Flinders Ranges (Wilpena Pound) to Ballarat
From Dugouts & Dust to Steam Trains,
Boy Do We Get Around.... From Coober Pedy we travelled
down the Stuart Highway
with mainly barren land and straight stretches of good bitumen road. On
arrival in Port Augusta, we visited the tourist information to find some
accommodation in the Flinders
Ranges. As it was a
long weekend in South Australia
and also school holidays, most places were very busy but we managed to find a
caravan park in Quorn, the home of the Pichi Richi Railway Tourist Train.
The narrow gauge railway line through the Pichi Richi
Pass is the oldest and
most scenic part of the Great Northern Railway. Quorn became one of the
busiest railway junctions in Australia,
but as the railway activity through Quorn declined, a number of railway
enthusiasts formed a preservation society and rebuilt this section of the
line. Now tourists can take a journey from Quorn to Woolshed Flat and
return which takes 2 3/4 hours. Quorn is a quiet town in the southern Flinders Ranges but was quite busy while we were
there. The surrounding countryside was very pretty, but desperately in
need of rain and to our delight it rained heavily on the Saturday night which
would really thrill the farmers.
Friendly Neighbours, Now That's
Nice..... From Quorn we travelled onto Wilpena Pound
where we had managed to get four nights in the camp ground. It was a huge
camping ground and especially busy. We arrived in the early afternoon and
set up. Our neighbours informed us that the night before there had been
torrential rain, thunderstorms and hail which ended up closing most of the
roads in the Flinders
Ranges. People had
packed up camp and headed home as they had been washed out. We had two
enjoyable nights sitting around the camp fire with Grant and Cheryl and their
two girls, Nicole and Kate from Adelaide.
We all enjoyed a cooked damper successfully cooked by Cheryl.
Mountain Goats, Well Nearly.....
We decided to do an extended walk (17 kilometres - yes that's right) to St.
Mary's Peak and return through Wilpena Pound. St. Mary's is the highest
mountain in the Flinders
Ranges at 1180
mtrs. We set out at 8.30 am allowing 8 hours to complete the hike and
informed Grant and Cheryl that if we did not return by 5.00 pm to start
worrying. Grant is a Chief Cameraman at Channel 7 Adelaide and I bet he
thought he was onto an exclusive story if we didn't return! Sorry
Grant. The walk was classified as "difficult" and
to be tackled by those with a reasonable level of fitness. The trail
climbed gradually for 4 km until it reached the steep outer wall to Tanderra
Saddle and gained about 250 vertical metres in 0.9 kms.. We were now
about 850 mtrs above sea level. From the Saddle to the summit was the
most difficult part of the walk. Liz realized her capabilities and
sensibly decided to remain at the top of the Saddle and leave the .8 km climb
for Rob to achieve. Even though it is only 0.8 km the majority of this is
vertical as you go from 850 mtrs to 1180 mtrs above sea level to reach the
peak. This short distance involved climbing over large boulders and edging
along narrow ledges to reach the summit. To complete this short return
trip to the top of the peak and back to the Saddle took 2 1/4 hrs and Rob
decided that the Ayers Rock climb was "a piece of cake". We
then had 11 kms to hike back to Wilpena Camp Ground inside the Pound. It
was a huge walk back and 1.2 km from home we hitched a ride with a 4 WD as our
bodies were pretty weary. Surprisingly the next morning we both felt
really good, so all this bushwalking must be paying off.
The
next day was strictly sightseeing by car so we went to Bunyeroo Gorge and
Brachina Gorge. There was a little water on some of the roads which made
the area more picturesque. We continued up to Parachilna and the Prairie
Hotel, a fascinating old country pub. It was then on to Blinman and back
to Wilpena. All the different colours in the Flinders Ranges
make it popular with artists and we saw a great display of this at the big art
exhibition in Hawker. There were over 600 paintings exhibited by various
artists with the majority of paintings being of the Flinders Ranges
and surrounding countryside. We were told that because of the very dry
weather, the wildflowers were not at their best, but we did manage to see a few
interesting flowers. The following day our enthusiasm for mountain
climbing was back so we decided to undertake the 4.5 km Mount Ohlssen Bagge
walk which was only 941 mtrs above sea level. Piece of cake.
Moving South, Let's Hit
The Wineries..... After 8 days in the Flinders Ranges
we moved on to the Clare
Valley for some wine
tasting and civilisation. What stood out more than anything
during this 310 km drive was that after 3 months in desert conditions all of a
sudden the paddocks were green. What a pleasant change.
