Flinders Ranges

30/9/2018 Sunday It was a cool night and R & R woke to a cold strong wind shortly after 6:00am.  They breakfasted, packed down straight away and pulled out of the hotel camp area to park over the road near all the information boards and monuments at the Marree railway station.  R & R were particularly interested in the remains of an Afghan mosque and a camel made from railway sleepers as well as an old Ghan engine. It took nearly another hour for R & R to empty the three jerry cans in to the tank and to pump up all the tyres.  They watched the little birds that could have been martins as they cheekily sat on the bonnet of the Ute while R & R had coffee before leaving about 10:00am.  The wind had been as strong as … and continued all day.  You know the wind is strong when: birds have trouble flying, limbs and foliage sway heavily, rubbish like paper or plastic moves faster than you can, your eyes and nose run, willy willys whirl in front of you, the aluminium guide posts get up a wobble, the hills on the horizon are covered in a haze, it’s difficult to open your car door, the camper needs to have stays on both sides to stop it from swaying, your eyes are itchy at the end of the day and when RA has to fight her ipad to take a photo.  The distance between Marree and Lyndhurst was only 78kms but it was not all sealed.  The road switched from sealed to unsealed several times with only just over a third being sealed.  Where it was unsealed, the condition from good to very bad corrugations with rocks switched almost instantly so the Hum drove accordingly.  The road was relatively flat though it rose slowly but steadily from 50m above sea level with grey and yellow sand ridges averaging about 4m. There was little vegetation, mainly saltbush and grasses, except for sections of floodways or along creek lines like at Hayes Creek and Farina Creek.  RL turned off to look at the ruins at Farina.  A major restoration project had been undertaken by volunteers and what remains of the Farina Township (est. in 1878) had been signposted and displayed information about its history.  R & R spent ages wandering around and taking photos.  There, on Farina Station, the soil was red supporting both sheep and cattle.  One of the signs stated that the saltbush and grasses are very high in nutrition for stock regardless of their wet/dry condition.  In between there were pockets of white and yellow or orange sandhills and the road was more undulating to 100m.  Throughout the morning, R & R had seen mountains to the distance on both the eastern and western horizons and gathered they were the top end of the Flinders Ranges.  About 5kms north of Lyndhurst the phone rang shortly after 12:30pm.  RL stopped on the side of the road so that they could chat with S, their son.  It was lovely to be in reception and be able to speak with him.  When he hung up, R & R drove into Lyndhurst, picked a shady tree, made lunch and rang RL’s brother G.  Unbelievably, there was no reception!  It was 1:00pm as R & R set off south again on the Outback Highway, an excellent surface and smooth road.  There was quite a lot of traffic going both ways and many more grids on the sealed road than on the unsealed section they had covered before lunch.  Immediately, the road was undulating in between and through hills in the Leigh Creek mining area where signs on the fences read Danger Keep Out.  At Leigh Creek itself there was water over the road and birds swam on the channel to the east of the road. The hills were multi coloured with not a great deal of vegetation at first but improved closer to Mt Hutton at 464m with the road up to 150m.  Near the coal field, there was a dam and sub station.  About 2:00pm, RL stopped again in the shade this time in Copley and tried to ring his brother, G again.  RL drove in and out of the mining town of Leigh Creek, a few minutes later, before continuing south with the intention of sleeping at a rest area just north of Hawker about another 140kms further south.  The Navigator indicated several mines in the area: Ajax, Beltana, Ochre and Copper King as well as Aroona Dam and there were a couple of large 1435mm gauge rail bridges over Windy and Emu Creeks on a line called Stirling North Telford Railway.  There the road was up to 200m with Mt Bayly at 512m in the Bayly Range.  The vegetation on the brown hills was bare except for in the creek lines.  For a while it was more open and flat and bare with the hills off at a distance before coming closer into the ranges proper and, with that, more vegetation especially in creek lines.  The road was excellent and R & R noticed that there were quite a few dead kangaroos and emus on the side of the road.  Still the road ran closely to the remnants of the old Ghan railway line, with ruins and damaged or missing bridges dotted along the route.  RA rang S, their daughter and chatted a while until reception cut out.  About 50kms north of Hawker, R & R saw the first of some sheep, initially very few but more later on, spread out, not at all like in mobs in the south west of Western Australia.  About 4:00pm, RL pulled off the highway, near Merna Mora Station, to look at a cairn commemorating three generations of the same family (Evans) who surveyed in the area at different times.  RL drove past the Hookina cemetery and ruins about 20kms north of Hawker before beginning a long steep incline and pulling into the Nootanna Creek rest area on the top of a hill.  It had been windy all day and was no better for the exposure on a ridge.  That required R & R to set the camper with stabiliser ties on, not one but, both sides.  That done they settled down for a windy night, preparing dinner, then talking to both daughters on the phone as well as their son, J, who was not long back from a trip to Singapore.  RL read while RA published a post and wrote her diary.  It had been a big day’s travel; 266kms.  And, it had been simply lovely, after not having reception for a few days … to catch up with everyone again.

