22^nd January, Thursday

We left Broken Hill this morning but before we did we visited the grave of the great Pro Hart at the Broken Hill cemetery, something I just wanted to do as I have always admired the man for his art. We have crossed the border into South Australia and we are getting closer to home which is only next door to where we are. We stopped at Olary for our sammies and coffee. This was a little outback town and boasts a pub maybe 3 or 4 ol very old inhabited houses and old disused railway station because I don’t think that anything stops there anymore. We pushed on to stay overnight at Yunta. The scenery is still very much outback, plains and low scrub, dry and dusty and still beautiful. You see the odd few brumbies and Emus from time to time and the weather is hotting up big time. The road is a bit scary as there it’s narrow with not much space to pull off and there are heaps of road trains heading in the opposite direction towards Adelaide and they hug the middle of the road so we don’t get much space, I close my eyes everytime they come past, Ralph reckons he does the same thing HAHAHA. The Indian Pacific train passed us and you could see the little heads looking out of the window. We were thinking of doing that at one time but we think that the way we are doing it is more fun and we get to see more at our own pace. Well, Yunta when we got there was another little place, no caravan park as the book said and not many people around so we decided to go onto Peterborough which a bigger outback town and we know that there is a caravan park there for an overnighter. I’m glad that we gave all the veggies away because we were pulled over in Nakara which is a quarantine check point area and the guy climbed into the caravan to check that we had no fresh produce. We don’t mind them doing that because we know how devastating pests can be to crops and we always comply with those quarantine restrictions unlike some of the people you see on border patrol. On the way in the middle of nowhere, no town nearby, no nothing we passed a Hills hoist full of clothes, I love when people do this sort of crazy thing. The caravan park in Peterborough is quite as this is the low season, we have a lovely shaded spot underneath a tree. Our view looks out over the plains and the beginning of the Flinders rangers which are just the foothills in the distance. There is no much to do in Peterborough unless you like trains as there are a few on display and a train museum. Tomorrow we will be in Hawker, we don’t need to leave that early because we did the extra mileage today so it will only take us a couple of hours to get there.

The Flinders Ranges National Park (Wikipedia) is situated approximately 400 km north of Adelaide in the northern central part of South Australia‘s largest mountain range, the Flinders Ranges. The park covers an area of 912 km², northeast of the small town of Hawker. The Heysen Trail and Mawson Trails pass through the park. The park’s most characteristic landmark is Wilpena Pound, a large, sickle-shaped, natural amphitheatre covering nearly 80 km², containing the range’s highest peak, St Mary Peak (1,170 metres). The park centre at Wilpena Pound is accessible by sealed road from Hawker. Other areas in the park can be reached by un-sealed roads, which are mostly accessible by two-wheel drive vehicles except in bad weather or after heavy rain. There are many lookouts, scenic vistas, small canyons and unusual rock formations located in the park. These include Wilpena Pound, Wilkawillina Gorge, Hucks Lookout, Brachina Gorge, Bunyeroo Gorge and Arkaroo Rock. The park has some stone ruins from early European settlement and Aboriginal rock art sites. An amazing rock formation called the Great Wall of China is located just outside the park. Camping is permitted at many locations in the park.

The Flinders Ranges are largely composed of folded and faulted sediments of the Adelaide Geosyncline. This very thick sequence of sediments were deposited in a large basin during the Neoproterozoic on the passive margin of the ancient continent of Rodinia. During the Cambrian, approximately 540 million years ago, the area underwent the Delamerian orogeny where the geosynclinal sequence was folded and faulted into a large mountain range. Since this time the area has undergone erosion resulting in the relatively low ranges today. Most of the high ground and ridgetops in the Flinders are sequences of quartzites that outcrop along strike. The high walls of Wilpena Pound are formed by the outcropping beds of the eponymous Pound Quartzite in a synclinal structure. The same formation forms many of the other high parts of the Flinders, including the high plateau of the Gammon Ranges and the Heysen Range. Cuesta forms are also very common in the Flinders.

