Flinders Ranges

Hawker was our next stop—the gateway to the Flinders Ranges.  Five minutes after arriving, while walking down the main street, we ran into great friends Darryl and Kay.  After hugs and kisses we parted with promises to meet at a nearby free camp site.   We then visited the local panorama gallery—a “must see” for any visitors to Hawker.  In a purpose built round gallery Jeff Morgan had painted a 360 degree view of Wilpena Pound.  It is amazing.

 Some time later we found the free camp site, about 18 km north of Hawker, and immediately nearly bogged both car and caravan.  That would have been very embarrassing. But “country boy experience” came to the fore and everything was Ok.  That night Darryl and I built the best campfire imaginable—and we did not have any crumpets.  Dinner was home made soup and campfire cooked toast—with a glass of fine shiraz.

The arrival of dawn, and my obligatory early morning walk (in new places), showed that we had been camped about 200 metres from the Old Ghan rail line, and a pre-loved railway bridge across a flood plain. We used a different way out to avoid the wet track in.

About an hour after departure we were booking in to Rawnsley Park, our home for the next three days, on the site next to Darryl and Kay.

 

After lunch (more soup) the four of us went for a drive to Wilpena Pound where our guide (Darryl) took us on a 2.5 hour return walk (and approx 8 km) to Wilpena Pound lookout. The view from the lookout was magnificent and not adequately illustrated by the adjacent photo.

 On our return we met Gary & Jenny who were friends of Darryl & Kay and who drove a lovely Winnebago motor home.  Later we lit another campfire and cooked our steaks over the fire.  Life is good.

 

Day 7 was a rest day so we started with a 5 km walk around a Rawnsley Park track, via "Clems Corner".  Among the barren rocky landscape were many small flowers—merely 1 cm wide.

That night we dined at the local “Woolshed” restaurant where the guys ate a mixed grill of kangaroo steak, emu sausages and camel rissoles.  They were all excellent—particularly the kangaroo.

 

On Monday 27th we went for a 185 km drive around the Flinders Ranges, ably guided by Darryl—who has been here numerous time before.  Much of the driving was down creek/river beds—not a good idea in the wet.  Most of it was on slow rocky/dirt roads. 

Our first stop was the Old Wilpena Homestead, which is nestled among some lovely gum trees. 

The six of us (Darryl, Chris, Shirley, Jenny, Kay, Garry) then headed off to visit the Cazneaux tree—a lovely old tree famous for the award winning photo that was taken by a photographer called Harold Cazneaux in the 1937.

Occasionally some local fauna would pose for a photo.  Unfortunately most of the fauna we saw was on the side of the road as a victim of a one-sided clash with some form of motor vehicle.

 

The views that we were constantly seeing were mind boggling, again emphasising how great the scenery in our bonzer country is.

The photos here give an idea of the scenery, but again the photos do not do justice to the wonderful views.
 

Around 1:30 we just happened upon the tiny hamlet of Parachilna  whose main claim to fame is the Prairie Hotel.  The lunch of kangaroo pie and chips was excellent.

 

Just to top the huge assortment of things you see when you travel was a first for the six of us.  We are used to seeing motor homes with a car on a trailer behind.  At the Prairie Hotel we saw a motor home with an ultra light plane on a trailer behind.  Quite unusual.

The sights that we visited included:

· Bunyeroo valley & gorge
· Brachnia gorge & geological trail
· Prairie hotel at Parachilna
· Morealna scenic drive pat Arkaba rocks
· Old queing yards for shoeing working bullocks.

One of my photos of the day was to take a photo of Shirley through the hollow in a tree.

 

Happy hour was again spent around a campfire—built by the guys.  It was needed as the evenings and nights have been fairly cool.  Dinner was razer fish, courtesy of Garry & Jenny who caught them at Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula.  They are a crustacean, tasting a bit like a scallop but from a much larger muscle-like shell.  Very enjoyable.

 

Day 9 was spent driving the 200 km to Copley via Hawker and Leigh Creek, the latter being a stopover to buy provisions and pay $1.72 per litre for diesel.   Copley is a very small town consisting of a pub, general store, caravan park and a couple of other shops (if you could call them that).

 

Day 10 consisted of a 128 km drive west-north-west to Arkaroola.  As it was to be a non-caravan dirt road we left our accommodation at Copley.  The trip took 2.5 hours.  The six of us (two cars) checked into one two-bedroom cottage and a motel unit and then went for a 13 km drive along a very rocky road to a few local scenic spots, with interesting names like
Nooldoonoodoona,
Bollabollana Spring and
The Pinnacles. 

