Flinders Ranges

www.kanaloa55.com
David & Valerie Dobson
Thu 16 Aug 2007 23:06

 

 

 

31:33.637 S  139:03.832 E

 

FLINDERS RANGE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

13th-16th August 2007

 

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This is the Aerial shot I took of the Wilpena Pound in the Flinders ranges which the 4 of us climbed, up to St Mary’s peak, the highest point on this strange circular mountain range, thus called a pound.  It was used by the first farmer in the area as a grazing area for far too many sheep, as he did not realise how droughts every 6- 8 years puts the area under such severe stress.  We arrived just after recent rains, hence the area is green and lush, a rare sight for the locals.

 

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The glowing red and purple folds of these majestic ranges are beloved of artists and bush walkers, hence that’s why we are here!  This ancient colossus rises 400km north of the Gulf into the arid outback.  The area should have been carpeted with wildflowers, specially the wild hops, like this photo below:

 

 

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Here the sheep are being rounded up by the girl on her quad bike just as we drive past.

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Rawnsley Park Sheep Station offered excellent cottage accommodation for us

 

 

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The temperature has dropped as soon as the sun disappeared behind the hilltop, brrr.... Never mind, the colours are good at sunset on the hills beyond-

 

 

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The setting sun lights the mountains up in red

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We start climbing, are we really going to the top of that ridge in the background? It looks like a bit of a mountain to scramble up, and it is!

 

 

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The view from the top is worth the climb, and it’s just in time for a picnic lunch up here too!

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The grass trees look out over the ranges like men with top-knots guarding their domain

 

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The wild flowers all around us remain nameless, too many of them to identify

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Wild Clematis amongst others

 

 

 

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Valerie’s taking the picture, proof that I was there too, but I could not stand on the top like them, I suffer with vertigo!

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David’s altimeter says that we’re at 1170 metres, not so high, but a good climb for a morning’s excercise!  That’s the salt lake  Acraman in the background, formed 610 millions years ago when an abrumpt warming brought the ice age to and end.  Then an asteroid  hit 600 milion years ago, causing a 30 km wide crater.  A huge cloud would have encircled the earth, wiping most of life on earth.

 

 

 

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We had just 17 kms to walk back down into the pound and back to the car along that track in the photo – we were ready to sit down at the end of that day’s trekking!

Not having done quite such a strenuous day’s hiking for a long time.

 

 

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The euro wallaby and creek valleys of paper bark trees  greeted us at the bottom of the mountain.

 

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This wedge tailed eagle regaled us wheeling around over our heads, a splendid sight for us to enjoy, despite the fact that he was flying at least twice as high as we had strenuously climbed!

This is a painting – larger than life-size!

 

There were plenty of parrots, finches, cuckoo shrikes and firetails for us to spot amongst the woodlands below too, photos not possible for such timid birds however.

 

 

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The wild flowers in the sheltered valley give great splashes of colour

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This red gum is a huge specimen of a very beautiful tree which thrives on the damp earth in the middle of the pound, where it finds water for its roots in the  valley in the middle of the pound.  It’s shed one of its limbs in last year’s drought to help it survive.

 

 

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This is ‘Daddy’ emu, leading his youngsters across the road!

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No shortage of sightings of wild emus out in the plains beyond

 

 

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The striped baby emus are well camouflaged

A rare sight in the wild, one of our

Flinders ranges highlights!

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This many corrella’s sitting together is unusual, could be due to lack of trees?

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A photo of sheep shearing, this was going on full time in the Spring

Whilst we were there

 

 

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Blinman General store, sells everything including fuel!

Watching the Trans Pacific railway cross the road in Peterborough, on our way back down to Adelaide, it takes 3 days to do the journey from Adelaide to Perth.  We decided to fly, and watch the scenery out of the plane window, as it is mostly very flat and dry plains.

 

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