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For anyone who has ummed and arghed about making the trip to Kingston, no more excuses, it's bloody amazing here! The drive up from Victoria was a warm one, but the start of an adventure. Some amazing natural rock formations coming into S.A truly had the wow factor and it is amazing how different the landscape is. Kingston, is a quiet little town, about 250kms south from Adelaide and is protected from the direct Southerly winds so the sea doesn't display the crashing waves like that at Sandy Point, but a gentle changing tide (I do miss the sound of the waves though) We arrive Tuesday afternoon and set up camp at the Kingston Caravan Park, very clean and has running water by each site. We met up with John and Rob, and also meet Chook from WA for the first time. It feels as though we've know him for ages! Great company! The evening takes John, myself and Doug out onto the Clay Pan - wow what a place. I have never seen anything like it. As far as the eye can see - a vast emptiness of flat surfaces, and a trusting wind (approx 15 knots from the South) With Doug flying his 4 meter Ozone Method. The sun sets on a perfect arrival day. Wednesday and we wake up early for as soon as the sun hits the tent (around 7am) it warmed up. We head over to the grass area out the front of the caravan park. Doug is first to put a kite in the air, a two line R-Sky, John puts up his Longstar on handles, and Chook displays a rather beastly looking Revoltion 4 line which takes a fancy to Rob's head. Rob plays with his Ikon 7 - as he feels it may have a puncher, turns out that he didn't secure a valve tight enough, as for me, I try the blokart with the 5.5 sail but with the light winds and the thick grass, I can not even get started. Doug had the idea to sail it up and down the pavement and has a ball until I demand it back. Yes it was fun! In the afternoon, we head back over to the clay pan for a very windy session at 20 knots from the south-west. Doug puts up a 4 meter but soon feels over powered and changes to a 2.6 Peter Lynn Viper. Rob had his 7 meter Ikon up! He's a crazy bloke! John flew one of his Nasa's and Chook flew his PL 5.2 Vapor. Anyway all going smoothly, John comes in, followed by Rob, then Doug but we loose Chook. After about 15 minutes, we still do not see Chooks kite in the air so Rob and I head out to look for him - in case he had OBE'd some where. We find him down the very end of the pan, trying to get his kite up - he'd been trying to relaunch after adjusting his new lines but the wind was that strong, his kite wouldn't behave. In the mean time, Rob gets into a sticky situation and bogs his van, so I help Chook get back in the air, so he can return back to base, get his patrol and come rescue us.....hang on, weren't we meant to be rescuing Chook? Anyway, thank you Chook and Doug (and Maggie too) for coming back to get us. It was threatening to rain and a few lightning bolts were spotted but fortunately it misses us (and hits Melbourne - check out the report of the the Spirit of Tasmania II ferry) It's been a long day and everyone sleeps well. Doug makes a comment that Rob's tracks will remain for thousands of years! John says he can still see tracks from last yearsbuggy run! Thursday started off cloudy and a lot cooler than yesterday. We wait till the afternoon to fly as although cooler, the sun has a bite to it and you can feel the burn! Back down to the clay pan - the winds haven't been right for a beach session yet but in strength, they haven't been disappointing. Rob's happy as he picks up a new kite from the local post office - a new Ikon 3 meter inflatable. He's keen to get out and test it out. We head off late afternoon and I feel anxious from at the strength of the wind. I do not have a sail small enough to take the Blow-Fly out. John starts with the Nasa 2.5 but after a run up and down, comes in to down size. Rob tries out his new kite, shits a brick when he gets it up on two wheels and at one stage has the wheel about six foot off the ground. Doug flies his 2 meter Brooser but retires early after snapping his lines and Chook too suffers a severed line. The winds were forcast 23.4 knots - it was probably gusting 30-32 knots at times. Strong enough to blow Doug's GT Buggy a good 30 foot and park itself next to John's buggy. Everyone stayed within eye sight of one enough, sensible is such winds but funnily no one suggests this, it just happened that they all chose to keep close, after yesterday's events. Anyway, stop at Subway for dinner on the way back - and back to camp by 10:30. A cold night tonight so will need to rug up. Can't wait to see what adventures we be sort tomorrow at Kingston S.E!