Flinders Ranges

Friday, 1 June 2012


Winter!!! Typical winter weather, too – freezing cold and wet.

Last night we were so proud of ourselves – we actually managed (with any technical support phone calls) to connect the laptop to the television. This allowed us to start watching all the television programmes that David had recorded for us onto a USB stick. We have now watched the first two episodes of Downtown Abbey.

Because of the weather, it has been necessary to use the clothes driers whenever I have washed. With sheets and towels, laundry had to be done and $4 for 30 minutes drying time just had to be paid. I was less than happy after 30 minutes to discover that there was no heat being generated by the drier, which meant the towels, etc, ended up on the small clothes horse inside the caravan (which necessitates lots of clothes horse relocations) with the heater working flat out. Needless to say, the inside of the caravan ended up like a sauna, with mutters about the heat. I even returned to reception and requested my money back and reported the drier was obviously defective!

As the forecast for tomorrow was slightly better than the forecast for today, we decided to leave the walk into Wilpena Pound until tomorrow. Instead, we undertook the circle drive of the Flinders Ranges. This is about 60-70 kms long and probably two thirds is unpaved road. Someone is still grinning from ear to ear and has raised testosterone levels after all the four wheel driving! The first lookout we stopped at had lots of small cairns – and a grave! There were dozens of kangaroos (not quite as many as Canberra!) and plenty of emus to be seen.

Once we hit the gravel, which was extremely corrugated and rough, we stopped to deflate the tyres from their towing pressure. I was assured this would make a difference, not sure though. The scenery was stunning and constantly changing from the plateau to the mountains and gorges with their unusual layers and sawtooth ridges. Slippery Dip was an aptly named feature of the road and we stopped for a look before proceeding. After this was negotiated successfully, watched by a couple of emus, our next hurdle was a water crossing. I flatly refused to walk it, so Les walked along the little weir poking the dirty water with a stick to determine the depth and bottom condition. While we were considering what to do, a young lady in a vehicle approached from the opposite direction, so being a gentleman, Leslie reversed and allowed her to cross first!

We continued through the Brachina Gorge, along the creek bed, looking for the yellow footed rock wallabies, who didn’t want to be found. The long 30 km stretch back to the bitumen followed the valley floor between the Heysen and ABC ranges , with a couple of kilometres along a creek bed before climbing up the ridges. We stopped at another lookout but Cat wasn’t too keen on staying outside the car – something to do with the two wedge tail eagles circling overhead. Then the drive really became interesting – we hit the MUD! Overnight rain had turned the road into thick, yellow mud (a fair proportion of which is still on the outside of the car) and we spent some time travelling sideways, despite having the Pajero in low range 4WD. It was rather nice to reach the bitumen and leave the mud behind.

The weather has really clagged in and is very cold.