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Published: November 15th 2009
Gungellan Hotel
McLeods Daughters pub (Freeling)Someone once said “be careful what you wish for”…if only I had taken heed!!! Having complained incessantly for the last few months about having to wear thermals, jumpers and wet weather gear (“why oh why didn’t we go north” was mentioned more than a few times!) we are now cowering in the shade of a gum tree at Hancocks lookout near the Flinders Ranges trying to see the funny side of the Australian climate!
After leaving Adelaide our plan was to travel northwards to the Flinders Ranges National Park, across the Oodnadatta track and to visit Coober Pedy while the temperatures were still cool enough to do it comfortably and to be back in Adelaide well before summer hit on the 1st Dec. Unbeknown to us, nature obviously had other ideas of when summer was to arrive with our average daily temperature for this part of the trip being a delightful 40 degrees with some days getting up to 45!!!
From Adelaide we travelled through “Drovers run” country and visited the Gungellan Hotel, made famous in the McLeods Daughters TV series. Don’t worry girls, you didn’t miss out on very much, to my great disappointment, farmer Nick was nowhere
to be seen! From here we made our way through the Clare Valley wine region which to me was unexpectedly small but of course very pretty (what rolling green countryside filled with vines isn‘t?).
As we drove further north, we soon began to feel the heat, our prayers for long hot sunny days were finally being answered. Off came the coats as well as the extra blankets and sleeping bags and on went the shorts and sandals … hurrah… finally the Australia we remember!! We stopped for a drink in a little town called Wilmington which considers itself the southern part of the Flinders Ranges, some 300kms north of Adelaide. In Wilmington, we decided to take a short 3km walk to the top of Mount Maria, which is barely a bump but gives a good view of the town and the surrounding countryside and views to Mt Remarkable National Park. We had been warned about “the South Australian plague” around these parts and it wasn’t long before we experienced it for ourselves. Almost as soon as we left the car we were accompanied by our own personal “mass” of flies desperately trying to get the moisture from our eyes,
Warren Gorge camp spot
Home to the yellow footed Rock wallaby nose, mouth and ears. It was quite unbearable, especially if you’re like me and have visions of the last thing they might happen to have landed on before they attempt to fly into your mouth …yuk!!! “South Australian tinnitus” as we have come to know it, is not a very pleasant experience but you do eventually learn to live with it with a little help from our head nets. While admittedly, they won’t win you any prizes in a fashion parade and have other side effects (as Richie demonstrates), they do however prevent you from choking on these little disgusting creatures!!! Unfortunately, we only had two head nets so Woody wasn’t quite as lucky as us and several flies were also not so lucky!
Yes you may laugh at the sight of us but I can assure you, we were not the only idiots with these on!!!!
After leaving Wilmington we stayed at Hancocks Lookout which is a very picturesque camp spot overlooking Port Augusta and the top of Spencer Gulf where we experienced the first of some amazing sunsets on this leg of the trip. The next day after travelling through Quorn (not to be mistaken for
the meat substitute … this is outback Australia afterall!) we stayed in the pretty Warren Gorge which has a very healthy population of yellow footed rock wallabies. However, since Woody just wanted to play with them all and made quite a lot of noise when we wouldn’t let him, none came close enough for me to get a decent photograph! Warren gorge was a good introduction to the amazing colours we would see in the Flinders Ranges. At dusk, the stones and dirt on the ground looked almost blue / purple which against the red rock walls, the green of the trees and a deep blue sky was quite stunning (my photos certainly do not do it justice!).
On the way to the National Park we traversed some spectacular country which was mainly red and rocky with a couple of dry, salt creeks and lakes. It is so dry and desolate, despite its unique beauty I just cannot understand why anyone would want to live out here. Admittedly, not many people do now but in the past there was obviously a sizeable population out here who had huge cattle and sheep properties. You would have to be either crazy,
eccentric and happy in your own company or very brave and fearless to live here … it‘s not for the faint hearted!
As we travelled this way we passed a few old ruins including some called the Simmonston ruins. Back in the 1870’s, this land was surveyed and two small buildings (a hotel and a general store) were built here. At the same time land was advertised for people to come and build there homes as it was on the proposed route for the first Ghan railway which would travel up to Alice Springs. However, just a short time later it was announced that the route had been changed and it would now pass on the other side of the range, some 20kms to the east, through a place called Gordon. Consequently the buildings were never finished, they were abandoned and Simmonston is now known as “the town that never was”. A few kilometres further are the Kanyaka ruins with a much more successful history than that of Simmonston. Kanyaka once served as a large working sheep station and consists of a large homestead, shearing sheds and the shearers quarters. They were well built and are in fabulous condition
Simmonston Ruins
The town that never was with a little recent restoration and TLC. Definitely worth a look around.
It is always a treat going into Australia’s National Parks and the Flinders Ranges NP is no exception. The scenery is quite breathtaking and I just love the close encounters you get with the wildlife. Wilpena Pound is one of the great attractions of the park and is a natural amphitheatre of mountains which can be seen by the air (scenic flights on offer) or by the numerous lookouts on the walks. We chose the walk up to Wangara Lookout which gave a lovely birds eye view of the pound. On our way up to the lookout, after passing through some gorgeous wildflowers and an old homestead (Hills Homestead) we were met by all different kinds of lizard however none more beautiful than this little guy who I have to say was quite the little poser and stayed on the rock for more than 10 minutes while I photographed him, every now and again changing positions for me. He knew how beautiful he was!!! Ha, I almost forgot to take pictures of the spectacular view behind him!!!
