16 - Flinders Ranges, South Australia part 2 - October 2021

 

Entry 16 – Flinders Ranges, South Australia part 2 - October 2021.

Leaving Rawnsley Station, we moved up the road a bit, changing our camp location to Wilpena Pound campground a drive of about 25 kilometres for the day. We’ve always liked the campground setting at Wilpena Pound having stayed there many times over ‘our’ years. We especially like the optional choices of numerous walking tracks starting from near the campground, all a bit different, exhibiting the beauty of the Flinders Ranges. We could easily spend a week or two at this location without the need to drive elsewhere.

To the rear of our caravan, we could see Mount Ohlssen Bagge, with a walking track to its peak, classed as a difficult climb. We had never been to the top of Mt Ohlssen Bagge and thought to give it a go. We were up early leaving our camp in the cold morning conditions of the Australian outback.

For the first part it was a bit strenuous but manageable. After a while it became quite steep with plenty of pulling your body up steep rocky outcrops. We were a bit over the half way mark when Mary said, “No more.” Steve’s legs were still feeling like they could go further. We found a comfortable spot for Mary to sit and admire her surrounding scenery while Steve continued up. He agreed to return within the hour. At the half hour mark he only had one more steep rocky face to scale, around 200 metres shy of the peak and estimated it would take a further 20 minutes to climb. He erred on the side of caution, as Mary always took “priority” and returned to her location. National Parks signage showed it was about a 6-kilometre return hike and recommended to allow 4 hours for this hike.

 

We did manage a couple of photographs of our decent when we didn’t have the need to support one another. Imagine what the climb was like when we didn’t have the opportunity to photograph its difficulty.

When in beautiful locations we generally set up where we can admire the views all around us. This includes when we are inside our caravan. One afternoon we were both inside when we saw a mob of emus outside our rear window. We watched dad constantly monitoring the where-abouts of his 10 children, while they slowly moved by us feeding on grassy patches. It was one of those special, feel-good moments. We do love the beauty of the Flinders Ranges with its special fauna and flora.

The day after our strenuous Mt Ohlssen Bagge, climb we rested our weary bodies for a while. Well, that lasted till around mid-day when the urge to get out and see more of the beauty surrounding us took over. We hiked to the Wilpena Pound Homestead, continuing past the homestead to a couple of pound viewing platforms. Our weary legs protested from the extra exertion required to scale the steep gradient up to the viewing platforms. Just another return hike of around 7 kilometres.

Near the upper viewing platform, we were able to view the valley we had hiked through from the campground, located on the outer edge of the pound. The walking trail, transversed along the shady creek bed lined with beautiful large gum trees through an opening of the pounds surrounding walls.

Leaving Wilpena Pound we headed north with our next planned destination, Aroona campground about 70 kilometres up the road. We had no set time lines, happily stopping a few times along the route to admire the scenic landscape.

The final part of our journey consisted of about 20 kilometres of dirt road and we stopped to lower our tyre pressure on the tow tug and caravan before proceeding along the dirt surface. Lowering the tyre pressures makes for a more pleasant ride which our bodies do appreciate, especially when transversing corrugated and rocky surfaces which we struck along this section of road. The wind had become quite strong with patches of cloud dropping some rain at times. We could see dust in the distance gathering just above the range’s peaks. As we got closer the dust intensified rising closer to the clouds.

En-route to Aroona we stopped to have a look at the setting of the Trezona campground. It was similar to other Flinders Ranges campgrounds with sites scattered amongst some magnificent river red gum trees. Most sites were on the edge of a wide creek bed which was flowing with water. We spoke with a couple who were camped there. They were sitting outside a few hours prior alongside the then dry creek bed. They could hear the sound of running water approaching and saw the creek change from a dry bed to flowing with water within a short time. It seems there had been a significant amount of rain elsewhere in the Flinders Ranges with the run off entering this creek bed somewhere up stream. Further down the road we drove through this body of water a couple of times as it criss-crossed the country side.

We set camp at Aroona campground, this our first time camping at this location. Within the confines of our caravan, whether sitting at the table, standing at the sink or lying on the bed the views around us tingled all our good vibe senses. A creek bed on one side, the mountain range on the other and beautiful river red gum trees with the hardy bush pines in the background all around us. It was a spectacular Australian bush setting.