1/10/2018 Monday The camper rocked and swayed and squeaked all night and there was still a strong wind from the east, probably about 30km/hr, when R & R woke about 6:45am.  They were in no hurry to be putting the camper down in that wind.  In the long run it was not as difficult as they thought it might be and RL pulled onto the highway heading 13kms south to Hawker about 8:15am.  Naturally it did not take them long before they arrived and were seeking information about the Flinders Ranges, accommodation options and SA National Parks passes.  They were also in need of fuel before heading out for a couple of days so they filled up regardless of the price of 173.8c/lt.  R & R paid $32 for a two month pass just in case they wanted to be going to the Gawler or Mt Remarkable Ranges and then phoned ahead to book a campsite at a farm stay Upalinna just out of the park.  At $15/vehicle/night, it seemed reasonable. So, it was about 9:45am when they set off north on Flinders Ranges Way (up the opposite side of the ranges that R & R had driven down the day before) towards Wilpena Pound 50kms away.  Upalinna was only a further 6kms.  The first few kilometres were quite flat and open but shortly RL was driving into and through the ranges.  Though the road was winding, it was not steep and it was in excellent condition.  The road ran about 300m with hills to 600m and the larger of the ranges, like Point Bonney were over 1100m.  Along the way, RL stopped at a couple of lookouts, Arkaba and Rawnsley.  R & R noticed how good the vegetation was particularly near the creeks, full of massive river red gums and cypress pine.  There was a delightful white blossom on a reed like plant and a green tinge on the earth from grasses.  R & R arrived at Upalinna Homestead, paid for their stay and received instructions for the campsite which was actually up the road about 100m and on the other side of the main road.  R & R were given site #6 which turned out to be the best for mobile reception and for views back toward Wilpena Pound.  The station owner commented on how dry it was and told R & R that when they get rain, it is often what Perth WA had about three days earlier.  Having set up the camper, R & R sat for an early lunch shortly after noon before having a cat nap.  It was warm under the canvas with little shade but they were both tired enough to benefit from a little shut eye.  When they got up, they were just making a cup of tea when RL’s brother, J, rang so they all chatted a while.  At 2:10pm, R & R headed to Wilpena Pound which could not have been more than 10km and by 2:20pm they were heading off on the Hills Homestead and Wangarra Lookouts walk, a total of about 7.8km return.  The first 3km of the path is easy walking on a relatively flat path following the Wilpena Creek closely and crossing it a couple of times.  Hills Homestead was renovated from ruins in 1995 and was the home of the first pioneer family to farm within the pound, a large area of flat land surrounded by ranges on all sides.  The path then led up the steep side of Wangarra Hill to look out over the pound from first a lower lookout and then another at the top.  The Aboriginal word for Wilpena Pound is Ikara meaning ceremonial place or meeting ground.  Aboriginal legend tells that the pound was created by the encircled bodies of two big Akurra (dreaming serpents).  The size of the river red gums needs to be seen to be believed.  While there, R & R saw a couple of fruit trees in bloom, a remnant of pastoral pioneer times and a small herd of feral goats which despite attempts to eradicate them entirely, still live within the park.  There were many kangaroos and wallabies of different sizes and colours.  It was 5:00pm when R & R returned, had a cup of coffee and set off to return to the camper.  On their way back, they saw many roos and emus feeding on the edge of the road in the cooler time of the day.  R & R made two very small detours off the main road.  Firstly, they turned west and looked at a couple of interpretive panels, one about a traveller’s inn with an image of a building that once stood on the site.  The tree that is in the image of the traveller’s rest contains the same tree that remains standing to this day!  The second panel is about the Cazneaux Tree.  A famous Australian photographer, Harold Cazneaux took a photograph in 1937 of a tree that still remains and called it “The Spirit of Endurance” because, for him, it embodied struggle and endurance.  Then they turned east to look at Wood Duck Dam.  The reflection of the trees on the water was crystal clear in the fading light of day.  A flock of emus had come to water.  Both were well worth snapping.  There, R & R saw both white and the pink and grey gallahs, which is unusual as they are not often seen together in the wild.  The wind was certainly more calm and the evening pleasant when R & R returned to the camper about 6:00pm with cameras ready for a sunset shot before dinner.  RL helped RA prepare dinner before they read and wrote a while.  They also looked at maps.  R & R were pleased with their plans for the next day, and particularly so as … their plans did not include moving the camper.

