Flinders Ranges National Park 18/3/12 - 21/3/12

FLINDERS RANGES NATIONAL PARK

These photos are taken from postcards.

We had been anticipating visiting the Flinders Ranges for some time. From the Yorke Peninsula it wasn't long before the Southern Flinders Ranges came into view. On our way through these Ranges, which were a lot further south than we thought, we stopped overnight at a small town, Murray Town, where we had all the facilities for a donation. Wonderful! The weather forecast looked good for the next few days which was what we wanted in order to see the area at its best. The mountains became more impressive as we drove further into the Flinders. The towns we drove through, such as, Quorn and Hawker were typical Australian towns with their quaint old buildings.

We stopped to look at an old historic homestead ruin at Kanyaka which was a sheep station back in the mid-late 1800's out in the middle of nowhere.




Our destination was Wilpena resort, where there is a great camp ground right in the heart of the Flinders Ranges National Park.  Again, we had plenty of sites to choose from as it was the off season with few people camping. Wilpena is in a beautiful natural setting with kangaroos hopping by every now and then. One even came up to our caravan door as we were sitting outside. We weren't quick enough with the camera.  The facilities were very good.





In the caravan park

This place is great for hiking in the mountains, 4WD tours, scenic flights and mountain biking, so there is plenty to do. We chose to do one of the walks which took us to the highest peak , St Mary's Peak, in the Flinders Ranges.

The day we did the walk was a beautiful sunny day with light cloud cover, ideal for walking. This was a challenging 21 km walk to the summit.  The first 10-12 kms was quite easy walking within the Wilpena Pound, which is like an amphitheatre of flat ground surrounded by mountains. It looks like an ancient volcano but it is actually land which has lifted up. The Kangaroos here are very tame.




St Mary's Peak from Tanderra Saddle

Carol "I'm tired and hungry. Can we stop and eat now?". Nigel "No not yet, we'll stop at 1 o'clock".

We were planning on not going any further than the Tanderra Saddle but as there was only 1.6 kms to the summit we decided to challenge ourselves and make it to the top.




Looking up to St Mary's Peak

"How are we ever going to get up there".




Looking up to the peak we wondered how we were going to get up the sheer cliffs. It involved rock scrambling and steep ascents and took us about 1 hr to trek the 1.6kms. It was quite tedious and very tiring.











Almost there



Lunch break, a welcome relief (before 1 pm!).



When we arrived at the summit the views were spectacular and it was worth the extra effort. The weather was perfect, sunny and no wind. There was a plaque up the top giving the height at the summit. 1171m.
Carol was scared to go near the edge as it was a sheer drop.




We stayed at the top for about 1/2 hour, just taking in the views after which we started to make our way down. We found the descent was just as difficult as the ascent.


On our way down we met a group of 3 people going up. One of them was a young guy, Bruce, walking bare feet. He had walked all the way with no shoes over the rough rocks and stones. Amazing!!  We asked him why he walked like this and his reply was that he walks bare feet most of the time and he wanted to walk this trail the same way the aboriginies did. Nice young man. Carol told him he reminded her of her son, Michael, as he looked a lot like him.

Barefoot Bruce

 It took about another hour to walk the 1.6kms back down to the saddle from the summit. From there we took a different route down which was on the outside of the Pound area. Only 6 kms back to Wilpena Pound but much more difficult than the route up. More scrambling down boulders and rocks for the next 2 kms until it levelled out and the walking became much easier.

Two very tired, exhausted people trudged their way back to Wilpena with very sore feet (Carol had blisters as she wore new walking boots). Carol did very well especially as we had not done any prior preparation for a walk such as this. It took us 7 1/2 hours to do the walk. We were glad we did it as it gave us a good feel for the Flinders and its rugged mountains.

The evening meal was a struggle to prepare as we were feeling very lethargic. Early into bed that night. The energy returned the next morning ready to begin our next adventure which was cycling down a trail taking in the views of the mountains and other points of interest.



Looking toward St Mary's Peak (centre right)

A swim in the resort swimming finished off another great day here in Wilpena Pound.

Sadly we had to move on and leave this lovely place. We would like to go back there sometime in the future and explore more walks and things to do.

On our way out we stopped to view some ancient aborigial rock paintings at Arkaroo Rock.

These paintings on the rock are thousands of years old and are of historical significance.

After leaving Flinders Ranges we travelled to the Eyre Peninsula. This will be our next blog.