SEPTEMBER 2012: Flinders Ranges
We spent two weeks traveling from Sydney over to Adelaide, up through the Flinders and then Maree for a flight over Lake Eyre.This is our little journey.
Adventure and exploration of our great country is at the heart of 4WD
Touring Australia. Often this brings to
mind long challenging trips, remote tracks and months of preparation. However, to get out and discover new places does
not mean you need to sell the house and give up your job. Life throws at you many
excuses why now is not the time but there are unlimited opportunities out there just waiting to be explored. It just
takes the willingness to throw caution to the wind (as well as some bags in the
camper trailer) and do it.
So it was with this
philosophy, we decided to escape the day to day bustle of Sydney and spend a
week getting a taste of adventure.
1598km may seem a long way to even begin to get the tyres dirty but the
beauty of the Flinders Ranges and the last drops of water in Lake Eyre before
it disappeared for another 20 years was too good to miss, even if it was only
for a week.
After spending a
couple of rest days in Adelaide it was time make our way to the Flinders Ranges
National Park. The Flinders Ranges were created over 800 million years ago as a
result of a large uplifting of the land. But what makes it unique is the next
several million years, where the sea flooded in eroding away the softer rock
leaving behind a magical geological formation of deep gorges and rippled sea
floors.
We chose Wilpena
Pound to base ourselves for the first few nights. There is something idealistic about sleeping
in a remote camp spot with the knowledge that there is not another person
around you for a hundred miles. But with this often comes the lack of amenities
that human existence has driven us to.
This is often one of the ‘excuses’ from some of our ‘travelling
companions’ to not get out there and camp.
But places like Wilpena Pound offer the comforts like clean BBQ’s,
flushing toilets and hot showers all within a magical setting. I have quickly learnt that to enjoy camping
with the family sometimes you have to ‘compromise’, and this is not a bad place
to do it.
Wilpena pound is an amazing circular formation that is the left over of an ancient range of mountains that have been eroding away over millions of years leaving behind the weather resistant quartzite walls. Artist Sir Hans Heysen aptly called them "the bones of nature laid bare." 'Pound' is an old English word that means 'an enclosure for animals', which was how the pound was used by early pastoralists and Wilpena is an aborigional word with suggested meanings of 'bent fingers', 'cupped hand' or 'curled up kangaroo skin'. Today, the Adnyamathanha people translate the word Wilpena as Ikara meaning 'meeting place'.
Taking the 4WD and venturing along Benyeroo Gorge is on everyone’s must do list but leaving the car behind and taking one of the many walks is the best way to experience the Pound. We spent the time doing some lovely walks including a walk up Mount Mount Ohlssen Bagge which is a steep rocky track but well worth it with a fantastic view of the pound. A walk up Bunyeroo Creek Gorge and through the majestic gums gives you a small glimpse in to this unique geological history with interesting markers along the way.
While Wilpena Pound many not have the solitude of camping, if anyone still wants to experience a sense of isolation one only needs to sneak out of camp each morning before sun rise and find you self a spot overlooking the rugged granite peaks. No words can describe the experience of the ranges as the sun slowly rises and casts its golden light on the ragged escarpment.
My wife may have got the hot showers but I still managed to get the solitude!
Like all trips we
could have spent another week here but the house had not been sold so it was
time to move to our next camp at Farina Station. This was our base to explore Maree and do a
flight over Lake Eyre.
Spending a few days
at Farina Station you begin to appreciate the enormity of the journey in 1839 of
Edward John Eyre, together with a group of five men, two drays and ten horses,
who set out from Adelaide to explore this arid land. Even more amazing is the
pastoralists who followed establishing sheep stations in the area.
We had some lovely weather at Wilpena Pound but this country can be a place of extremes and overnight the temperature rose to over 40 deg as a huge dust storm blew in. It was a taste of what our pioneer and pastoralists struggled against to develop the town and make a living.
For a few years the rains were unusually good, and the farms and town flourished, At its peak the town had a bakery, grain store, two breweries, two hotels, a general store, post office, Anglican church, five blacksmiths and a school.
Unfortunately for the early settlers the rains didn’t continue falling bringing years of drought and dust storms which eventually forced the abandonment of the town. All that remains are the bones and memories of the past which took on a mystical quality under the red outback sunset.