2/9/2018 Tuesday The wind had calmed somewhat and, despite a couple of droplets of moisture, R & R woke to a fine morning for a day’s driving, both in and out of the national park, around the Flinders Ranges.  After breakfast, about 8:10am, R & R headed 10kms south and then 18kms westward to Bunyeroo Gorge.  The road was gravel, as were most of the roads RL drove on for the day, but it was in pretty good condition affording the Hum a speed between 30-40kms/hr.  No sooner than they had set out than they passed a pair on bicycles and were amazed at their energy.  R & R saw kangaroos and emus dotting the landscape and still feeding by the road in the cool of the morning and could not help thinking how stupid emus are the way they dart back and forth across the road in front of a vehicle, almost with a death wish.  Old fences, within the park, looked ramshackled and, in places where sheep and goats had denuded the landscape, fences displayed signs that rehabilitation was in progress.  The road was very pretty in the creek lines where the river red gums grew in the rocky beds.  R & R stopped at the Yanyanna Hut and yards; ruins, which at one time were used as part of the station and now used for way points and shelter for hikers on the Heysen Trail.  They stopped to look out over the Bunyeroo Valley from the lookout and again at Razorback Lookout, high up on the ridges at about 1000m before the Hum headed down the long steep descent with switchbacks to about 450m and into the 2km section of Bunyeroo Gorge which ran in the river bed.  It was followed by another couple of kilometres with dark brown rocks up the sides of the hills.  The track was no longer quite so smooth.  It was 10:00am when RL turned west towards Brachina Gorge about 9kms.  As they drove along, R & R noticed the different coloured rocks, which for a geologist would have caused great excitement.  The signs indicated which type of rock: limestone, siltstone, Bonney Sandstone, Rawnsleigh Quartite, red shale, grey sandstone, and, the ages of the rocks in the region of 500-600 million years ago.  Now, both R & R love rocks, as their children will witness, but RA just cannot comprehend anything with numbers that big!  There were huge grey rocks in Brachina Creek with walls of rock to the left and right in the gorge.  R & R stopped at Brachina Lookout before continuing along the creek where multi coloured rocks could be seen.  Great slabs, slices, giant flakes of rock (square and rectangular, not round like boulders) jut up and out, horizontally, vertically and diagonally.  On the way back out from Brachina Gorge which was on the western end of the national park, R & R noticed that many of the walls of rock facing west had lichen growing on them.  It was 11:30am when R & R had a cup of coffee before RL turned north to the Aroona Valley 6.5kms on the northern end edge of the park.  Although the road followed the creek line a little and even crossed over it, the drive was to the valley where another ruin remains as a remnant of pioneer pastoral days.  The track was quite corrugated but worth the travel.  R & R spent about half an hour there before heading back south 6.5kms and then east over a water crossing into ridges with laminated dolomite, sandstone, tutile, limestone and shale which were 600+ millions of years old and then past Trezona before stopping to look at the Youngoona Hut ruins and waterhole.  At 1:00pm, R & R headed north on the Flinders Way road toward Blinman 29km.  The road ran beyond the national park and the station country, supporting sheep, had native pine and acacia with just a little short green grass holding on since the last rains a few weeks before.   About 10kms south of Blinman, near 1:20pm, RL turned up a 2km steep track alongside Mt Emily at 707m to look at, and take photos of the Great Wall of China.  It was a fine example of the flat-topped hills that R & R had thought looked like a slab cake decorated with a crust or nut topping.  It was a little windy but R & R enjoyed their lunch with a fantastic view of the hills and some yellow spring daisy-like blossoms.  Blinman had a hotel which called itself “The Pub in the Scrub” and a bakery which had a delightful fresh bread and pastries smell as R & R walked round taking photos of old building and public art.  At the information centre, which housed a mine tour experience, R & R enquired about Glass Gorge which was on RL’s list.  The lady insisted that the road would be okay since it was being graded.  Indeed, it was, since no sooner were they out of town they came upon the grader working.  It was a little slow for a while following the grader, with a full bucket and a roller on behind, waiting for a safe opportunity to pass.  There were some rocky hills with quite steep descents. They were heading for Parachilna Gorge about 18kms east of Blinman. Parachilna Gorge marks the end of the Heysen Trail, a walking track which begins at Jervis Bay on the southern tip of the Fleurieu Peninsula.  Hans Heysen (1877-1968) was a famous Australian painter who drew inspiration for his artworks from the rugged landscapes of the Flinders Ranges.  At Parachilna Gorge, the Hum turned north to drive a single lane loop track through Glass Gorge back to Blinman about 30kms.  The track was quite narrow and winding which made it difficult to see vehicles coming and, in some places, it was a little corrugated.  For the most part the sheep grazing countryside could have been described as scrubby.  It was getting late when RL drove back through Blinman so they agreed not to stop and look at the pioneer cemetery, preferring rather to take in Stokes Hill Lookout on the way back to Upalinna Station and their camper.  A westerly wind had really picked up, RA guessed near 30km/hr. and, being on top of the hill, R & R struggled to stand straight to take in the view and take some photos before it became too dark.  Clouds had built up in the sky and a few drops made their marks on the dusty windscreen.  While they were there, their daughter, H rang, so they chatted briefly.  The remaining section of the road back was winding with suggested speeds of as low as 40kms/hr in some places.  It was 6:00pm by the time R & R were having coffee and thinking about dinner.  S, their daughter rang so they chatted a while before retiring.  It tried to rain but before long the wind had settled and there was little chance of a storm.  It had been a long day.  R & R had travelled just over 200kms and seen many gorges and ruins … and thousands of native pines.

