IT'S a small world.
I know that's an overused phrase, but in this case I think it's very apt.
This time last year Dad and I were visiting William Creek, using the isolated country pub as a base for our aerial tour of Lake Eyre, and we got talking to an Adelaide girl who was working behind the bar.
This person, I can't remember her name, was taking a break from her studies and helping out at the William Creek watering hole during the busy season when the Oodnadatta Track was busy with tourists keen to see water in Lake Eyre and the Cooper Creek in flood.
We chatted as we drank of hydrating beverages, talking about what it was like to live and work in such an isolated place.
It seems this person enjoyed the experience because, almost 12 months later, she has returned to Outback South Australia to work at another isolated hotel.
This mystery blond, who I remembered because of the bow in her ponytail and the oversized pearls in her earlobes, was behind the bar at the Parachilna pub when I walked in this afternoon.
It seems she finished university last week and headed straight out of Adelaide to man the taps at this surprisingly chic watering hole halfway between Port Augusta and Marree.
We chatted for a minute, she took my money for the afternoon gelato I was consuming, and I told her I would see her next year at another some other Outback hotel.
The Prairie Hotel used to be just another country pub, sitting beside a long stretch of road in the middle of nowhere.
But an enterprising couple took over a few years back, did some renovations, built a handful of swanky new motel rooms, put in a couple of dining rooms and found a creative chef to work in the kitchen, and now the spot is an oasis of style on the long road to Marree.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Location:Marree Hotel, Marree, South Australia