With the wind and dust howling, the thought of getting in to a small light plane to fly over the Lake did not look inviting. But like the extremes of this land, as quick as the heat came it left, as the dust storm was replaced by rain and dark skies broken every now and again by lightning flashes. While nature’s light show was spectacular it only left enough rain to settle the dust and cover the car with enough mud to show that we really had been outback.
The next day we headed in to Maree for our flight over Lake Eyre. One of the
reasons for this trip was to get an appreciate of how a precious and rare
liquid can transform a dry flat basin into an ornithological wonder. I still cant seem to get my head around the
fact that the Lake drains over 1.2 million square kilometres or one-sixth of
Australia. As most have read it only fills every 20-30 years and this has
happened twice in the last few years.
While there was not much water left now it was well worth seeing this
rare natural phenomena before it returns to its dry salty state as the flow
reduces to a trickle and recedes back up the Coopers. It’s been a long time between drinks but I am
sure we will be back one day to toast to this magnificent place.
So what next. Was it I trip up the Birdsville Track to have a beer at the pub? Or may be the Strzelecki to Innamincka? How about Oodnadatta track and on to Alice Springs? But unfortunately none of this was going to happen this time. We both had work to return to and bills to be paid so it was time to make a mad dash back to Sydney and plan for the next trip.
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POSTSCRIPT: An adventure before the adventure
Below is a post I placed on the first night of our trip........Isn't the wonders of technology amazing. It is with the power of the iPad and satellites I am able to sit here under the stars somewhere on the Murrumbidgee River with a beer in my hand to tell you this little yarn. However, I must begin by saying it was not so peaceful a couple of hours ago, but more on that later.
The story begins as a result of our plan for a 2 week holiday to the Flinders Rangers. With my wife not having as much holidays available as me it was decided to use some of our frequent flyers and have her and the kids fly to Adelaide in a few days while I took a leisurely drive over with the camper to begin the trip. Now I can hear some of you saying how spoilt that they get to fly but trust me - a few days with out "are we there yet", "she punched me", "daaaad - she's on my side", and "I need to go to the toilet" and you will see how brilliant the plan was.
But that's not where the real story begins. It actually begins a week ago as I was packing for the trip. One advantage of a camper is that you tend to take a lot of things. One disadvantage of a camper is that you tend to take a lot of things you don't need. So with fuel economy in mind I remove some of the things I don't think we will need for this trip. Out goes the swim gear and canoe, out goes the surfboard. Now what to do with the maxtrax??
But that's not where the story begins. It actually began almost 12 months ago when I travelled back from Adelaide to Sydney and needed a spot to stop over for the night. After travelling through Hay I was talking over the UHF to my travelling companion about finding a nice spot along the Murrumbidgee and a local comes across the radio "you sound like a nice group - if you don't tell any one I will direct you to a great spot". And that they did. Down a track and through a paddock then over the crest of a hill and you drop into a lovely spot right on the river.
Oops - sorry. I must focus as the story really began about 3 hours ago when I decided to go to the same spot and camp overnight. By this stage it was dark and with the Roos out over the Hay planes it seemed a great idea. So of I headed down the track through the paddock and over the crest of the hill down into.................MUD!!! Bugger it was not like that last time!! Abort abort..... but alas it was too late. With the weight of the camper we came to a halt.
This is where the story actually begins. Now the first thing to do was panic...... Oops no that's not it. It was to get out and survey the situation. I was by myself (not a good start), my wife and kids were not with me (that was lucky), I was about 10 km to the nearest farm house and 4km to the Sturt highway ( I think), and it was pitch black (where are those bloody stars when you need them). So having decided the embarrassment of a call to the wife was as bad as being caught by your parents having sex (now that really IS another story ) I decided it was up to me to get out.
The good news is that I had got off the accelerator the minute I felt it go down so it had not bottomed out. The bad news is that it was so bloody sticky I reckon superglue should patent the stuff. So out with the shovel I began to clear away the glug from the tyres. Also fortunate was that there was a dead tree near by so I packed as much of the branches as I could on the track I had just dropped down. And the Maxtrax?? Yes, as luck would have, I decided that they looked good on the camper so what was the harm in taking them.
Now due to the slope I knew I only had one chance. So having prepared as best as I could, and praying to the 4wd God to get me out, I thrust it in to reverse and held on tight.
And so it is that I sit here under the stars (that finally decided to come out) by the banks of the Murrumbidgee (well on the top of the bank) and tell you this yarn.
The great news is that I am having fun and I haven't even got to the Flinders!
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