3/10/2018 Wednesday R & R slept well and were out of bed at 6:30am to a pleasant 16*C and a light breeze.  By 8:40am, they had packed down and were on their way south down the Flinders Way road heading for Hawker.  RL turned west 2kms into the south eastern end of the park to Arkaroo Rock.  The 3km hike was quite challenging for the first section headed up a steep rocky track.  At the beginning of the loop, the going was smoother and the return was relatively easy.  The track must have reached about 600m up with Point Bonney at 1132m towering up to the west above and a view to the Chase Range in the east. The aboriginal rock painting on the wave like wall were clear and came up well on photo; well worth the effort of the climb.  R & R enjoyed listening to the birds, seeing water in the creek, watching lizards scamper under rocks, noting that the native pine struggled to compete with mallee, sheoak and blackboy, looking out for wild flower blossoms and breathing the fresh air.  They were fortunate enough to see red capped robins, quail, feral pigeons and a kite.  Having arrived shortly after 9:00am, it was almost 11:00am before R & R were heading off to Hawker, refreshed by coffee and fruit cake.  R & R stopped shortly after at Elder Range Lookout before arriving back in Hawker for more information at about 11:30am.  Shortly after noon, they were heading down the Stirling North road towards Quorn 66km south.  The road ran flat to undulating about 500m with the ranges more or less far away. Some sheep feed on the acacia and grasses on orange soil, while native pine grew up the sides of the hills to 700m. At 12:40pm, RL turned west a couple of kilometres into the Kanyaka Homestead Ruins.  Unlike Farina, which was a whole township, it was just the remains of one station.  The number and quality of the buildings and the massive shearing shed had to be seen to be believed; all being built by John Randall Phillips after he took up the lease in 1856.  Sheep numbers varied, with the weather, from 41,000 down to 10,000 in drought years.  Water was secure as the Kanyaka Creek ran near the homestead and a permanent water was only 1km along the creek.  R & R had lunch, walked around and took photos and then took the trail to the waterhole.  It was amazing to see several pools of water in the rocky creek bed below the Rock.  The name Kanyaka may be derived from the Aboriginal word meaning “place of stone”.  The rock had also been called Death Rock since a story tells of an aboriginal family who watched and waited from a little distance, as an older person died by requesting to be left with water and food near the rock.  Interestingly, Hugh Proby who first took up the lease for Kanyaka drowned, crossing the Wilochra Creek during a flash flood, trying to round up cattle that had been frightened by the storm.  His grave is not in the Kanyaka cemetery but near Wilochra Creek where he died at the western end of the of the property.  It was just before 3:00pm when R & R headed for Quorn in earnest.  There the countryside opened up with the ranges far to the horizon as the road ran across the Wilochra Plain which had more or less shrubbery and grasses.  It was 19*C but the wind had blown up strongly from the south west to 26kms/hr.  The sky had grown dark.  R & R popped into the information centre at Quorn at 3:30pm and had a look through the Pichi Richi Railway Museum.  The Pichi Richi Railway Preservation Society had worked hard to maintain the old railway line and its stock, running different services for tourists and rail enthusiasts a couple of times a week to Port Augusta.  R & R popped into IGA while they were there for coffee and took a few photos of lovely old buildings.  At 4:10pm they were driving 18kms south to a free camping spot called Woolshed Flat which was at the base of a tall rocky cliff face.  Two other vans were already set up with cloud building on the range to the east.  By 5:00pm, R & R were having coffee, looking at maps and thinking about starting fried rice for dinner.  After dinner RL read and RA caught up on the diary.  Once again, the weather that threatened did not eventuate despite a little shower about 9:00pm.    RL seemed particularly tired … and RA hoped he was okay.