Day 8 - 130km Grindell's Hut return to Arkaroola
The second week of the trip started with another 4WD self-drive loop drive, this time through the Gammon Ranges National Park known as the Wurtupa Loop. You can see it on the map below along with the loop we did at Arkaroola (Echo Camp & Mt Jacob). The road in from Mt Hopeless comes from the north east and the road out to the highway heads south west.
The whole of the National Park was a pastoral station and is slowly returning to a more original and natural state. The loop drive was nice but nothing epic. We included the side track out to Idninya Outstation and arrived at Grindell's Hut by lunchtime. The original small stone hut has been rebuilt and a larger house constructed nearby that can be booked as group holiday accommodation.
In our earlier planning we had intended on camping at Grindell's but adding an extra night at Arkaroola is certainly the better option. The Grindell's camp sites are by a dry creek bed which is often a good thing but in this case are a bit too open for my liking, especially compared to Arkaroola. And obviously the more nights you can do in one place the better (less setup/pack up).
We did a walk up to an old mine from a trailhead just near Grindell's Hut. There's not much to see other than excellent views of some very harsh country. It was around 4.5km return and took just on an hour. The photo is a view back towards the hut from part way along the walk.
Deployed the bush microwave to good effect that afternoon after forgetting to pull the chicken out at the start of the day. The 92L Evakool fridge the came with the van seems to be an excellent unit although it is a bit noisy when running. I can hear it at night inside the van probably because there's no other sounds around.
Day 9 - 195km Arkaroola to Waraweena via Nepabunna and Copley
We took the main road out of Arkaroola and through the Gammon Ranges National Park via Nepabunna and Itawarta before calling in at the Copley Bakery and then on to Leigh Creek to fuel up. Copley was a stop on the Old Ghan. Had a good sighting of two eagles along the way somewhere in the National Park.
Not far south of Leigh Creek we diverted on to the old road that follows the line of the Old Ghan and passes through Puttapa Gap. Nice dirt road that only seems to be used by the local farmers these days. Better than being on the highway and before long you come into old Beltana which was also a stop on the old railway and there's still a few people living there. The railway station has been restored but isn't open to the public.
Only 26km further down a decent dirt road to Waraweena Conservation Park, which is another former station that's now managed to return the landscape to a more natural state and supports tourism as well. They have created a number of well spaced apart bush camp sites along a river gum lined dry creek bed. We had the site called Kipling. The sky looked pretty ominous for rain all afternoon but we didn't get any.
Day 10 - 38km Mt Gill Cockatoo 4WD Loop on Waraweena
This would be one of the more "famous" self-drive 4WD trips in the Flinders although probably not up there in popularity to the same level as say Skytrek at Willow Springs Station (more on that later in the trip). Waraweena has previously had more tracks open to the public but many of them have been washed out apparently in big rains either earlier this year or last year so the Mt Gill loop was the only one we did this time.
It was a drive of two extremes; very slow tight work picking your way along a dry and rocky creek bed with lots of large logs and big rocks. And wide open spaces heading up to the 360 degree views of Mt Gill and the lower peaks as you approach. The tight stuff was not particularly technical or even needing low range but was very slow and Jill needed to brush up on her spotting skills at a couple of extra tight bits just to ensure I used the right line and didn't hit anything nasty. We really enjoyed the whole thing.
Couple of shots from sections of rocky creek beds, although not the tightest bits as we were too busy driving and spotting to take photos.
And a couple of shots of the wide open spaces, one early on in the drive and one closer to Mt Gill itself, which is above 900m elevation.
We got back to camp for a lazy afternoon reading and watching a large group of cockatoos feeding. They really give the gum trees a caning when feeding.
This is an old water tank next to the shearer's quarters, which is also where the shower block is located. The wood fired donkey (boiler) goes on every afternoon.