On the way back to the car, we were
given another treat when we stopped to inspect a rustling in the bushes and out popped daddy emu with 10 of his brood!!! They wandered quietly and fearlessly up to us and then casually walked past with not a care in the world. I have worked with emus in captivity but I am always so amazed and pleased when things like this happen in the wild … it’s crazy but it gives me such a buzz!!! The rest of the park is easily seen by 4WD on unsealed roads and is quite spectacular. After driving round the park we were aware that our sighting of the emu and his chicks was not uncommon and happens several times a day!
We left the NP and followed the Old Ghan railway track through Marree and along the Oodnadatta track to William Creek. The Oodnadatta track is quite an experience, a very long, unsealed track in the middle of what I can only describe as desert. The only roadside attractions are provided by a mechanic turned artist who has basically turned junk into sculptures to entertain the drivers and of course, you get a glimpse of Lake Eyre. It was starting to
get extremely hot by this point and we were holding out for any little bit of shade we could find so when we reached a little place called Coward Springs (appropriately named I thought) with a natural cold spring spa and lots of shady palms trees, we were all overjoyed … none more so than Woody who quickly decided that the spa bath wasn’t big enough for all three of us and he had to take ownership!!! Rich and I were not very amused at being kicked and splashed but then reasoned that since Woody was unable to take off his coat as we had done, it was only fair that he enjoyed more time in it than us …. bloody mongrel!!! (In my best aussie accent of course!). Later that night we experienced our first outback dust storm (on a rather small scale) but it prevented us from setting up camp til rather late and while we had our backs turned, to Richie’s disappointment, some little rodent came and feasted on all of his Jatz crackers!!!
We spent Melbourne Cup day in William Creek, a town consisting of just an airstrip and a pub where we enjoyed drinks
Poser!
Flinders NP with new found friends and we won $20 in the sweep for second place! Go “Crime Stopper” … you beauty! We were even privileged enough to meet the lovely lady owner of Anna Creek Station, the biggest cattle station in the world! Later that night, unfortunately, we got to see the Royal Flying Doctors Service in action. They do an amazing job, flying out to the middle of nowhere in the early hours of the morning to tend to an accident where the nearest hospital is over 800kms by road. My hat goes off to them!
From William Creek we travelled on to Coober Pedy, the home of the Big Winch and the town where up to 70% of its residents live underground in very cool houses. On the surface Coober Pedy looks a little like the surface of Mars and because it produces something like 90% of the worlds commercial opals, you would think that this place was overrun with giant moles, digging holes anywhere they want! While in Coober Pedy we visited an Underground home, an Opal mine, an underground bookshop and even an underground church!
Since we were at Coober Pedy and had a few
days to spare we decided that Uluru was just up the road by Aussie standards (only another 750 kms to get there) and might be worth a visit, so off we set. I must admit, I know it is Australia’s biggest attraction alongside the Opera House but come on … it is just a rock and I didn’t really understand why people would travel so far or what the fascination with this rock was but we decided to go and see for ourselves. ….just how wrong could I be?!!! Uluru is simply stunning ….we were amazed at how the same view of the rock can look different in colour and shape just depending on what time of day it is. And … it is so huge standing out against the very flat ,almost featureless landscape. Since the most popular times to see the rock is at sunset and sunrise (for the colours), do not expect to sleep late at Ayers Rock Resort. Even if you are not going to see the rock at sunrise you are awoken at 4:45am to the sound of lots of Britz and Maui campervans sliding doors and lots of European voices! On our first night,
after socialising with a few new found friends, we met a beautiful Dingo on the way back to our camp. He was not interested in us at all and because they are wild and potentially dangerous, I was sensible and controlled myself enough to respect that! Gee, he was gorgeous!!!
Believe it or not, we did manage to rise before the sun on our second morning there and got to walk the 10kms around the rock before it got too hot and we also managed to see the equally beautiful Olgas at sunset. I still don’t quite understand why the Olgas are not as famous as Uluru…. maybe something to do with Aboriginal culture?
Over the past few days we have made our way back to Adelaide where we are meeting up with Jane and Steve (Richie’s siblings) before we set off across the Nullabor towards Perth.
Well I appear to have talked too much again and I thank and praise anyone who actually gets to the end of my blabberings! Hope you enjoy the photos and I hope you are all well. Til next time …..
Take care
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Roy and Linda
non-member comment
Nomads head north.
Hi Richard, Hayley and Woody. This is so different in content to the previous blogs and yet no less interesting. Some things I had heard of, such as the first cellar pack of wine I bought in Australia over 30 years ago was Clare Valley riesling, thought it was in South Australia somewhere but? Also had an idea about the massive opencast mines, opals etc but had no idea that large underground communities existed there. Makes sense I suppose yet so different. Good to see Woody in front of the camera, looks like he has aquired the sophisticated (!!) greying look just like me! Certainly one awesome 'hot dog' in those temperatures with his coat optimised for elsewhere. It was lovely to see him enjoying the pool at Coward Springs, must have felt great for him. I reckon the posing lizard and daddy emu are are up there with Roxy, (the stars you have met along the way and I am sure there are more to come). Loved the outdoor cinema (Oodnadatta Odeon Screen 1?) and the head nets, adds new meaning to the expression cold filtered beer! cool!! We hope all the gear is standing up to the harsh temperatures, it is a good test of man, woman machine and Woody! Keep them coming Hayley, can't wait for your next blog. Take care as you head west. Lots of love Roy and Linda xxx.