We left Copley to drive to Hawker which was 250kms south back towards Port Augusta. We arrived at Flinders Ranges Caravan Park around midday. We set up the van and as we were staying for at least a week we erected the annex. Everything went without a hitch for a change and in the afternoon we chatted to neighbours Rod and Jo. A nice couple who left their caravan at home and borrowed their son’s camper trailer (big mistake) but they have now cleaned it and repaired it and it is liveable. The caravan park is one of the best we have seen, very well appointed with excellent ablutions and quite a reasonable price. There are no suitable camp sites around this area. Most of the camp sites are in the National Park and no dogs are allowed. There was one camping ground that said dogs were allowed but when we rang to ask the price it was nearly as much as some caravan parks with power etc.
We had decided on Hawker because it appeared to be the most central to the various gorges and Wilpena Pound that we want to visit.
As it is Saturday and The Bill is on (a favourite of ours) Barry did not waste any time setting up the satellite dish so that we could watch tv. Fortunately that also did not take long to find the satellite, sometimes it takes ages, so we were set up in a few minutes. Fortunately using the satellite dish we can watch ABC from any state so we used Queensland so that we could watch half an hour earlier than South Australia.
Sunday 5 July 2009
We spent the morning updating the blog and I think Barry downloaded some photos from his camera.
In the afternoon we visited Jeff Morgan’s Art Gallery and Coffee Shop. This has a panoramic section which we had been told was well worth the visit. When Barry discovered that it cost $7.50 to go in he said “You can go, I’ll wait”. As I thought he was being a cheap skate I paid for him as well and I’m glad I did because it was magnificent. Jeff Morgan has built a circular room and painted a 360° panorama of the view from the top of St Mary’s Peak which is at Wilpena. We were told to get this view for real we would have an eight hour walk which is beyond us these days. I have never seen anything so amazing and beautiful. Unfortunately I did not think to take a camera and I also didn’t think he would allow photos but I heard somebody else asking if it would be OK and he said yes. After looking at the panorama we went to another room where he had three huge canvases hung (although they did not look like canvases). One was a view of the waterhole at Arkaroola which we missed when we visited there, another was of Cooper Creek at sunset. The third was through a doorway and we thought we were walking outside. This one was called Rod’s Creek which we haven’t seen and again was really beautiful. You could almost believe you could walk up the creek. There was a tape of birds singing to add to the impression of being outside actually in the creek. We sat in chairs that had been placed against the back wall for about 10 minutes soaking up the atmosphere and it was hard to drag ourselves away. We treated ourselves to a coffee and quondong chocolates (wild peach) before heading for a drive around the little town.
After this we drove out to see Jarvis Hill Lookout. Magnificent views of the ranges b
oth on the drive, about 6 kms, and during the climb to the top, and at the top of the hill. The climb was quite strenuous and a bit of a work out but well worth the effort. Unfortunately Foxy was in a hurry and almost dragged Barry off his feet. There is not much of her but she sure can pull. Photo left Barry and Foxy walking ahead of me as usual back down from viewing Jarvis Lookout and a view from Jarvis Lookout.
When we got back I downloaded my latest photos and found a few new ways to enhance them and correct a few mess ups. I had one that I was going to delete but I found a button that said sharpen which improved a blurry photo enough to make it worth keeping. So I went back and played with some of the photos that I took out at Innamincka.
No early night tonight as I am hoping to see the Federer/Roddick Wimbledon tennis final if it isn’t too late. At the moment they are one set all and level games in the third set.
Monday 6 July 09
The Federer/Roddick match proved to be too long. I sat up until after two am but I gave up at 11 all in the 5th set. It was riveting stuff to watch but I thought I would be a wreck the next day.
