|
31:33.637 S 139:03.832 E
FLINDERS RANGE, SOUTH AUSTRALIA
13th-16th August 2007
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.
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:
|
|
Here the sheep are being rounded up by the girl on her quad bike just
as we drive past.
|
Rawnsley Park Sheep Station offered excellent cottage accommodation
for us
|
|
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-
|
The setting sun lights the mountains up in red
|
|
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!
|
The view from the top is worth the climb, and it’s just in time
for a picnic lunch up here too!
|
|
The grass trees look out over the ranges like men with top-knots
guarding their domain
|
 
The wild flowers all
around us remain nameless, too many of them to identify
 
Wild Clematis amongst
others
|
|
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!
|
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.
|
|
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.
|
 
The euro wallaby and creek valleys of paper bark trees greeted
us at the bottom of the mountain.
|
|
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.
|
 
The wild flowers in the sheltered valley give great splashes of
colour
|
|
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.
|
This is ‘Daddy’ emu, leading his youngsters across the
road!
|
|
No shortage of sightings of wild emus out in the plains beyond
|
The striped baby emus are well camouflaged
A rare sight in the wild, one of our
Flinders ranges highlights!
|
|
This many corrella’s sitting together is unusual, could be due
to lack of trees?
|
A photo of sheep shearing, this was going on full time in the Spring
Whilst we were there
|
|
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.
|
