You Know You are in the Middle of Nowhere … 

… when You are 267 Kilometers to Nowhere.

Reginald Sprigg was an Australian geologist who made two huge impacts in his life.

First he discovered fossils in 1946 that established proof of the first animals that helped date and explain the Cambrian Explosion – the amazing proliferation of ever more complex creatures after billions of years of almost no change in the Earth’s evolved organisms. Spoiler alert – we all come from jellyfish – sorry to break it to you. He was out surveying old mines for potential new uses and, reportedly, came across these fossils whilst having lunch. You stub your toe in the vastness of the Australian outback and, change science forever. You have to know what you are looking for I suppose.

This was in the Ediacara Hills – seen in this photo taken in the Flinders Ranges near Parachilna in South Australia. They even added the Edicaran Period in the geological table to recognize this change in the way we have to think about evolution.

Then in 1968 he bought a few hundred acres in the Northern Flinders that was once a uranium exploration site that he had extensively surveyed (yes there is uranium under here) and turned it into the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. You know this is in the middle of nowhere when it’s hundreds of kilometers to nowhere.

Tomorrow, sadly, we are leaving Arkaroola after a stay they was extended to fix my second serious puncture. The area is spectacular, the hotel and food are perfect, and the people here are a delight.

Within an hour of getting back from a day ride with a serious tyre problem, the staff had figured out someone was coming up from Port Augusta (350 Km away) and could bring a tyre that someone else could collect from Copley (150 Km away) and get here by the afternoon. No fuss and a literal and figurative bush telegraph was setup to get us out of a bind.

“No worries mate. Too easy” as they say in Australia.