I dragged myself out of bed in the morning but it was afternoon before we managed to do anything. We decided on a drive out to Willow Waters. This proved to be a bit of a waste of time. Again the drive out to the gorge was lovely with the different colours in the ranges all
around us but the gorge was nothing special and there was almost no water. A tiny dam has been built to hold the water back in the gorge but obviously there hasn’t been enough rain to make this worth while. We still managed a few photos. Rod and Jo from the campervan next door left there little dog Mindy with us while they went to Wilpena Pound, which is a national park and no dogs allowed. We took both dogs for a walk up through the gorge. Mindy was very good but she wanted to be where Foxy was all the time. This proved difficult when I climbed out of the creek to get to the car. It was a very steep climb and with her sure footed four legs she didn’t have any problems. I on the other hand struggled and hanging on to Mindy was challenging. Foxy, being off the lead just did her own thing. Photo a view of the Willow Springs Gorge. Looks like a lot of water flows through here on occasions.
Back in town I found a general store which really is a general store it was a bottle shop, post office, camping, groceries, giftware, clothes, hardware, bakery, coffee shop, linen and anything else you care to mention. Admittedly the stocks are limited but I think you could find pretty much anything you wanted in that shop provided it was generalised. We also called in to Hawker Motors which is a paper shop, garage, petrol station, gift shop and visitor centre. These businesses sure know how to make use of space.
Tuesday 7 July 09
This morning I packed a picnic lunch and we headed out to Wilpena Pound. This is a sealed road as Wilpena is a very popular place. There are several places on the road where there are pull offs for photo opportunities, most of which we stopped at. About ¾ of the way to Wilpena you come to Rawnsley Park Station. This has a caravan park, which takes dogs, a resort and appears to be a working station. There are several walks around the place which take you up into the hills in various places and we went to the park office for a walking map. The walk I was interested in which went to Rawnsley Bluff proved to be 12.5 kilometres which is a bit beyond us these days, particularly as it said some challenging sections, so we gave that a miss. We might look at one of the other walks if we go back that way before we leave Hawker.
When we got back I downloaded my latest photos and found a few new ways to enhance them and correct a few mess ups. I had one that I was going to delete but I found a button that said sharpen which improved a blurry photo enough to make it worth keeping. So I went back and played with some of the photos that I took out at Innamincka.
No early night tonight as I am hoping to see the Federer/Roddick Wimbledon tennis final if it isn’t too late. At the moment they are one set all and level games in the third set.
Monday 6 July 09
The Federer/Roddick match proved to be too long. I sat up until after two am but I gave up at 11 all in the 5th set. It was riveting stuff to watch but I thought I would be a wreck the next day.
I dragged myself out of bed in the morning but it was afternoon before we managed to do anything. We decided on a drive out to Willow Waters. This proved to be a bit of a waste of time. Again the drive out to the gorge was lovely with the different colours in the ranges all
around us but the gorge was nothing special and there was almost no water. A tiny dam has been built to hold the water back in the gorge but obviously there hasn’t been enough rain to make this worth while. We still managed a few photos. Rod and Jo from the campervan next door left there little dog Mindy with us while they went to Wilpena Pound, which is a national park and no dogs allowed. We took both dogs for a walk up through the gorge. Mindy was very good but she wanted to be where Foxy was all the time. This proved difficult when I climbed out of the creek to get to the car. It was a very steep climb and with her sure footed four legs she didn’t have any problems. I on the other hand struggled and hanging on to Mindy was challenging. Foxy, being off the lead just did her own thing. Photo a view of the Willow Springs Gorge. Looks like a lot of water flows through here on occasions.Back in town I found a general store which really is a general store it was a bottle shop, post office, camping, groceries, giftware, clothes, hardware, bakery, coffee shop, linen and anything else you care to mention. Admittedly the stocks are limited but I think you could find pretty much anything you wanted in that shop provided it was generalised. We also called in to Hawker Motors which is a paper shop, garage, petrol station, gift shop and visitor centre. These businesses sure know how to make use of space.
