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Published: August 9th 2017
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Geo: -31.3612, 138.654
There is something so alluring about the outback, a harsh, rugged and desolate place at times which is also extremely beautiful and amazing. By now the generational gap when it comes to visiting the outback appears.
All you see along the roads are campervans and caravans and behind the wheel are two older retiree's in most cases, setting off on their trip around Australia. And the odd family or two, but they appear more frequently in the school holidays. So why is it that you see so little of our age group there? I am not sure but after visiting the Flinders Ranges National Park, we are eager to see the rest of the outback.
We set off from Broken Hill to the Remarkable National Park, driving through some deserted and flat land. After quite a few hours drive we arrived at Alligator Gorge and keen to do a bit of walking.
This was the first time we have both been to a gorge like this, a little tempter for what Kakadu National Park has I'm sure.
It was a great walk which looped around, although when it rains I am sure it would be off limits for walkers. The red
colour of the rocks and the strange formations added to the experience and landscape.
As dusk set in we were going to hang around to walk to the top of Mount Remarkable but decided against it because time was a factor and the weather, so we continued north to Hawker. It had been a pretty long day and lots of driving.
In the morning we tried to sneak in a free shower at the local caravan park but this time got busted, at least it was after the shower so we felt fresh, paid the $5 each and headed to Yourambella Aboriginal Caves.
This was a great place where we had to walk up hill to a few big rocks with some markings and then continued on the loop to a third where there was a sign that explained what each marking mean't. It was really cool to see and provided some stunning views of the bare land.
We then returned to Hawker and drove the dirt track to the Jervis Hill lookout. Again this provided some amazing views looking towards the Flinders Ranges and a nice walk through the yellow footed rock wallabies habitat, but we didn't see any.
What we noticed is that
part of these sights are included in a walk called the Heysen Trail, named after Hans Heysen who first surveyed the area. It's just a short walk of 1200km from Cape Jervis, below Adelaide, all the way through bushland, gorges, forest and vineyards to Parachilna on the the northern end of the Flinder Ranges National Park.
From admiring the view, we set off once again and finally reached our destination of Wilpena and the Wilpena Pound. An odd shaped formation, the shape is better viewed from above, full of great walking opportunities
We had enough time to set off on one of the walks to Wangara Lookout which was a shortish walk and gave some great views of inside the Wilpena Pound. We returned to take up shelter at the Wilpena Resort bar where we enjoyed a couch and a beer for the first time in a while.
Our night was spent in the rest stop just from where you take the road to Wilpena. It was so quiet, not a sound and the stars were out.
We were pleased we changed our decision from Kangaroo Island to Flinders Ranges National Park and we were looking forward to the following days and chances for
some more outback walks.
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