Entry 15 – Flinders Ranges, South Australia October 2021.
Leaving our Yorke Peninsula hosts of the last week, ‘Rob and Glenda,’ we propped at the nearby Minlaton café’. Where we caught up for a brunch meal with Steve’s brother, Trevor & wife Caroline. They were also caravanning on Yorke Peninsula, at the time based at the nearby town of Edithburgh. It’s always nice to catch up with family and all the news.
It was still rather dreary weather with a gusty cold wind making it unpleasant to be outside. A couple of planned locations along our route to stop for the night didn’t eventuate due mainly to a ‘gut’ feeling of unsuitability. We had allocated four days to travel around 450 kilometres to our next targeted destination of Ikara National Park in the Flinders Ranges.
We continued north up the road a bit, arriving at Mambray Creek camp ground, part of the Mount Remarkable National Park, just after 7pm, a day earlier than we thought.
Upon arrival at Mambray Creek any exhaustion we had been feeling from our long day evaporated. For us it is one of those exceptionally beautiful locations with a setting oozing with good vibes, providing good karma for one’s well-being.
Camped nearby were the couple pictured in our previous edition eating Mary’s fruit damper. Peter & Lynette invited us into their caravan and we happily chattered late into the evening.
The following day we walked from our camp at the Baroota Campground, through to the main Mambray Creek campground and around the Davey’s Gully loop trail. It was an enjoyable hike with our senses constantly scanning the scenery, smells and sounds of nature for an approximately 8-kilometre hike.
It quickly reinforced the natural beauty of the Flinders Ranges.
After a couple of days at Mambray Creek we continued up the road a bit, heading towards the township of Quorn. Quorn is the base for the Pichi Richi Steam Railway, still in operation for tourist activities. We travelled under a couple of rail bridges established during the steam train era, around 100 years old.
We set camp at Warren Gorge located about 20 kilometres north of Quorn. Just another beautiful Australian outback setting.
At Warren Gorge it’s best to walk about, at times retracing your footsteps a couple of times on the lookout for some of its special attractions to materialise before your eyes.
It’s always nice to have it reiterated how nice the setting and attractions provided by the likes of Warren Gorge can be. Sadly, on this occasion we had only allocated one night for Warren Gorge, leaving the following morning.
Up the road we stopped for a break at the Kanyaka Homestead Historical Ruins, a mid-18th century sheep station recorded as shearing 40,000 sheep a year. We had stopped here previously several times, on this occasion neglecting to photograph any of the interesting ruins. We did partake in a walk along the nearby dry creek for a bit of exercise. We were in outback Australia with its barren landscape, with its surface scorched hard and dry by the hot sun. When on those scarce occasions it does rain the water runs off the hardened land surface into low lying areas forming creeks where the water runs away at times in enormous torrents.
A bit further down the road was our next target destination at Rawnsley Station located on the outer rim of the iconic Wilpena Pound in the Ikara Flinders National Park. This was to be our base for the next several days with our southern Adelaide friends, Petra and Jeff.
Once we had established our greetings and chatter, we were off on the Alison Saddle loop walk, one of five walking trails on offer at Rawnsley Station.
The following morning it was the Ferntree Waterfall trail and, in the afternoon, the Wilpena Pound Homestead trail.
The following morning was declared a rest period, to provide our protesting legs a bit of respite. It seemed we had possibly gotten over excited with so many walking track options and started out with too much exuberance.
We provided due consideration for our legs, spending the afternoon utilizing our tow tug to get about driving through the picturesque Bunyeroo Gorge.
We were enjoying our new found technology where we were setting our camera on its tripod and activating the camera via our phone. Once the picture was taken it automatically sent the photograph taken by our camera to our phone. We were enjoying being able to instantly scrutinize the photograph for suitability of our satisfaction.
Our primary target at the other end of Bunyeroo Gorge was Brachina Gorge where we were hoping to spot some yellow footed rock wallabies.
Petra and Jeff, like us had previously been to this area of the Flinders Ranges many times, loving its ambiance as much as us. On their last visit they had failed to spot any yellow footed rock wallabies when visiting Brachina Gorge.
With this in mind we suggested our experience showed the optimum time to be in the gorge was from around 4pm onwards at this time of the year. Jeff requested with a cheeky smile he would like sightings of 20 yellow footed rock wallabies. In hind sight we should have taken up his challenge, double or nothing.
It seems we got the timing of arrival right; the conditions may have also been good and four sets of eyes searching about in the gorge also assisted with sightings of the yellow footed rock wallabies. Our count was in excess of 50. It was our most enjoyable yellow footed rock wallaby spotting expedition in Brachina Gorge ever. It was good to see the excitement in Jeff and Petra on spotting a yellow footed rock wallaby.
There was a discovery of a new species of kangaroo. Stevaroo, the bush kangaroo. First sighting and evidence provided by Jeff and Petra.
During our previous months visit to Brachina Gorge that we needed to curtail, we saw a mob of five emu chicks on 16th September. Late into the afternoon on this visit 20th October we thought we had spotted the same mob. It was interesting to see how they had grown. You will need to look close at the attached picture due to the setting sun and with the emus blending in with the background.
Another day we enjoyed the scenery along the Moralana Scenic Drive and walked along a section of the Heysen Trail at Black Gap Lookout.
It was a most enjoyable week exploring the Flinders Ranges with Petra and Jeff. We shared providing the evening meals on alternate nights.