Tuesday 7 July 09
This morning I packed a picnic lunch and we headed out to Wilpena Pound. This is a sealed road as Wilpena is a very popular place. There are several places on the road where there are pull offs for photo opportunities, most of which we stopped at. About ¾ of the way to Wilpena you come to Rawnsley Park Station. This has a caravan park, which takes dogs, a resort and appears to be a working station. There are several walks around the place which take you up into the hills in various places and we went to the park office for a walking map. The walk I was interested in which went to Rawnsley Bluff proved to be 12.5 kilometres which is a bit beyond us these days, particularly as it said some challenging sections, so we gave that a miss. We might look at one of the other walks if we go back that way before we leave Hawker.
Photos below Rockart at Arkaroo Rock and some Grevillea I found growing near Arkaroo Rock. I thought Grevillea was native to Western Australia so I was wrong again.
We drove on to Wilpena Pound and came across another photo opportunity which turned out to be a car park with a walk at the end to Arkaroo Rock. This rock has Aboriginal rock art.
We had lunch and then tackled the walk (which said allow an hour).When we eventually bought a walking map it is listed as a hi
ke not a walk and says 2 hours. It said some moderate inclines and average fitness. Barry and I decided that we have dropped below an average level of fitness because we were puffing and legs aching by the time we got to the top. Unfortunately the rock has been fenced off, no doubt to stop idiots adding graffiti to the beautiful Aboriginal paintings. We took some photos through the grill but whether they will be any good I don’t know. There were a couple of other rocks on the way back which proved to be a loop but there was no more rock art. This is such a beautiful part of the world that snapping photos all round is part of the walk. Arriving at Wilpena and the national park yet another fee was required. There doesn’t seem to be anyway that you can buy a national parks annual pass in South Australia that takes you into them all. We debated whether it was worth paying as it was already 2.30 pm but we looked big and paid up. At Wilpena there was nowhere to park as many of the people who were parked had been very inconsiderate and were taking up 1½ bays. Barry dropped me off to go into the shop to get a map and parked in a disabled bay for a few minutes. We drove around the resort camp ground which was packed with campers – it is school holid
ays in South Australia – and then around the resort itself but we still did not find anywhere to park. Eventually we found a bit of bare ground and stuck the car there in the hope that it wouldn’t be a problem and went off for a walk. Again most of the walks in and around the pound are more that 6 hours and from what we were told there is no way to actually get a visual of the pound itself other than from the air. We did one walk which was 1.4 kms and enough after the walk to Arkaroo Rock, which was called Drought Buster. We never found out why but the walk was nice with only a few rock climbing bits. There was a steady incline so it gave your thighs and calves a bit of a work out but it was probably good for us. We did see some yellow footed rock wallabies and some feral goats which we could have done without seeing but they are now part of rural Australia. Photo yellow footed rock wallaby.We saw a couple of self drive tours advertised but when we asked about them one was cancelled because the station has changed hands and the tour is no longer offered and the other is about 20 kms and takes 6 hours to do. We decided that would be a bit much for our tyres.
We decided that if we wanted to see Wilpena Pound we would have to look big and pay up for a flight over it. This proved to be not too expensive but we can’t get one until Saturday morning. This means we will have to extend our stay in Hawker, but that is not a hardship. We might even treat ourselves to another look at the panorama in Hawker again.
On
our way out of the park we stopped to walk to the Solar Power Station. This proved quite interesting with banks and banks of solar panels powering stacks of batteries housed in what looked to be sea containers. We could hear a generator running so there had obviously not been enough sun to power the whole complex. The info board said that the solar power was added rather than enlarging the existing diesel generator, so it is obviously a combination that runs the resort. The info said the solar panels were sufficient to run 30 houses and the resort appeared to have that and more, with the shops and the powered sights for the caravan park.Photo solar powered power station at Wilpena Pound
We arrived back at the caravan park to find uproar because Foxy had been crying all day left in the caravan. The park owners asked us to give them the keys to the van if we left her again and they would get her out and walk her if necessary. We pointed out that she cries if we go to the toilet and there is nothing we can do about it but they didn’t like her crying all day. It’s a good job we don’t worry about her crying all day because we would never do anything, and it doesn’t hurt her, she just gets frightened. If she had her way she would spend the whole day and night sitting on Barry’s shoulder, or lap.
