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Published: August 9th 2014
Melrose
The oldest town in the Flinders Ranges.Burra to Pildappa Rock
Before we left Burra we purchased a newspaper! The front page headline and ½ page photo was of a Southern Right Whale and inside was a two page spread extolling the incredible season for whales being had at the Head of Bight. The article mentioned that a recent helicopter survey of the Whale ‘nursery’ showed a total of 227 Southern Right Whales and 55 calves, 2 Humpbacks a pod of dolphins and 3 Great White Sharks. The article plus all the photos had Trish saying “put the foot down we need to get there…now!”
So a bee line was drawn and we pushed on through the Southern Flinders Regions of Mount Bryan, Hallett, and Jamestown where the beautiful old sandstone buildings were only surpassed by the magnificent season being experienced by the landowners and the sheep in incredible condition.
As we pulled into Melrose I was keen to stop and walk around this fabulous little town and perhaps get a coffee and wondered if Trish could be swayed from her ‘hell bent’ dash to the Bight,…but she was…easily. Melrose is a great spot and we have stopped here before and we think that it
is just getting better each time, a new coffee shop since our last visit is where we headed and we were not let down. Melrose is an historic town, the oldest town in fact in the southern Flinders, with some beautiful buildings and now a major destination on many tourists’ agendas. A centre for mountain bike adventures, and a major destination for bush walkers, Melrose has the magnificent Mt Remarkable Range as a backdrop. We did not stop here, (obviously, as we are on a mission!!) but the showgrounds are a great spot to camp.
On through Wilmington and up over Horrocks Pass and down into Port Augusta where we stopped for fuel and a few ‘supplies’. Our destination tonight was to be Pildappa Rock, just north of Minnipa on the Eyre Highway. We still had over 200Klm to go today, but the drive across the Eyre through Kimba and Wudinna was fast and easy with a vista from horizon to horizon of amazing crops that looked brilliant, lets’ hope they all get a kind finish to the season and they yield what looks like being some sort of a record year.
That night we free camped at
Port Augusta
The wharf where the first camels were off-loaded and introduced into Australia. Pildappa Rock and it was like being back at Wave Rock in WA. Pildappa Rock is a unique pink inselberg just 15 kilometres northeast of Minnipa in South Australia's granite country. As an inselberg Pildappa Rock's outstanding feature is a unique wave form or "flare" structure (like Wave Rock) extending for perhaps 100 metres. In terms of height the flared structure is perhaps 2 to 3 storeys tall. It is pretty impressive and when we climbed onto the top of it the rock was massive in size and the view was awesome. What was even more incredible were some man made ‘gutters’ around the base of the rock. We found out later that these were made back in the early 1920’s by pioneering families in the area and these ‘gutters’ channelled precious water, when it rained, into an underground tank that they had built, amazing! Pildappa is a great free camp, but bring some firewood with you.
Tomorrow we should reach the Head of Bight …… and the whales!
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