Outback Tracks

From Rawnsley Park Station, we decided to backtrack a little to Hawker and take the main road up to Leigh Creek. We planned to take the Oodnadatta Track and overnight at Leigh Creek and William Creek on the way to Coober Pedy. Yeah… none of that happened! LOL.

First there was NOTHING at Leigh Creek. The Coal Mine tours no longer operate and they have even closed the viewing section from the highway. The Beltana Roadhouse, which I had read so much about, was also closed, so we decided to push on to Marree. We stayed in a free camp adjacent to the Hotel and it was great! Heaps of space for a big rig and the guy at the pub was lovely. We wandered all over the old hotel and he even let the kids have a swim in their pool. We love a free camp that only costs a drink. And Dunc finds it soooo hard to order a beer after a long day driving…

 The next morning we popped into the Arabunna Aboriginal Centre for a quick visit, and we are soooo glad we did! We had a wonderfully informative talk by one of the men working there, and the children (and adults) learnt all about the different tools and baskets used in the past.

And then we were off up the official Oodnadatta Track. Where we bumped and bounced and enjoyed the view of… nothing. It really is the most barren of outbacks out here. 

We DID enjoy the sculpture park and we stopped to wonder at the awe-inspiring sight of Lake Eyre – it truly DOES look like an inland sea! Even though it was stinking bloody hot, Dunc was keen to go and stand on the salt pans. I remember walking out all that way when I was a kid and was keen NOT to do it again. Lexie and Angus were keen to avoid the flies.

Ahh the flies – flies and flies everywhere! They crawl all over you – up your nose and in your ears and they can’t really be swooshed away – you have to physically swipe them off! Horrible little beasties. We are well used to wearing our fly nets now.

A little while after stopping at Lake Eyre, we had to stop again. This time through no choice of our own – Bertha overheated and that was it. Dunc and I had our hearts in our mouths for a few minutes, until he realized that we had lost a fan belt and that had taken out the second one too. We had to wait for the engine and radiator to cool down and gave it a few minutes extra since we were comfy enough on the side of the track. Thank goodness we had 1200l of water and a long hose to top up the radiator with!

So in the end, we decided to free camp at Coward Springs for the night. A relaxing dip in the natural arterial spa cooled our bodies and heads and we decided to cut our time on the track short and head back to the turn off to Roxby Downs. Dunc’s wrists were sore from hanging on to the wheel on the corrugations and Bertha was choc-a-block full of dust! We had dust on EVERYTHING. (This morning I spotted the dust IN the griller which missed out on the spring clean.) Duncan was worried about the toll on the old girl. He wasn’t expecting the track to be as rough as it was. We’d lost 2 reversing lights from the trailer and the wiring for the trailer breaks had lost all its cable ties. We decided to cut down from 3 more days on the track to 1.

The next morning, after a quiet night and a lovely sleep in, we were off. The track seemed much better when we were fresher, but it soon deteriorated once more. Dust yet again came in through our back bedroom somewhere/somehow. It was impossible to see where – there was just a constant haze of powder. In the end, the children had to wrap damp tea towels over their mouths and noses. It felt just like we were playing old fashioned Cowboys and Indians… Celebrations were in order when we finally hit the blacktop once more – yippee!

Wilpena Pound

Having driven around the pound and seen it from all angles, we decided to hike up and see INTO it. It’s an 8km walk in total – 2km to the homestead, 2km to the rim, and back again. Mum had told me about the bus that you can get from the resort, which drives you the first and last 2km, and having 'whingey' and 'whiney' along, we figured the bus would be well worth the $3!! So we were up early in order to drive the 20 minutes and make the 9am bus. Early is a struggle for 2 members of our household – but not this one, as that is when I get all my writing done! Yet again we JUST made it in time, thanks to some mammoth driving efforts by Dunc.

The little bus drive was sedate and lovely and the short hike to the homestead was wonderful. It still felt early and it wasn’t hot and we made our way across a little creek. The hike up to the rim was harder work, and we had to break out the bribery lollies to get the kids up there. We were overtaken by a group of young backpackers on a guided tour so we were able to get the inside knowledge on how much further was left. The view was amazing! Even the whiniest of children admitted that it was worth it!

The walk back was easier and we were back home by 1pm, in time for lunch, schoolwork and a swim. And THEN…

Our evening flight! We had booked a small plane scenic flight for the family and it was a highlight! The kids loved the fact that they had to wear the headsets to talk and Dunc got to sit in the cockpit. The flight was a little bumpy, particularly when we flew over the rims, and I felt rather queasy afterwards for a while. But it was a wonderful experience and finished off our time at the Flinders Ranges beautifully!

After our flight, we had the perfect opportunity to capture the sunset and appreciate the beautiful surroundings before leaving the next day.

Flinders Rangers

Having cracked my kneecap on the Pichi Richi trainride, we very quickly decided that a hike up a mountain the next day was not such a great idea. We extended our stay another day and are SOOO glad we did! We spent the first day going on a drive recommended by Deb at Rawnsley Park Station there. We drove through Wilpena (without looking at it) and up to Blinman for lunch, stopping at every lookout on the way. The hills and mountains were just beautiful, and you could clearly see the layers of rock. The bushes and trees grew along the layers as well, leading Lexie to observe “It looks like the mountain has leggings on, Mummy”.

After some hamburgers at Blinman to re-live the trip from when I was a kid, we started the drive back to Rawnsley Park, but this time driving through the gorges. They were GORGEOUS! We started with the Glass Gorge loop out from Blinman to Parachilna, which frankly wasn’t all that impressive. After a quick phone call at Parachilna (we take our service where we can get it these days!) we headed south on the highway but soon turned left down Brachina Gorge. That one was more impressive, but we had saved the best for last – Bunyeroo Gorge. It was amazing!!

  

The scenery was incredibly breathtaking and we got to see lots of wildlife including the illusive yellow-footed rock wallaby with their long and stripy tails. One of our funniest conversations went a little like this:

“There’s a kangaroo. There’s a rabbit. Another rabbit. A pussy cat!! I saw a pussy cat!”

“That aint no pussy cat. That’s a feral cat!”

We reversed so everyone could see the cat and it was a just like a little tabby panther, slinking into a burrow.

The gorge was just beautiful and supposedly people can drive it in a 2WD car. I can’t see how that’s possible because there were a number of times that we actually engaged 4WD, but apparently people do drive standard cars down there!