Issue link: https://viewer.e-digitaleditions.com/i/95079
drivetime "Recently, we created a new arm to the business – hand-shaped pasta made from durum wheat grown at Anama." Katherine invites us to visit her place the next morning. The dirt road to Anama's historical homestead carves a path through harvested wheatfields. The Maitlands' stone-milled, wholegrain pasta, branded Pangkarra, is a rare commodity in today's world of mass-produced pasta and overseas imports. Katherine says the best thing about the business is its back-to-basics, traditional way of making food. "We make fettuccine, spaghetti, pappardelle, lasagne, linguine and spiral pasta. It is dried on racks and is 100 per cent natural. We also make Australia's only stone-milled, wholegrain durum flour." With guests lingering at Anama this morning, Jim's mother, Margot, has whipped up some fettuccine, pan-tossed in olive oil with crushed garlic, mushrooms and flat-leaf parsley. Its delicious, nutty taste and wonderfully rough but light texture is seriously good. From Clare, we continue through more quaint towns. Before long, the earth begins to redden and the landscape becomes a panning shot of smooth, sweeping plains. We stop often to photograph ruins, mostly homesteads and rail sidings from the old Ghan railway that stand solitary in fields of flaxen grass. Further on, there isn't a 'welcome to the Outback' sign, but we know we've passed through the gateway. Drawing close to Parachilna 24 in the late afternoon, with the Flinders Ranges rising dramatically in the distance, we are awash in a translucent, golden light. Loving the freedom of driving on the quiet, smooth-sailing Stuart Highway, we make it to the Prairie Hotel by sunset. At this fabulously restored pub we swap stories with a handful of stockmen and pilots. We drink the pub's own Fargher Lager and share one of its famous feral platters. The mix of saltbush dukkah, emu, camel and kangaroo is a little gamy but tasty. Pastoralists Ross and Jane Fargher bought the pub in 1991. "We recognised the hotel's potential and thought that by providing good food, service and accommodation we could keep people coming," Jane says. Right they were. It's an enticing shelter in the Outback, with a contemporary eco-design. It houses an impressive Aboriginal art gallery and there are cabins and powered sites across the road in the old settler's camp. En route to William Creek we stop at Marree. In the centre of town, beside the old railway station where rolling stock stands rusting, is outback legend Tom Kruse's old truck, which he drove on the track between Marree and Birdsville, delivering mail from 1936 to 1957. In this haunting desert settlement the town's solitude and isolation is palpable. Marree Hotel owner Phil Turner shows us through his pub. At the door of each guestroom he gives us a lively account of the hotel's ghosts, describing who died, where and how. Clockwise from far left: Pangkarra's 100 per cent natural pasta; the Prairie Hotel attracts a crowd; Phil Turner from the Marree Hotel; dingoes are a common sight from the road; culinary delights at Skillogalee's restaurant; the open road of the Stuart Highway, approaching the Flinders Ranges.