The views everywhere were spectacular.

For dinner we had a carvery at the restaurant with soup, beef/chicken/port roast and dessert, and the obligatory bottle of shiraz.

 

Early next morning I woke up 10 minutes before the 7am alarm so that we all had time for a shower and breakfast before we joined the “ridge top tour” for the morning.  There were 10 on the tour (plus the driver) and so nine of us sat in the open top/side back of a diesel V8 troop carrier.  The next 21 km were definitely the roughest trip of my life and took nearly 2 hours.  Again the scenes were spectacular, some many km away in the flat lands away from the Flinders Ranges.  These views included the Beverley Uranium mine.

We stopped for morning tea at a place called Sillers Lookout, which was at the top peak of a seriously steep hill.   The adjacent photo shows the road to and from the hill stop—but does not adequately show the steepness of the track.  Needless to say, we were all hanging on—some with eyes closed.

 

It was a wonderful trip. 
 

After lunch and a relaxing few hours we jumped into our cars and headed out to the Arkarloola waterhole. 

Again the road was very rocky and rough and the views were magnificent.  To our delight we saw numerous yellow footed rock wallabies—some of whom posed for us.

 

At 8am on Day 12 we arose to a cloudy sky and the interesting sight of a short rainbow.  A while later we said good bye to Arkaroola. 

We had been told that Arkaroola was a geologists paradise—and now we knew why—thanks to many type of rocks and many interesting forms of geology phenomena.  We were not sad to leave behind the rough and rocky roads.  However it is a great place to visit.

 

Our first stop, still in the Arkaroola boundary, was the Oche wall, which would be great for instant makeup or face painting.  There were many colours, and they were easily obtained.

 

We headed south to Blinman, 150 km away, still on a dirt road.  Some of the terrain was very flat, while some of it was rolling hills, with more rocks.  Most of the plains were without trees and most of the creek beds had healthy looking trees - many of them gums. 

The road was fairly good quality, although we had now found drizzling rain, and we duly arrived at the Blinman pub where we all had some form of “Blinman Mega Burger” - which was a feast on a plate. 

 We then had 30 km of dirt road before we found the sealed highway.  The first 25 km was OK as it twisted through rolling hills. However the last 5 km was being graded as the rain got heavier.  The speed was reduced and 4WD was engaged. 

However the back of the cars gathered some of the road.

After stopping for provisions at Leigh Creek we arrived back at Copley at 4:45 in constant rain.  We had driven over 360 km of dirt roads and 70 km of sealed roads—and the car looked like it.

 

On Saturday 1 June we arose to a wet and cloudy sky.  Copley had had in excess of 30 mm of rain overnight. 

 

This meant good and bad news.

First the good news—it was great for all of the South Australian people on the land.

Now the bad news—the road to Birdsville, including the Birdsville Track is closed, and so Birdsville is off the agenda for now.  Tomorrow we head for Alice Springs via 270 km south to Port Augusta.

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Eltham to Flinders Ranges

It was 9:30 am on a wet and overcast Monday 20th May as we headed out of Eltham. We met a strong head wind as we turned onto the Calder, which lasted until we crossed the Great Dividing Range. From then on it was good driving conditions, except for the first 20 km north Wycheproof which involved heavy rain and plenty of water on the road. But then, just as it happens in the cartoons, we drove though the final curtain of rain onto a dry road. Except for the aforementioned wet period the country is very dry and looking very poor.

We stopped for lunch at Wedderburn and then pressed on to Sea Lake – not exactly a town that impresses – but the cappuccino was good. It was time to find a campsite and the navigator (i.e. Shirley) duly nominated Lake Tyrrell free camp site – 7 km north of Sea Lake. A few minutes later we were there and a few minutes later we were set up for the night. It was 3:45 and we had covered 370 km on day one.
A few minutes later I met Arthur who pulled in after us. Arthur has a deaf wife so his main talking companion is a 14 year old border collie. He brews his own beer and proceeded to extract a 10 litre keg, complete with tap and gas, from the fridge in the back of the Land Cruiser. I did not get offered a glass but it had a good head. Whenever he runs out of beer he has to stop for 3 to 4 days to make a new brew – which is 20 litres. Arthur, his wife and his dog live virtually on the Gippsland Lakes. This is his 7th trip to Darwin. There was a “tinnie” on top of the Cruiser so I guess he likes fishing. Not a bad life – travelling, fishing and brewing your own beer. We were in bed by 8:30 .