23^rd January, Friday

We dilly dallied leaving Peterborough this morning as we only had about 180kms to do today. We are not staying in Hawker as I mentioned previously, we are staying on a station which has a caravan park in Wilpena which is 30kms past Hawker. We stopped in Orroroo for something to eat and a coffee and the scenery up to there is pretty much the same as I mentioned yesterday. Orroroo is another small outback town and the half hour we spent there we didn’t see a soul, only 2 cars drove past us in this bustling metropolis. From Orroroo we took the road to Hawker which is a secondary road and its conditions is quite good, still a bit narrow but the road is much quitter. In about 120kms we may have seen maybe 10 cars and I think 3 trucks and no caravans. It would seem that we are the only ones going to the back of beyond. The scenery on this road is still pretty much wide open plains but a bit more farmland (mainly sheep) and quite a few old ruins of old homesteads, it’s very pretty. From here we start seeing the Flinders ranges and the terrain starts becoming a lot more hilly. We had to go through Hawker on the way to Wilpena so we stopped to get a few groceries as we needed mainly fresh stuff because as I told you yesterday we had to give all fresh stuff away because of the quarantine rules. Hawker has a population of about 500 so no supermarket and only a general store which acts as the tourist information centre, a service station, some groceries, hardware, news agent etc. The only fresh stuff that was on offer was some potatoes and some onions and they did have 2 small packets of frozen veg which I snapped up. Veg, potatoes and onions, you won’t go hungry. I did buy some meat in Broken Hill before we left so we are pretty well stocked up plus I still have 2 frozen stews. We are staying at Rawnsley Park station and because this is their low season there is only one other caravan here. The park has a lovely swimming pool and they sell a variety of groceries (actually better stocked than the general store in Hawker), there is also a restaurant just up the road on the station, I think that everthing is run by the family. The owners of the station are very friendly and accommodating. We are miles from anywhere which suits us as we don’t like staying in town much and we have the most magnificent views of the ranges. This is a lovely place to stay for awhile. The owners run scenic flights from the station of the rangers, Lake Eyre and quite a few other places. It’s a full day tour with a scenic flight in the morning and then landing for lunch at William Creek Hotel and then another scenic flight back to the station. Ralph is booked onto that for tomorrow, so let’s hope that he brings back some spekkie pics. We can only get internet connection from the camp kitchen, so I will update this blog from there, no mobile phone coverage at the van so if you call me just leave a message and I will check the phone when I go up there and call you back. It’s really hot today but apparently the weather is going to get a bit cooler from tomorrow. Ralph is busy setting up our satellite dish for tv as there is no tv coverage here either. This place really is awesome.

24^th January, Saturday

Up at sparrows this morning as Ralphie had a date with a pilot (Ryan) and Cessna 182. He had to be at the airfield quite early as he had preflight papers, payment etc. to do. The Cessna was a 4 seater. Another couple from Queensland were the other people on the flight. They flew over the Flinders rangers, Lake Eyre which is the 3^rd largest salt lake in the world and had water in it which only happens about once every 8 years, even the pilot got excited as he has never seen water in the lake. The bird when this happens is quite amazing and the main birds are pelicans as the fish get washed down the river into the lake. They then landed for lunch at William creek which is 160kms from Coober Pedy and is on the Oodnadatta track. He says that the pub was awesome and is a real rustic pub pretty much what you would expect in the middle of nowhere. If no-one is in the pub there is a radio outside and you just radio the publican and he will come and serve you. The whole population of the town was in the pub – population 8 when Ralph got there. The publican owns everything in the town, pretty much a one man show. Back on the plane flying over Lake Torrens, also a Salt Lake, then over a few towns and some big coal mines and then back home. Hugo and I stayed home and I painted another masterpiece. The caravan park was quite empty as everyone had gone out for the day on site seeing trips. We will take a few drives around the ranges while we are here.