There were some walking trail options from nearby the campground. We did enjoy, the Yuluna Circuit about 8.4 kilometres with a recommended time of 4 hours to complete.

At one stage Steve thought we had walked long enough. Mary replied, “Well you choose which direction we take from here!” Those distance notifications can get annoying at times.

Along the Yuluna trail adding to the pleasurable scenery we saw a couple of red capped robins, a pair of mulga parrots and some emu chicks not quite grown out of their white stripping they have when born.

South Australian National Parks impose a fire ban season from the 1^st November to the 15^th of April, annually. It had been 2 weeks since our last food shop and our fresh food supplies were getting low. It was the 29^th of October and we decided to cook up big on the fire with waffles for our evening meal, roast pumpkin, onions and potatoes sitting in the hot coals for the next couple of days tucker. For a treat over the next few days was the camp fire oven cooked fruit and nut damper. We were set with yummy camp fire cooked tucker for the next few days.

On one of our walk outings, we were nearby our Aroona campground for a look at the remains of a 1920’s home. A mob of emus wandered by feeding, setting up some more photographic opportunities. It is always good to see the local wildlife out and about.

There was the Heysen Viewpoint, where it was said, famous Australian artist Hans Heysen used to relax with a glass of beer of an evening looking out at the Aroona Valley.

We immensely enjoyed the walk along the Yuluna trail, deciding to walk it a second time. We started out earlier than the previous time with weather conditions, more overcast and cooler.

When out walking, Steve is required to lead the way, primarily to remove any spider webs encountered along the way as Mary gets a bit remonstrative if she encounters spider webs. Steve is also required to choose the easiest passage whilst staying on track. Mary generally keeps her head down concentrating on her foot placement assisting her to stay upright and not to burden Steve for support if she tumbles and he is needed to support her during a retreat.

Thus, on these walks Steve is constantly scanning the horizon, looking, looking and looking. On this day he spotted a different shape amongst the rocks.

 

So, at this point in time, he was doing as required by Mary’s rules. Suddenly there is this all-mighty scream from directly behind him. He turns to see Mary leaping backwards in huge bounds, yelling out indistinguishably, yabber, yabber and more yabber. Steve thinks, “She must have seen a snake.” He looks at the track and its nearby edges and can’t see anything out of place. He makes his way back to her and soothingly spoke with her settling her non-distinguishable ramblings till she returned to speaking proper Australian English.

At this section of the track, it appeared to be of reasonable surface and Steve was scanning ahead. Unfortunately, he missed seeing a “Bloody Snake,” with its head out on the edge of the track. Along comes Mary with her head down watching her foot placement with the Snake and Mary eye-balling one another, frightening the bee-jeepers out of them both.

A little bit further along the trail Steve continued to perform his role, at one stage screaming to a holt with Mary crashing into his back and providing some superlatives about his stupidity for suddenly stopping.

What a different perspective of the Yuluna trail we had that day.

We had experienced many different walking trails in the Flinders ranges over the last 4 to 5 decades. One of those walks that always stands out for us is the beautiful walk under the magnificent tree canopy of ancient river red gum trees on the Wilpena Pound Homestead track.

We now are of the opinion the Yuluna trail showcases the best broad spectrum of the diversity for the Flinders Ranges. It was superb.

 

We thoroughly enjoyed our time at Aroona camp ground. Each day we partook in a bit of a walkabout enjoying the fabulous setting, tantalising our eyes.

 

It was time to move on from Aroona campground and the end of any camp fire cooked tucker within National Parks of South Australia for the year due to fire ban restrictions.

Departure day we were definitely in no hurry. We watched some storm clouds roll over the range peaks for an hour or two before a blue sky appeared. We were all hooked up and took one last hike up the nearby peak for a last view of the Aroona Valley.

The water across the creek crossing had subsided since our trip in.

At the eight-kilometre mark we arrived at our next destination. We couldn’t leave the Flinders Ranges without a last yellow footed rock wallaby spotting expedition in Brachina Gorge, especially considering how close we were. We parked up in the campground and late afternoon we wandered along Brachina Gorge. We even got a different reptile sighting.

The following morning, we headed south leaving the Flinders Ranges for another year.