Day 11 - 152km Waraweena to Alpana Station via Parachilna and Blinman
The half way point of the trip, at least in days away, saw us heading south and getting well into the Flinders. But first a photo of the morning light through the river gums at the Waraweena camp site. It was a magic morning and we enjoyed sitting with a coffee and seeing various animals travelling through the landscape (emus, roos, cockatoos, goats and sheep). The light doesn't quite come out in photos, at least not ones taken with an iPhone.
Quick stop at the mine ruins on the way out.
And then an easy run back to Beltana and further down the old road before joining back onto the bitumen for a few km's into Parachilna. It was too early to be stopping in for the road kill cuisine at the Prairie Hotel so we did a drive-by and continued into Parachilna Gorge. We called in to Angorichina Village to fuel up and then back-tracked slightly to take the Glass Gorge Loop, which was a nice little scenic diversion through the northern Flinders countryside. This map gives an idea of the main route we followed although doesn't specifically show the Glass Gorge loop.
Before long we came into Blinman, which turned out to be a great little town. We had lunch (cornish pastie) at the General Store (and bakery).
Next to the general store we spoke to a guy renovating an old hut that was in his family more than 100 years ago and which he bought back about 10 years ago. He's a retired teacher and has a massive project in front of him; eg leaning pug & pine walls, rotten calico ceiling, many layers of wall paper a very rustic kitchen and many other tasks too numerous to even think about. He was very happy to talk with us (and other people) for quite some time so I think that's going to slow him down in a major way, at least during the winter months. Here's a photo of the outside with the next group of interested passers-by getting an insight. The kitchen is that little outhouse looking thing off to the left.
From Blinman it was only a short drive south to Alpana Station where we had decided to camp for the night. We did like the look of the free camps in Parachilna Gorge but had been through there far too early and Alpana is much closer to Wilpena where we were headed the following day. Plus we are also quite happy to leave a little bit of money behind in the areas we travel through, especially to people who are making an effort to cater for travellers and Alpana fit that bill very well.
The 7th generation of one family is in the process of taking over the reins at Alpana. We met them and felt that the future of the place is in good hands. This view may have been helped by them owning a Kelpie that looked very similar to ours.
After dropping the van off at one of the camp sites (Bill's Paddock) we did a 15km return drive along station tracks to a hut they have built in the traditional method for holiday accommodation. It's a beautiful setting and would be a great place for a small group to stay for a few days.
The drive was good but to be honest I was pretty much over it after that distance thanks to many small sharp washouts that get tedious.
We also drove 8km return that evening to visit Sunset Hill and it did not disappoint. Photos of sunsets in outback trip reports are a dime a dozen but it was that good I have included two photos here. You're welcome.
A great end to another great day.
But wait there's more, we had unexpected rain that night. Went to bed under a full sky of stars, woke up at around 1am to very strong wind and lashing rain drops. This event really proved the worth of the van compared to the camper trailer, at least in our minds. No wildly flapping canvas and fears that the whole thing was going to tear itself apart. It ended up being 9mm of rain that was all finished and already drying up by morning.
Day 12 - 94km to Aroona Valley Campsite in Flinders Ranges National Park
A very windy day meant that we didn't stay too long at any of the stopping off points along the way that morning, the first of which was the Great Wall of China. You get the idea from this photo.
We also visited Stokes Hill and Hucks Lookout, both of which afforded excellent views of Wilpena Pound or would have if the conditions were better.
After that you enter the National Park.
We had a couple of nights planned camping in the northern part of the park before going to Wilpena so diverted on to the Bunyeroo scenic drive. It starts out traversing more ex-pastoral landscapes before going over some hills and into the Bunyeroo Gorge. This is one of the classic views in the Flinders.
This scene from the gorge says Middle Earth to me, with slightly different trees.