Wednesday 8 July 09
The morning was spent doing some chores and in the afternoon we took a walk up Policeman Hill which is a small hill overlooking Hawker. It wasn’t much more than a bit of exercise but it did give us a bit of a puff to get up there so it raised the heart rate a bit.
Thursday 9 July 09
I’ve got a bit lost with the days but I think this was washing day and as there was quite a bit and we used our little machine it took us rather a long time.
Friday 10 July 09
We decided to do the ‘All Gorges Tour’. We drove back up the highway to Parachillna and called in to have a look at this historic town. Yet another casualty of the ‘Old Ghan’ shutting down in 1956. It proved to be just another scruffy little place with not much to offer the tourist. We then turned off the highway and headed for Angorichina which has a store, a garage and a caravan park. It is nestled in the hills and was quite a pretty spot. Barry bought some fuel here. Not much because as usual out in the sticks it was expensive.
Our next stop was Blinman. This proved to be quite a big place and thriving. The road from Wilpena to Blinman is almost all bitumised so it is obviously popular with tourists. It has a hill lookout which we did. This proved to be about 1.5 kilometres and gave us yet another workout. The views were worth it and the hill was covered with rock wallabies all of which scattered when they saw us. On the top of the hill we stood and watched a wedge tail eagle using the thermals to float above us. They are such graceful birds. We walked down the other side of the hill and past the sand green golf course. Photo above is a small log cabin near the Wild Lime Cafe in Blinman
It was almost lunch time so we called in to the Wild Lime Café for lunch. This was smoked roo foccacia followed by quandong pies. The pies were delicious as was the smoked roo. I am not partial to kangaroo as I find it a bit gamey tasting but I discovered that smoking it takes away that gamey taste, so it was really tasty.
It was almost lunch time so we called in to the Wild Lime Café for lunch. This was smoked roo foccacia followed by quandong pies. The pies were delicious as was the smoked roo. I am not partial to kangaroo as I find it a bit gamey tasting but I discovered that smoking it takes away that gamey taste, so it was really tasty.
Photo Great Wall Of China!!!Our next photo stop was at what is called the ‘Great Wall of China’. The hills in this area appear to be layered and this particular section did look quite like pictures you see of the Great Wall of China. We were a bit cheesed off that we took the 2 kilometre drive out to look at it because it didn’t look much different up close to the view we got from the main road and it certainly gave the 4x4 a bit of a workout.
Photo below rock formation in Brachina Gorge
The next section of this all gorges tour was a turn off the Wilpena/Blinman road through the Brachina Gorge. This was really lovely with lots of boards along the way telling us how old the rock formations were and what they consisted of. There were camp sites scattered through this area which is all part of the Wilpena National Park. We had Foxy with us which was a bit of a problem and we had to pay to drive through the park again. There were a few photo ops which we decided to do on the way back which proved to be a mistake because we didn’t go back the same way. Photo below on the left is one of the camp grounds in Bunyeroo Valley and the one on the right is a view of Bunyeroo Valley
We drove through the Brachina Gorge until we reached the flatlands and then turned around to back track through the gorge until we came to the turn off to Bunyeroo Gorge. This started with a drive through the Bunyeroo Valley which was really beautiful. Miles and miles of native pine trees. If they had been a bit more even you could almost believe you were driving through a plantation. These trees are really lovely and such a lovely colour. The gorge itself is not quite as spectacular as Brachina Gorge but still worth the
drive. Again there were several camp spots along the route. As it is still school holidays in South Australia the National Park was full of tourists. It costs less to camp in one of these camp sites than it does to use the Wilpena Pound resort camp sites but these camp sites have far fewer people. You just have to take your own shower tent with you and heat some water to wash with. The porta potty is a necessary item as well as some of these areas are really difficult to dig holes in. I would have loved to stay for a few days at one of these camp grounds but that was not possible with Foxy with us.Saturday 11 July 09
We woke to rain and as we were not sure what the situation was re the flight over Wilpena Pound we decided to drive to the airfield at Rawnsley Station to find out. This proved to be a wasted journey because the field was deserted when we got there. We drove on to the resort and were told by the girl at the desk that “Common Sense should have told us the flights would be cancelled”. We obviously lack common sense. As the clouds were down over the hills there was no point in doing anything else so we went back to the caravan and spent the rest of the day keeping out of the rain. We were able to rebook the plane for tomorrow.