The township
of Clare is quite a nice
town with lots and lots of bed and breakfast establishments to cater for the
tourists and lots and lots of wineries to visit and sample the wines of the
region. We stayed at a nice park just out of town and spent two days
exploring the town and surrounding areas. The Clare Valley
is well known for its white wines rather than the red wines. We
selected a few of the smaller wineries and sampled some very nice wines.
We then moved onto the Barossa
Valley and stayed at
Nurioopta, one of the larger towns in the Barossa. We visited the smaller
towns of Lyndoch and Tanunda and again visited a few of the wineries to enjoy a
few tastings. The weather is finally getting cooler and cooler with the
whole area experiencing severe thunderstorms and rain. Unfortunately, a
large number of vineyards experienced vine damage from the storms that
passed through.
Our next stop was Meningie down in the South East of South Australia.
This is a very small town on the shores of Lake
Albert. There is not much to do here but stay overnight and
then we moved onto Robe. Robe is such a sleepy town during the winter but
comes to life in the summer. It is just the same as it was 15 years ago
when we would holiday there. We stayed in a park overlooking beautiful Guichen Bay and in close walking of the
town. Life was becoming a bit "hum drum" so just to spark it up
a little, we went four wheel driving on some of the back beach tracks, ending
up on a remote beach where we ended up being bogged on the beach. After a
bit of shoveling of sand around and placing seaweed in the tracks to give
traction, we managed to get out. Luckily the tide was on its way out and
was not a problem.
Penola was our next stop. The home of the Blessed Mary MacKillop
and the wine district of Coonawarra We visited the 33 historic buildings
and sites and even went to the theatre to see the Penola Players stage a
melodrama in the local hall. The highlight definitely was visiting some
of the wineries in Coonawarra and sample some of the great reds of the
region. The vines are growing in rich red terra rossa soil over
limestone, with pure underground water and a long, cool ripening season for the
grapes. We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed the day immensely.
Volcanoes, Interesting ......
From Penola it was onto Mt.
Gambier a town of 23,000
people. It is set in a unique and ancient landscape of extinct volcanoes,
natural limestone and underground waterways. We arrived just before lunch
and stayed in the Blue
Lake Caravan
Park. There were
some good walking tracks around this area, so we walked the Blue Lake
(photo), a volcanic crater where the water changes to turquoise blue from
November each year and gradually fades in late summer. Umpherston Sink
Hole and its terraced gardens was another highlight and a visit to Engelbrecht Cave to view the underground water where
divers explore under the city was interesting. The Irish comedian,
Geraldine Doyle was appearing at the civic centre, so we went along and thoroughly
enjoyed the night. A visit to the Irish Pub next door after the show was
a good way to finish the night off.
It was the first time that we both thought of playing a round of golf as some
of the golf courses around the south east are well worth playing.
Fairies .....
Fifty kilometres down the road was our next stop. Nelson is right on the
South Australian and Victorian border and the Glenelg River
flows 400 kms inland from here. We decided to take a river cruise up the Glenelg River
to the Princess Margaret Rose
Cave. This
fantastic cave was discovered in 1936 and is quite striking with its honey
coloured stalactites, and stalagmites jutting out from all directions .
This cave is well worth a visit. We were very slowly getting closer
and closer to Ballarat with out next stop being Port Fairy just down the
road. Port Fairy (photo) is on the Moyne River
and definitely takes the prize for being quaint. It reminded us of some
of the fishing villages in England
and the development in the area was just amazing with beautiful homes being
built along the river and the Eastern
Beach. The
weather was definitely much cooler and the wind was also taking a bit of
getting use to. We changed from shorts and tee shirts to long pants and
sweaters and even had the heater running during the evening.
We spent two nights in Port Fairy just sightseeing and relaxing.
The Home Stretch.....
It was onto Warrnambool where we were to meet our friends Cheryl and Roger who
finally caught up with us with just two more sleeps to go before we were back
in Ballarat. It was so good to catch up as we had been trying to get
together in different places around Australia but it was not successful
until we reached Warrnambool. We revisited Port Fairy for Roger to reminisce
and for Cheryl to sightsee (photo). A night out for dinner was fun and
the next day we travelled on visiting different sightseeing stops along the Great Ocean Road.
We had a farewell coffee in Port Campbell where Rob and I decided to continue
on to Ballarat. It was great to see our house and garden and catch
up with family and friends.
Yes, We're Home - 5 Months & 1
Week, 24,000km
Thanks for following our
trip
Bob & Liz
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