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Published: October 18th 2014
Last time we came into the Flinders Ranges we stayed at the town of Hawker, but this time we thought we would like to stay at Wilpena itself. Unfortunately the Wilpena Camp Ground was fully booked, so we came to Rawnsley Park which is on the outside of the same ranges that create Wilpena Pound. Rawnsley Park is a working sheep station with a very good caravan park included.
From the caravan park there are several walks along and around several hills, or even to the top of Rawnsley Bluff to peep inside the pound. Most are easy for folk with moderate fitness other than the climb up the bluff. We avoided that one this trip.
There are several good day trips as well, one of which we did with David and Mary. Our journey took us north to a small town called Blinman. The area is dotted with failed towns, but Blinman has survived. The hotel there is The Blinman North Hotel. There is no sign of a Blinman Central, East, West or South Hotel. But it was situated about 100 meters north of the Blinman General Store. General stores in these areas are
jack of all trades ranging from take away meals to farm materials etc.
From Blinman we headed west to another famous rail station, Parachilna. To get there we left the bitumen roads and headed through Parachilna Gorge. We hadn't travelled far and we came to another road block. This time it was father emu and his chicks stopping traffic in both directions. Dad moved off the road to our right, chicks following, and then changed his mind and ran across the road with long lolloping steps to our left, and finally let us pass into his territory. Sadly, my dash cam wasn't operating at the time due entirely to operator error. (Sob sob)
The Parachilna Pub is also famous for its unusual menu. There is a selection of burgers available for lunch including emu, roo and camel. For dinner they do a feral mixed grill. I don't think its scraped off the road, so should be wholesome. The whole-sum of a meal put it out of a pensioners league but. There was only a silent response to a request for a pensioner 50% discount. Standard price would buy 6 Big Macs!
This region of South Australia is very rugged and bears the scars of extreme tectonic torture. Ranges at varying angles, the angle of tipping of the sediment beds varies enormously, as does the colour of the various sediment layers. Some had very dark, maybe even oily look, others were a variety of browns and reds.
There was a little water running through Parachilna Gorge which we had to cross at one point, but there is plenty of evidence of extreme water flows down the river and creek beds. There are photos at Rawnsley Park of the floods that hit this area in 2010. Those same dry riverbeds thundered with amazing quantities of water.
After crossing through the gorge, there is a hill climb to a plateau which stretched north, south and west as far as the eye can see. Very desert looking, yet in a way, a lot of money is generated just a little north of Parachilna, at Leigh Creek where there are huge coal mines.
As it happened, while we were at Parachilna Pub, a coal train stopped at Parachilna Station. Actually the 'Station' has long since been abandoned
as have the sidings, but the train did stop briefly. It had a triple head of diesel electric locomotives and measured 3 kilometres in length. I started counting wagons but after five trips around fingers and toes I got confused and just accepted the engine driver's word on the length.
After that little excitement, we headed south to Moralana Scenic Drive. Again this is a gravel road through a sheep station. We didn't see too many sheep, but obviously emus have populated this valley. The only place I can recall seeing so many emus was at Denham in Western Australia where the drought had literally driven the birds into town.
We are always on the look out for birds of prey and photo opportunities. The area is home to Kites and Wedge Tail Eagles, and many many Crows. This is after all the Crow State of Australia, and they are loved here, but despised elsewhere, particularly the footy team version of the black bird. Marg got the pic of the day capturing a kite or similar bird just raising its wings for take off. The same bird was just a large speck on dash
cam.
Its not uncommon in these outback camp grounds to have wandering minstrels entertain after dinner. Best Friends were in the camp, a jazz group. A lot of improvisation and fun for sure. The washboard was really well played and stayed in tune the whole evening. There seemed to be a slight conflict between the mandolin being pitchy and the trombone – not my assessment, but of the trombonist the next morning.
One of the great things about Rawnsley Park is The Woolshed Restaurant. This is a restaurant with a small selection of classy food and wine. I had Rawnsley Park Roast Lamb – excellent. Marg had a fishcake and salad combo which she was pleased with also. For desert we had apple crumble. Before you curl up your toes, you must taste this extraordinary version of an all time favourite. It is worth the short (2500ks from Brisbane) drive to taste it.
There are many bird species to spot here and in the pound. Most are small birds like the very pretty scarlet robin. They avoided us like the plague. Even the ring neck parrots were playing hard to get.
However, one of these could not resist the temptation for a drink of water when I disconnected my hose from the tap. I grabbed Marg's camera and I hope the pics came out ok. They don't hang around long at all. We have seen green neck parrots in much of the southern half of the continent. Here the general colour is much more blue than many of their cousins. I'm not sure if they are treated as a subspecies or not.
This was the point where David and Mary and our team parted company. D & M heading to Broken Hill, Lightning Ridge and home, while we turn south and then west on our way to Perth via as many places as we can find. Adrian and Rilla had already returned to Brisbane from The Murray.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Day trips abound
Love road road blocks.