Day 2 - Early to bed and early to rise. Readers who know Shirley may not believe this but we were on the road at 7:30 am, after an impressive sunrise. Our first stop was Ouyen – famous for its vanilla slice. Ouyen is similar to Sea Lake – not very impressive. However we found a coffee shop and had a great coffee and an excellent vanilla slice. Later that day we found out that Birchip had recently claimed the “King of the Vanilla Slice” title.

We completed the 190 km to Mildura and arrived about 11 am. The car and caravan was parked in the carpark at the Sunraysia Resort where great friends, Wally & Bev, had a two bedroom apartment. So our second night was to be spent in luxurious surroundings.

The four of us headed across the border into NSW to the Gol Gol pub for lunch, which was excellent. After lunch Wally and I walked the 200 metres down to the Murray river, while Shirley and Bev invested $20 in the pokies. We wandered back in some time later to see that the ladies has racked up around $85 on the machine they shared. “We will cash in when it drops back to $80” they said. Instead of dropping back it proceed to gather momentum until they “cashed in” at $370 – a profitable lunch. It was a quiet afternoon and evening.

Day 3 saw a leisurely start around 9am while heavy rain belted down. This continued all of the 140 km to Renmark where we stocked up on vegetables & fruit and filled the fuel tank with diesel. Our next stop was the Overland Corner Hotel – a little 1859 pub on a bend in the Murray river.

It was then a fairly boring drive to Burra, the SA answer to Maldon in Victoria. Burra is a pretty little town nestled in a valley, and it a National Trust town. It is apparently one of the best preserved mining towns in the state. By 5pm the camp ground was full, so it was lucky we rang through this morning.

It was built to cater for overland drovers and stage point for coaches. We stopped for lunch and had cream of broccoli and cauli soup. One of the residents was a “ferro hound”, apparently a good hunter who does not shed much hair and does not have a “doggie” smell. There are only 650 of them in Australia. This guy is helping to reduce the ferrel cat and rabbit populations—but plays with the neighbours cat.

It was then a fairly boring drive to Burra, the South Australian answer to Maldon in Victoria.  Burra is a pretty little town nestled in a valley, and it a National Trust town.  It is apparently one of the best preserved mining towns in the state.   By 5pm the camp ground was full, so it was lucky we rang through a few hours before we arrived.

We had completed another 340 km.  

Burra worked out to be a lovely place with 50 historic sites to visit on a drive/walk yourself tour.  It’s history was founded on copper mining, which closed about 1981, and fine wool merino sheep.  In 1970 a merino ram was sold for $27,000 (I wish I had a mob in my super portfolio).  It also had a brewery that brewed a beer still available in South Australia. The cellar would make a great restaurant in Melbourne.

 

Many of the miners dug their own accommodation into the clay banks of local creeks.

Many of the buildings were built from local sandstone and are still in (or have been restored to) excellent condition. 

 

Burra is also known as the home of Australia’s largest dinosaur - a Diprotodon.

Burra was a mining town owned by the mine.  Four other towns sprung up close by, and the “burra” of five towns was eventually given its current name.

We were also able to try on period clothing at the town hall museum.  Shirley looked splendid in her new sun hat.

 A local expressed disgust that the new roof on the town hall leaked more that the rusty old roof that it replaced.  This was fully tested with 45 mm (nearly 2 inches) of rain in the last 2 nights. 

 

The apple wine and cider winery had magnificent views of the local area, but their liquid products did not impress.

On Day 5 we left Burra after a relaxing sleep-in and headed towards the Flinders Ranges.  Our first coffee stop was Peterborough which was one of the few towns to expand during the depression—thanks to the gold rush and being on the Broken Hill to Port Pirie rail line.  Peterborough also lays claim to being an outpost for stray Adelaide dogs who were sent to this part of the world to help reduce the rabbit population.   We could not find our whether that strategy worked—or not.

It was around this time that we crossed the “Goyder Line”.  Goyder was the surveyor general from Adelaide who, in 1865, created an artificial line that defined two areas—one best used for sheep grazing and the other best used for wheat farming.  This is apparently a good guide—even today.

We then stopped at a town with the interesting name of Orroroo.  It is a lovely little town and proudly highlights a “Giant Red Gum”.  The Eucalyptus Camaldulensis is over 500 years old and has a circumference of over 11 metres just above the ground.  If it had been cut up, in days past, it would have yielded 1400 fence posts. 

Our next whistle stop was Carrieton, on the map courtesy of the magnificent mosaic on the walls of the public amenities.

 

We were about to enter the Flinders Ranges.  Please look at the next posting.............