Entry 12 – Flinders Ranges South Australia.
Back at our home base we spent a busy period. Fitment of new caravan batteries, new brakes for the tow tug, a few medical appointments, obtaining our 2nd covid-19 vaccination, helping our son with some tiling needs at his home, weeding our garden, replacement of the home hot water heater, catching up with Steve’s parents and joining in the celebrations for Mary’s mum 90th birthday. We cleaned and repacked the caravan and tow tug ready to escape, to resume our travel lifestyle.
We spent eleven days at home attending to our immediate needs. It was time to escape to pursue more cheerful environments and we headed north with our target destination, the Flinders Ranges, about 500 kilometres up the road. We chose to travel through the Clare Valley onto Orroroo, a less travelled route.
It was very noticeable the absence of other vehicles travelling along this route, providing a less stressful environment, delivering an atmosphere where we were able to enjoy the passing scenery.
We stopped at one of many small townships along this route, Spalding for a bit of lunch and an afternoon siesta. Rejuvenated we continued north feeling quite relaxed, enjoying the drive.
We were starting to lookout for a location to camp the night when we arrived at the township of Hawker nearby the Flinders Ranges. We utilized the internet available at Hawker to assess availability of camp sites in the Flinders Ranges National Park, managing to book one at our target location of Brachina Gorge.
It was still about 100 kilometres to the booked camp site and we decided to push on. We could feel our excitement rising with the sight of the outer perimeter of the Flinders Ranges getting closer. The sun was setting and we were quickly reminded of the dangers of driving in remote Australia out-back, late in the day. We were braking for kangaroos bounding out in-front, emus, sheep and an eagle taking off across the road.
We deflated the pressure of our tyres in the disappearing light and drove our last 20 kilometres in the darkness of the night, on a bumpy dirt track along the creek bed of Brachina Gorge. It was delightfully enticing to spot a few yellow footed rock wallabies in the lights of our tow tug as we travelled through Brachina Gorge.
It had been a very long day with a departure time of 8.30am where we travelled through our city of Adelaide at the tail end of peak hour traffic, arriving at our target destination at 7pm. Surprisingly we felt good, possibly contributed by a travel route without the added pressure of dealing with busy road conditions and bonus sightings of a rare eagle and the rare yellow footed rock wallabies.
The following morning, we were up early, walking along the base of Brachina Gorge, with our eyes watching for any movement high up amongst the peaks for yellow footed rock wallabies. It was a most delightful feeling when we spotted one and then another and another.
It’s always nice to see some emu chicks under the supervision of their dad. We saw one group of four and one of nine wandering about.
Brachina Gorge had a more vibrant greenness about it, indicating it may have been a good wet season, even more evident from the debris lying about.
By the end of day one back in the Flinders Ranges we were feeling very contented, mesmerised with its fauna and flora.
Life is full of hic-cups or curve balls as we refer to them. Phone reception away from the more populated locations is a scarce item in Australia. The Flinders Ranges is another location with the need to drive long distances to find phone reception.
We knew there were a couple of scenario’s approaching to consider and we thought we had sussed out the more probable outcomes impacting us and had planned accordingly.
Day three camped in the Flinders Ranges, we travelled about 40 kilometres to the town of Blinman where we were able to obtain some limited phone reception. It was decision day if Mary was needed to fly to Canberra (about 1,500 kilometres from our current location) to assist with family needs for the arrival of grandchild two in the Canberra house. Yes, she was wanted as the current covid pandemic regulations negated our daughter-in-law’s mother from helping. What the??
There was still the unanswered question with the authorities overseeing the covid regulations, when could Steve have Mary back? Anyone leaving our state to travel to another location in Australia needed to apply for a permit to return home. It seemed there was a large backlog, about 7,000 South Australians awaiting permission from the authorities to return home. It was looking like a planned couple of weeks to assist with baby-sitting might turn into months of being stuck interstate.
Once we were in the range of phone reception at Blinman our phone had kept beeping and beeping announcing the arrival of a large volume of messages for our attention.
Add another curve ball with Mary’s brother-in-law passing away, with immediate additional thoughts of how we could support her sister.
It’s not very often in life you get to feel desirable with choices of whom you could help out. The covid-19 pandemic mayhem helped guide with our decision in this instance.
Sorry kids but it looks like we are needed at Mary’s sister place. At least there wasn’t a need to leave the state but it was still a drive of about 900 kilometres from our current location.
Add to the mix, we had made a booking at Rawnsley Park Station in the Flinders Ranges for later in the week to spend time with another couple whom were driving the 550 kilometres up from Victor Harbor to spend time with us exploring the Flinders Ranges. Another difficult, apologetic phone call with more plans flushed away.
We were feeling rather exhausted after spending a couple of hours at Blinman, with lots of phone calls and trying to assess the ramifications of our decision for others. We decided to stay put for another night at our current location, allowing more time to think through our initial thoughts. At least the return drive to our camp provided some most satisfying viewing.
It felt good walking into Brachina Gorge late afternoon, with its majestic scenery and beautiful 100 plus year-old river red gum trees along the water courses providing pleasurable thoughts.
We spotted even more yellow footed rock wallabies with quite a few allowing us to get close for a wonderful photograph.
We took our time heading out of Brachina Gorge in the Flinders Ranges stopping a couple of times to admire the views and a couple more memorable photographs. Once back out on the main road we were very happy to have one last view of a Wedge Tailed Eagle.
Our thoughts to spend about three weeks in the Flinders Ranges evaporated. At least we got a few days to soak in its gorgeous setting. We were heading south with around a 900 kilometre drive ahead.
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