Sunday 12 July 09
This is the professional photo of Wilpena Pound mentioned below. As you can see it is clearly a pound but we didn't even see this never mind take a photo of it. I got glimpses but Barry got nothing being on the wrong side of the plane.
The sun was shining when we woke this morning so we again drove to the airfield. We had a wait while the pilot cleaned out the plane. He said it was a bit rough up there and they had a bit of a mishap. This did not go down well with me as I am not a good air traveller but he said he would try to keep out of the wind and use a different route. I really enjoyed the trip but I wasn’t able to get a good photograph of Wilpena Pound. I saw it clearly enough and it is quite obvious why it is called a Pound because it is completely surrounded by hills. The pilot said the actual pound was about 17 kilometres long. He also told us the width but again I forgot what he said. Because of the route the pilot took to keep out of the wind Barry did not even see the pound so he was a bit disappointed but the rest of the trip we both really enjoyed. The ranges surrounding the pound are really spectacular and seeing them from the air was really special. Unfortunately my photographs through the planes glass windows are not very good but maybe Barry’s are better.
http://www.safilm.com.au/Location/Showcase.aspx?p=88&tid=1&cat=1&img=82
This link will take you to a picture of Wilpena Pound with a view that neither of us got, just so that you can see how spectacular it is.
http://www.safilm.com.au/Location/Showcase.aspx?p=88&tid=1&cat=1&img=82
This link will take you to a picture of Wilpena Pound with a view that neither of us got, just so that you can see how spectacular it is.
After the flight we drove along the Moralana Scenic Drive. This was pleasant rather than spectacular and as I was feeling a little tired we didn’t stop for photographs. This drive comes out on the main Hawker/Leigh Creek Highway and right on the junction we came across 2 young girls standing beside an obviously brokendown vehicle. Barry of course cannot go past a break down and stopped to help. I asked what was wrong and the girls (young and pretty) said they didn’t know but the car had overheated and steam was poring out. They turned out to have a badly split top radiator hose, and as with most people they were not carrying spares. It amazes me how unprepared many people are driving around in the outback. Quite often garages do not have spares and you can be stuck for days while something is posted out to you. We did have spare hoses and although the hose was not actually the same as the one the Mitsubishi needed Barry was able to modify it and make it fit. At least they did have plenty of water with them which, unusually, we did not have. The girls drove to Hawker with us to find out how much the hose cost but nobody in Hawker had anything like it but thought about $18.00 would cover it. The girls gave Barry $20.00 and offered to take us for a cup of coffee but as I was still feeling a little rough he declined.
We had used up a fair part of the day by this time and as it was once again cold we retired to the caravan and downloaded photos.
Monday 13 July 09
We had used up a fair part of the day by this time and as it was once again cold we retired to the caravan and downloaded photos.
Monday 13 July 09
Photo Old Ghan Railway Station - Restaurant and Art Gallery
In the morning we did a little shopping in Hawker’s general store and took a photo of the Old Ghan railway station which has been turned into an art gallery and restaurant. When we got back to the caravan park I discovered that the building next to the park office appeared to be full of dolls so I asked to look at them. It turned out that the mother of Corrie (park owner) makes dolls as a hobby. Most of the dolls were porcelain and she said very expensive to make. She swapped to making miniatures when it became too expensive for her. She also joined a doll club at one point and went to a doll school so she also had dolls from these sources. Some of the miniatures were set in doll houses and her work shop shows that she is still beavering away at her hobby. She made all the clothes herself for her dolls and some of them were made with such a fine crochet needle she said you cannot buy them in an ordinary craft shop. There must have been hundreds of dolls there.
