The Flinders Ranges

After we left Clare we headed north to an area we had both wanted to explore since the beginning of the trip: the Flinders Ranges.  It is amazing that we only travelled a few kilometres north of Clare and the landscape changed from the green of the wineries to the familiar red dust of the outback.

Before we got to the Flinders we had a couple of pleasant surprises.  The first was the puppet museum at Wilmington.  It is always nice to meet someone who is passionate about what they do and the guy that owns the puppet museum certainly fitted into this category.  He had an enormous collection of puppets: various Punch and Judy’s, the Thunderbirds, Mr Squiggles as well as many from other countries and ventriloquist dolls.  He just loved playing with them and showing us how they all worked and relating their individual history.  Overall a thoroughly unexpectedly enjoyable hour.

We then detoured via Hancock’s Lookout on the Wilmington - Port Augusta Road.  We really only went there cos of the name Hancock but it presented fabulous views of the top of Spencer Gulf.  It was a very nice detour.

Then to the ranges themselves.  It was very hot with most days getting to 38 degrees.  So if we wanted to bush walk we had to get up early.  We stayed at Rawnsley park station and the swimming pool there certainly took a beating.  Our first walk was up Mount Ohlssen Bagge In Wilpena Pound which is rated as a “Hard” walk.  It certainly involved a bit of scrambling up and down and around large rocks but the views made it worth it.  We also did the much easier Wangara Lookout Hike which incorporated the old Pound Homestead.  We got a good feeling for the history of the Pound as well as seeing fabulous views.  Marty also found a geocache near the top of this walk.

The next day we stopped at Hucks Lookout and Stokes Hill Lookout before entering the Flinders Ranges National Park.  We were told that the park was closed for feral animal eradication and this meant that we could drive through the gorges but not get out of our car as shooting was taking place.  We figured that the car provided very little protection to bullets so we did sneak in a couple of quick walks for photos.  We drove through Brachna Gorge which really is a lesson in geology as the ages and types of rock formations are continuously highlighted. 

We thought we would have lunch at the town of Parachilna but the whole town was closed for a few more weeks so we went via Angorichna Village to the nice little town of Blinman, for homemade quandong ice creams and then to the Great Wall of China, another extraordinary rock formation.

 

Later that night we had a few wines at Pugilist Lookout at sunset.  I was so impressed with the views, that the next morning I got up early and left Marty to do the boys stuff in packing up and I went back to the lookout for more photos at sunrise.