture and traditions embraced its differences.
Photo credit: Scott Snodgrass
…
My visits to the Flinders Ranges are a time of total absorption of the five senses. It is not only beautiful but if you stop, look and listen it is also spiritual. This country is the setting of my first historical saga, Heart of the Country and the soon to be released, Dust on the Horizon. My publisher has called these books my Flinders Ranges series. Whilst they do standalone they can be read as a series. The urge to note and write is always strong when I am there and so I slipped away from the big group for quiet times to indulge myself and thus the next Flinders book has begun.
It is always sad to say goodbye to friends and family after a special holiday together. With our now tried and dusty caravan we turned our nose towards home. Added to my melancholy was saying farewell to this unique part of Australia but then there was the excitement of knowing I will be back very soon. The town of Hawker where Dust on the Horizon begins in 1881 is also the setting for the book’s grand launch. And so I don’t say goodbye but simply – I shall return.
Trish
COMING SOON from Tricia Stringer
From bestselling author Tricia Stringer, comes this compelling stand-alone historical saga, which can also be read as a sequel to Heart of the Country, the first book in the Flinders Ranges series.
1881
Joseph Baker works hard on his pastoral lease at Smith’s Ridge, in the beautiful but harsh land of the Flinders Ranges. For Joseph this lease, lost to his family in the early days of settlement, offers a future for his young family and that of his Aboriginal friend, the loyal and courageous Binda. Joseph is a clever man, but it is a hard land to work and drought is once more upon the country.
New arrivals to the small rural town of Hawker, Henry Wiltshire and young wife Catherine, open a general store and commission business. Unscrupulous but clever, Henry has plans to prosper from the locals’ fortunes, and quickly makes powerful friends, but when he throws Binda’s family out of his shop, his bigotry makes an immediate enemy of Joseph and a die is cast…
Then the dark force of Jack Aldridge, a man torn between two worlds, crosses their path. Outcast and resentful, he wants what Henry and Joseph have and will stop at nothing to take it.
As the drought widens and the burning heat exhausts the land, Joseph, Henry and Jack’s lives become intertwined in a way that none could have predicted. In their final confrontation not all will survive.
This sweeping historical saga takes us into the beautiful and brutal landscape of the Flinders Ranges and through the gold rush, following the fate of three men and the women they love. Men and women whose lives become intertwined by love and deceit until nature itself takes control and changes their destinies forever.
Dust on the Horizon is releasing 1 May 2016 in eBook and paperback and is available for pre-order now.
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We can’t wait to get down that way with the van. You’ll need to give us some tips (yeah, we know all about those tight towing shoulders - still after two years on the road.)
Beautiful photos and post, Tricia. What an inspirational trip.
Thanks so much for sharing. That was great.