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We woke to what had become a lovely routine - the kids already had the fire turning and burning, so it was straight on with the billy for a brew.

After a slow breakfast we all lined up for our day drive which was off to Mt Arden and surrounds - only to see the kids throwing a ball about 20m into a tree - we soon figured out that this was the second ball - trying to get the first ball which was also stuck in the tree - lo and behold, ball number two was snaffled by the tree monster - then comes a shoe to knock out both balls - yep, the tree monster again - the younger kids were saved by Cameron and Hayden who did the shake thing, and got the two balls and shoe down.

Darren and Julie disappeared back to Quorn to try and find his fuel cap, left at the servo the previous day.

Eleven cars left camp at 0930, under the guidance of Phil G who knew the area well - off to Mt Arden via Cockroach Gully.

My notes tell me that there were numerous wallabies, lots of small herds of goats, and the mutant shapes of the blackboys were twisted and deformed in amazing shapes like I'd never seen before.

We continued up the slope to a lookout where we found a very cool wind - and by the time we had moved higher to Mt Arden, the wind was bloody cold!!.

We were headed for "Oh Shit Track" and Adam (11yo) revelled in being allowed to say "Oh Shit" on the radio as we descended down the track - not terribly difficult, but a little slippery in places. The bottom produced a lovely vegetated gully, where Harry had trouble getting out of.. It was soon discovered that even though he had locked in his hubs, and L4 selected, he was only driving with the rear axle - Tim had mentioned the lack of traction Harry was getting as he followed him up a previous hill - we had thought it was lack of traction with worn ATs, but the real problem was only found now..

Phil, Craig and Ivan were in front of Harry and had climbed out of the gully and along a ridgeline putting them in a prime position for a photo of the recovery in progress.

It was decided to keep Harry's vehicle in the creekline and drive it up the dry creek to a flat spot where we were having smoko. Phil and Craig got involved, and jacked up a wheel - putting the transfer case in neutral and back again - unlocking the hubs and engaging them again - the front wheels this time locked in, and it looked like we were good to go.

Lucky that we got it going again, because we collected firewood on the way home, and tied down what seemed to be about four ton on the back of Harry's tray.

Back for lunch we stoked the fires for hot water and toasties before leaving for an afternoon sojourn along the steep and rocky inclines around the Heysen Trail.

On our return, Ivan and Tim went off to Quorn to pick up a couple of chairs, both having broken one on the first night. When we got back, we saw Daz with his tyre off, repairing a sidewall cut - a few of us went to give a hand, alternating between productive assistance, active criticism and being down right pains in the bum to getting his wheel fixed - all in all a chuckle getting the job done as always.

The kids were busy having a large scale water pistol fight - I don't know where they got their water from - not from my jerries I hope!!

I sat down on my second of four new chairs for the trip, only for it to break - damn - two chairs in two days..

Next Ben came running through the camp hollering loudly - it turns out he was playing on a log, and fallen off. Dr Phil was in location to give some welcome advice, thinking that we had a greenstick fracture of the wrist. Craig came to the rescue with an inflatable splint which combined with Panadol, gave Ben a reasonably restful night. And that......is the story so far..