After lunch we drove about 18 kms down the highway to look at some caves that purported to have aboriginal artwork in them. The climb up to the caves was arduous and a bit slippery in places as we had a bit of drizzle, but worth the effort. Both the artwork and the views were good. As with the last lot of Aboriginal artwork that we went to, this lot had been fenced in to stop graffiti artists from damaging them. We should be getting fitter but it never 
feels like it when you are clambering around up the sides of these hills. There were 3 caves that we looked at but we noticed that all the other 
tourists looked at the first one and decided that was enough effort for the day.
In the morning we did a little shopping in Hawker’s general store and took a photo of the Old Ghan railway station which has been turned into an art gallery and restaurant. When we got back to the caravan park I discovered that the building next to the park office appeared to be full of dolls so I asked to look at them. It turned out that the mother of Corrie (park owner) makes dolls as a hobby. Most of the dolls were porcelain and she said very expensive to make. She swapped to making miniatures when it became too expensive for her. She also joined a doll club at one point and went to a doll school so she also had dolls from these sources. Some of the miniatures were set in doll houses and her work shop shows that she is still beavering away at her hobby. She made all the clothes herself for her dolls and some of them were made with such a fine crochet needle she said you cannot buy them in an ordinary craft shop. There must have been hundreds of dolls there.
After lunch we drove about 18 kms down the highway to look at some caves that purported to have aboriginal artwork in them. The climb up to the caves was arduous and a bit slippery in places as we had a bit of drizzle, but worth the effort. Both the artwork and the views were good. As with the last lot of Aboriginal artwork that we went to, this lot had been fenced in to stop graffiti artists from damaging them. We should be getting fitter but it never 
feels like it when you are clambering around up the sides of these hills. There were 3 caves that we looked at but we noticed that all the other 
tourists looked at the first one and decided that was enough effort for the day. The top photo in this section is one of the caves that had Aboriginal art work and the one on the left here is just a rock formation that took my eye and the one on the right is some of the rock art we found in these caves. According to the signs the Aboriginals use ochre and charcoal mainly to do this artwork and all of it tells some kind of story.
Back to Hawker and fortunately we remembered to go to the post office to get the mail that Ann had forwarded to us the week before. We had checked at the post office on the previous Wednesday but they had nothing for us and we forgot after that. We were relieved that we remembered before we left Hawker because it is always a hassle to get mail forwarded from one post office to another. Back at the caravan park we started the preliminary packup ready for the move tomorrow.
Tuesday 14 July 09
We left Hawker to travel back to Port Augusta. We had decided to bypass Port Augusta and go through to Orooroo but I had left a prescription to be filled in Port Augusta so we had to go back there. We stopped off on the way to call in to the tourist bureau in Quorn to find out about the “Old Ghan” steam train that runs between Port Augusta and Quorn as we might do this historic trip. It turns out the train only does this trip on Saturdays and looking at the time table it does not do much during the summer months. We didn’t look at Quorn itself because it was raining and if we do the train trip we will get a couple of hours to see it.
We arrived in Port Augusta at about midday and even though we had said we would never use the North Stirling caravan park again after the last time we were here (mainly because of their noisy peacocks) we have come back. We didn’t like the park we stayed at a few weeks ago because it was one of those places where there were notices everywhere telling you to do or not to do something. It was also quite expensive.
The afternoon was spent shopping and buying a new microwave. We think the one we have only need a replacement high voltage fuse but as the nearest technician is in Whyalla the cost of driving there, paying the labour costs and buying the part meant it was no more expensive to buy a new one. Hopefully this one will last longer.
Wednesday 15 July 09
Another wet miserable day which we have spent sitting in the caravan. Barry spent the morning putting photos in the blogs we wrote earlier and I spent the afternoon catching the blog back up again to today.