Once out of the Bunyeroo Gorge you hit the Brachina Gorge road and the intersection for the Aroona Valley is only 1km east. We headed up the 6km dirt road and set up camp. We had read good things about a number of the camp sites in the National Park and it's always hard to judge based on little information, so we were very happy to find that Aroona lived up to our hopes. Nicely set up and reasonably spaced sites among large river gums and native pines, all with a water tap fed from the natural spring up on the hill that was the reason for pastoral settlement in the valley. There's also two toilet blocks. We picked site #13 that was listed as the most private, probably because it's the most southerly site.
That afternoon we walked up to the Aroona Homestead ruins and the hill behind it, followed by a slightly longer walk to the Heysen Lookout, which is in the range on the left of the panorama below. You can also just make out the edge of the camp site area towards the left. It was really worth the walks for the views and you could see why the valley was considered worth settling.
Day 13 - 63km to Brachina Gorge and return to Aroona
We had decided on another hike for the morning to try and get some walking into the legs before attempting the more hard-core hike planned for Wilpena. Ended up settling on the Wilcolo Loop Walk which is a 9.5km loop starting from the carpark in Bunyeroo Gorge that we had driven through the previous day. We had a quick look at the Trezona campground first and didn't think much of it compared to Aroona, a bit too open and exposed in comparison.
The Wilcolo Loop is partly on the Heysen Trail which is a 1500km route from the Flinders all the way south to Cape Jervis down past Adelaide. We didn't know anything about this hike before getting there and it turned out to be an excellent mix of terrain plus a great lookout towards WIlpena Pound at the half way point. The early section was along an access track through native pine forest and then a walking track up through a small rocky gorge followed by more pine forest.
The gum trees in the gorge were twisted and deformed into amazing shapes to survive the many difficult conditions they must face and all of them seemed to be in very good health.
And the pine forest was also a really nice environment to be traversing, occasionally interspersed with rocky spines of exposed boulders. It was interesting to see these up close after spotting them in regular patterns everywhere, especially from other vantages points we'd stopped at when driving through Bunyeroo Gorge.
The lookout at about half way was a totally unexpected bonus. The panorama of Wilpena Pound was spectacular and the view the other direction was out over Bunyeroo Gorge, where you could see the winding road we'd been on the day before.
I thought this peak in the pound looked a bit like the Sphinx from this angle. It was hard to imagine that we would be right up the top of that in a few days, or that was the plan anyway.
We met a couple near the lookout who were on day 3 of a 55 day (!!!) full traverse of the Heysen Trail and had a quick chat. We then spent much of the rest of the day wondering how they'd get on, what stuff they carried in their packs, how many blisters would be suffered and mostly how much of a different experience it was to what we were doing.
The second half of our hike was back down into Bunyeroo Gorge and along the dirt road back to the carpark. Spotted a few more gum trees hanging on in crazy places.
After the hike we drove through Brachina Gorge, which has an amazing diversity of geology that is its major feature. Checked out the camp sites in the gorge and again they were ok but not as good as where we were at Aroona, where we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing at camp.
Day 14 - 151km to Wilpena Pound + Moralana Scenic Drive
Easy drive down the bitumen to Wilpena. We got checked in to the unpowered camping and did some shopping at the little store, which has all the staples and some fresh fruit and vegetables. Just as we were leaving in walks Kirsty with full pack on, one half of the couple we'd met the day before. She had hurt a knee on the way to Wilpena and was looking to hitch a ride to meet up with her partner Shane who was out doing the hike out of Wilpena. They'd decided to avoid overstressing the knee on the technical steep sections. As it happened their meeting point was along the Moralana Scenic Drive that we had intended to have a look at either that afternoon or the following day. So we picked a camp site, unhitched the van, unloaded enough stuff to fit her and the backpack into a back seat and headed out. And got answers to all those questions we'd thought of after meeting them yesterday. What an amazing coincidence.
The meeting point was a hiking trail head called Black Gap, which turned out to be a very nice spot for lunch and a chat. Shane turned up right on 2:30pm looking pretty weary so after a bit of food and pack rearrangement we left them to continue to find a campsite and we headed back to ours.
Go to Part 3 for the next installment of this trip report.
