Beltana Station, South Australia

Another place to fall in love with! At the top of the Flinders Ranges, we stayed on a working sheep and cattle station. About half a million acres with over 12,000 sheep, black angus cattle, a tribe of alpacas roaming loose, a farmyard of bottle fed lambs, calves, goats, pigs and an 8 week old toy poodle, the kids were in heaven! This was all topped off by a herd of camels with big personalities who were walked here from Alice Springs by a gorgeous couple who are completely devoted to these amazing animals. Initially the camels didn’t really do much for me but after spending time with Kamahl and Marie and learning more about the personalities and temperaments of the camels, we could see how they fell in love with them!

Fun fact – the Ghan Railway was named for the Afghani cameleers who came here in the 1800’s with their camels and helped to open up transport and trade through the centre of Australia. If only our country was so welcoming to the current Afghanis who also no doubt have something to offer….

We really enjoyed our time here and are really grateful to Graham, Laura and their tribe of travellers working the station that made us feel so welcome. They were also in the process of lining up new managers and we did contemplate staying momentarily. Laura gave it a good plug with the local primary school at Leigh Creek only 40km away and the school bus run just happened to pick up at the station. We did promise to touch base on our way back to the east coast, so who knows? Definitely a winter job though, I think I’d last 10 minutes in the heat of the summer!