Week 7 - Monday 15 – 21 March 2010

Week 7 already!

On Monday we spent a good part of the day doing chores – Priscilla had a service (which I watched – finally I know where the transmission fluid dip stick is!), we bought a Telstra phone so we can have reception in places outside the major conurbations and we did a food shop. Finally, we left the outskirts of Adelaide (Modbury) where we'd achieved so much and headed out to Hahndorf, a kitch German town in the Adelaide Hills wine region.

Hahndorf, though kitch, is undeniably cute. Our camp site was not. It was close to the town though, which is what we wanted. It also had a group of Australian car enthusiasts of the Hot Rod variety, which meant I could get some photos for John, and lamely boast about the fact a friend back home has a 1934 Ford Coupe.... We had a pretty poor dinner at the German Arms Hotel in town, then Jen spent the night on the internet, and was punished for her urbanity by a thousand mozzie bites.





Tuesday, we drove through the Adelaide Hills region (really lovely, we should have stopped for some wine tasting), up on through the Barossa Valley (where we did some shameful wine tasting) and finally camped up in Clare in the Clare Valley. Yes, we drove through some of Australia's finest wine producing regions and we stopped at.... Jacobs Creek Winery! Well, we haven't been wine tasting before, and we were a bit intimidated about the idea of going to a small vineyard (even though we knew it would be better). We'll do more in Margaret River, and won't go to the big UK distributors!





On Wednesday we pressed further north to Mount Remarkable, a small National Park just outside Port Augusta (called Porta Gutta by the locals!) Since leaving Adelaide, the weather has continued to get warmer, and on this stretch of road, we began to notice the changing landscape too. Suddenly Australia begins to seem like the vast country it is, in a way you don't appreciate on the coastal roads of New South Wales and Victoria. The roads stretch ahead to end in a heat fuelled watery haze, and they're relatively sparsely populated, save for other the other 4WDs and road trains. And the drivers passing in the opposite direction acknowledge you with a raised hand or finger from the steering wheel. Mount Remarkable National Park forms part of the southern end of the Flinders Ranges, and these framed our view to the right as we drove - a long line of hills (surprisingly green) topped by flat rocky crags. To our left everything is flat out to the Spencer Gulf, where the Southern Ocean reaches its Northern most point in South Australia at Port Augusta.

Our camp here for the night was very nice, great setting with showers and mod cons, all free with the National Parks permit we bought back in Mount Gambier. On the way in we saw a family of emus crossing the road in front of us – unfortunately we were too late to get a picture of them crossing (I'm determined to get a Beatles style shot of them crossing the road before the end of the trip). Emus are fast becoming our favourite of the Australian fauna. On the way back out the next morning, we saw the same family crossing the road again, only for a baby to get its leg trapped in a fence. The largest of the emus (we assumed the mother, but later realised it was quite possibly the father as stay at home dad's are all the rage in the emu world) stood guard to our right while the others paced behind him. Together, we all watched the young emu struggle in the wire fence to our left with concern. Jen and I were about to turn back to find a ranger to free the bird, when it managed to wrench itself free and limp across the road. We watched a while longer to make sure it wasn't injured and moved on again only after we'd seen it walking normally again (which happened after it emptied its bowels for us – poor thing!)

That day we carried on up to Porta Gutta and spent a long time looking for someone to check the wheel alignment on the front wheels (tire tread wearing thin on the inside edge as identified during the service) but not finding anyone with the time or working tools, then more time stocking up for the trip ahead to the Flinders. By the time we left, my hopes of reaching Wilpena Pound that night were almost dead, and the final nail was hammered in when we ran into a hold up on the road up there in the shape of a truck which had lost its load onto the siding. We waited about 45 minutes for the crane to clear the way, then made our way on up to Hawker for the night, where we also thought we could get the wheel alignment done at “Chris' Mechanicals”.

Our camp was fine, though the swim I took in their pool was ill advised – I was attacked by something Jen reliably informed me was a Wurleygig Beetle – a bit like a diving seal, only tiny and in no way something you want to swim with.

On Friday we made our way up to Wilpena Pound (after the necessary wheel alignment at Chris' Mechanicals, and a hour in the Panorama Gallery there – something to be seen for sure!). The scenery around the Flinders is stunning, even on the approach. I'm not sure the pictures really do it justice, but here's Priscilla on the road up there.



We stayed at the commercial camp ground at Wilpena for two nights and nosied about the area, but really did very little other than spot lazy kangaroos hanging about the place, and dodge the legion of flies that beset almost every move (fair to say at this point (b b b baby) we'd seen nothing yet as far as flies go, much worse was to come on the Oodnadatta Track). We didn't even manage the walk into the Pound.

On Sunday though, we did the Skytrek 4wd tour of Willow Springs Station. Around the Flinders, many of the stations open up their tracks to the 4wd public for some off-road viewing of the Flinders area not within the National Park. Skytrek has the highest vehicular access point in the Flinders according to the very helpful and enthusiastic ranger at Wilpena. And it was pretty spectacular. Its only around 70km, but takes all day to drive it. It passes through some aboriginal rock art sites, Old Moxan's Hut (which was restored with the help of the Nissan Patrol Club in SA) which a station employee occupied until the 1960's, a Yellow-Footed Rock Wallaby conservation (we searched a lot for these Yellow-Feet in the Flinders, they're rare and rarely seen it seems – Jen's cries of “Oi Yellow Foot, where the hell are ya?” didn't even work....) and finally a fantastic drive up and view from the top of Mount Caernarvon, where you get a great panoramic view of the Flinders Ranges and internet coverage (yey!).





Of course, as has become vogue for us, we saw more emus – these ones were particularly inquisitive and watched us for as long as we watched them. I'm very amused by emus. They have punk haircuts and a strange gait that John Cleese would be proud of – each step looks like that of a mime artist accentuating the tentative steps of a comedy burglar, until they break into a run, when their ample bottoms bounce about behind them in a manner Beyonce must admire.





That night, we found a nice camp at Trezona off a dirt track towards the north of the Flinders National Park, and collapsed in exhaustion, only to be kept awake a lot of the night by strong winds ripping through the tent – sometimes its not so good to be high up. No Axe Murderers though, just a Swiss family on holiday.

More of the Flinders and the Gammon Ranges to follow in the next instalment, together with our first outback track (the Oodnadatta) and crossing the border into the Northern Territory and the Red Centre.

Love to all,
Claire of Jen and Claire Fame