25^th January, Sunday

We left camp at about 8.30 to drive around the ranges. Our first stop was Wilpena which is tiny and only has an information centre which sells touristy things, general groceries, alcohol and fuel. There are quite a few camp sites as it’s in the ranges so they cater for the local campers. The town is run on Solar power as it’s not on the electrical grid and everything seems to work well. We filled up with diesel and hellish expensive at $1.70 per litre, 40c more than town. I guess that they have to transport it out here and we have to pay the price. From there we entered the Flinders ranges National park and drove on through the Bunyeroo gorge, it’s all so beautiful with the ranges high up on either side of the road. The road that you drive on is actually on the dry river bed so the surface is mainly river stones and slow going. I would imagine that in winter when it rains this would all be closed as the roads would be covered by rivers and creeks. We stopped off at some ruins which was an old settlement in the mid 1800’s. From there we drove through another gorge this one being the Brachina gorge which was just as just as beautiful as Buyeroo and also again driving on creeks and river beds. It took us ages to drive through them because of the slow conditions but you really wouldn’t want to rush through and miss all that beauty anyway. From there onto Parachilna and the Prairie hotel (which at this time of year is closed unfortunately) as it’s a very old hotel and quite famous in this part of the world for their outback hospitality and their tucker which apparently is Ozzie fare like crocodile, emu, kangaroo etc. etc. so I’m glad they were closed because I probably would have landed up getting a cheese sandwich. On the way we passed a car on the side of the road which had recently run into an emu. The emu was still lying in the middle of the road and the front of the car was a mess, poor buggers and poor emu. From Parachilna we drove back into the ranges and then along the Parachilna gorge. This gorge wasn’t as tough going as the other 2 as the road ran along the edge of the waterway. We stopped off at the pub in the old town of Blinman which was settled around the 1800’s and boasts to be the highest town in South Australia. There’s not all that much to see there apart from the very nice pub and a few odd buildings and probably about 10 houses. They were just closing the kitchen for lunch as we got there a bit later than we thought but they did manage to do us a sandwich and some chips. We got back to camp at about 4 so it’s been a pretty long day but at least the weather has turned cooler.

26^th January, Monday

Happy Australia day everyone and for our friends and family overseas, Tough luck that you don’t have a holiday today (HAHAHA). We decided to have an easy day today and did a tour of the Elder ranges which are all still part of the Flinders ranges but the different ranges each have their own name. Again we travelled through creek beds and stones and rocks and our max speed was about 15kph so it was a slow drive and lovely to watch the beautiful scenery go slowly by. We have never seen so many kangaroos and emus (whole families of them) in one area before. This drive takes us through a station so there are lots of rouge sheep wandering around as well. We came back through Hawker where we put some more diesel in as we are leaving on Wednesday and it’s hard to fill up at a service station with the caravan on. There is a restaurant on the station we are staying at, it’s an old wool shed so we stopped off to see if Hugo was allowed to come with us for dinner there tomorrow night. The lady said that she didn’t care and they weren’t that busy so it didn’t matter and we could sit on the decking with him which is where we would sit anyway had we been just the 2 of us. Happy hour is from 6 to 7 and then they serve dinner which means that we don’t have to cook and we can pack everything away as we really do have a long haul on Wednesday and it will be nice to eat out for a change. I really hope that you guys are reading this blog.

T

27th January, Tuesday

Veg out day today and tonight we are going to the old wool shed which has been turned into a restaurant for dinner so no cooking for us today. The restaurant is on the station so it’s not too far and Hugo is allowed to sit with us on the decking. We are packing up as we leave tomorrow for Kapunda which is on the border of the Barossa and Clare valleys. Vineyards here we come. We need to leave early as it’s quite a way for us to travel and will probably only get there mid afternoon. So it’s cheerio to the Flinders ranges and it’s been a lovely experience.