Part 6 - Flinders Ranges
March 25 - 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 25th: Kangaroo Island to Wilpena Pound
We woke up on Kangaroo Island with a ferry ride and a long drive into the Outback ahead of us. After a quick stop to get a photo of Julie with a penguin road sign, we drove to the ferry. We had the same ship and crew as a couple of days before, and it was more crowded than on our trip to the island, but still loaded very efficiently. We settled into our seats for departure, and then I was suddenly struck with the realization that I'd left my laptop in our hotel room. I freaked out a little, and started quickly running through options in my mind - could I make it back to the hotel (which was only a couple of blocks away) before the ferry departed? But then the ferry's horn sounded and the ferry started pulling away from the dock. Figures that the one time I've ever forgotten my laptop, it was in the most inaccessible place possible, on a day where we really didn't need to get a late start on driving.
I sat there for a few minutes running through various ways I could get it back (ride the next ferry back over, have the laptop mailed ahead of us to Adelaide) and eventually realized that they could just send it over on the next ferry in a couple of hours. I went and talked to the crew at the snack bar, who commented on how calm I was about the whole thing (having already run through all my freakouts before talking to them). The crew lady just used her cell phone to call her friend at the hotel, who went to the room and found my laptop bag while they were on the phone, and she said she'd carry it down to the ferry terminal for the next trip over. Crisis averted, and score another one for the small, "everybody knows everybody" community.
The ferry ride was uneventful. The water was rougher than before, but the trip was shorter because we didn't have to wait for another ferry to leave the dock. I went up on the deck to take a few photos of the shore. Driving off the ferry was quick and easy, and then I picked Julie up in the parking lot and we drove to a nearby store for some snacks. My toothache was starting in earnest at this point, hurting far worse than it had to this point in the trip, so I got a drink and started taking the penicillin that my dentist had given me in case I needed it.
We took advantage of having a couple of hours to wait for my laptop, and drove around Cape Jervis until we found a scenic lookout for the giant windmills we'd seen a couple of days earlier. It was incredibly windy (as you'd expect), and the windmills were HUGE - it was 100m from the ground to the tip of the blade, and each blade weighed 6 tons! Next, we drove to the Deep Creek Conservation Park to walk a short hiking trail through the forest. The trail was easy and took about an hour, and we saw tons of kangaroos, which just kind of stood still and stared at us as we walked by. Afterward, we stopped by the ferry terminal to pick up my laptop, which made it over safe and sound, and finally got on the road to Wilpena Pound in the Outback around noon.
We drove out along a different route than the one we came in on, and saw a lot of nice scenery by the coast. My tooth was killing me, so we turned on the radio for a distraction and heard some fun songs - "Everybody Wants to Rule the World," "Dancing in the Dark," Hall & Oates, KC and the Sunshine Band, a lot of variety. Along the way to Adelaide, we saw an odd freeway setup, which was of interest to us as a couple of civil engineers. The Southern Freeway was, at the time, the world's longest reversible one way freeway (open in one direction in the morning and the other in the evening), although it's since been converted to two way operation. It was really strange.
Passing through the edge of Adelaide, we got caught up in a nasty traffic jam, some construction, and some difficult turns, so it took us about an hour to go just a few miles around the edge of town (with a toothache and a late start already, so it was extra frustrating). I was amused to pass a sign for a ticket broker to see tickets available for the Newsboys (a Christian rock band I liked back in the day who really played up their Aussieness, so of course they were playing) and Whitesnake (because why not, in 2008?).
Once we got out of town, traffic opened up a bit. We stopped for gas, and then got to some roads with 100+ kph speed limits (which is only like 60 mph, but sounds fast) where we could get stuck behind slow-moving traffic that we were unable to pass. We grabbed a fast, late lunch/early dinner at McDonald's, and believe it or not, it was really good. They had actual Heinz ketchup for the fries (which they even called "fries"). I got a dessert from the McCafe, and it was served on a real plate. Fancy! Then we stopped by a grocery store to get food for breakfast and more snacks - I'd become addicted to Australian nacho cheese Doritos, which are way better than the ones we have in the U.S.
About 225 miles into the drive, we stopped for a quick hike in Mt. Remarkable National Park. Because of all the delays, we had to cut out a couple of things that we wanted to do on the far side of the park and just do the one hike that was recommended if you only had limited time. We pulled into a picnic area so Julie could go to the bathroom while I waited in the car. There were two emus sniffing around the parking lot for food, and they're impressively large and kind of intimidating if you're not used to having them close to you, especially when you have to look up at them out of the car window. The Daveys Gully trail, up through a rocky gorge, was nice and easy, and there were lots of euros (smallish kangaroos) hopping around. We got to be pretty good at spotting them after a while, and even saw some matted down grass that they use for sleeping nests. We saw some rainclouds off in the distance. The emus were still hanging around when we got back to the parking lot, and we also spotted something I love: stick figure in peril!
My toothache was coming and going - it reached a peak as we got to the park, subsided during the hike, and came back strong when we got back into the car. It was getting late in the afternoon, and we still had a couple more hours of driving to go. We raced the sunset, and it started getting dark just as we turned off toward the most nerve-wracking part of the drive, the final stretch through the deserted edge of the Outback toward our hotel. It was dark, and bleak, and lonely, so we tuned in the only station we could find (a farm report on AM radio) for some company. We saw a few kangaroos standing on the side of the road, but thankfully, nothing jumped out in front of us. As we arrived at the edge of Flinders Ranges National Park, we pulled into a turnout to see if we needed to buy a park pass (we didn't). It was pitch black out, and the stars were amazing. I spent a couple of minutes stargazing, but it was windy and cold and Julie was anxious to get to the hotel, so we pressed on.
We finally arrived at the Wilpena Pound Resort about 9:30 or so to find kangaroos hopping around the front yard. Reception was closed for the evening, but they'd left our key and some other information taped to the door. We got into our room, which was large and comfortable (but smelled a little like pee by the fridge). I tried a Vicodin (another "just in case" gift from my dentist) to see if it would help my toothache and help me sleep, but it didn't seem to be very effective for either purpose. Still, I was happy for a comfortable bed - we saw some really cool stuff, but man, this was a long day.
Wednesday, March 26th: Wilpena Pound
We ate breakfast in the room before setting out to explore Wilpena Pound. Wilpena Pound is a natural amphitheater of mountains located in Flinders Ranges National Park, kind of on the edge of the Australian Outback. There's basically a bowl of mountains with an opening on one side, and there's a visitor center and lodge and other facilities located in the bowl. Our first activity for the day was the Wangara Lookout trail. The hike started from the visitor centre and walked into Wilpena Pound, starting out through a nice open forest where we saw a fair number of kangaroos, then passing by an old farming homestead called the Hills homestead. Beyond the homestead, there was a tough climb up the side of the "bowl" to some lookouts. We got a nice view of the inside of the pound from there, but it looks a lot cooler from the outside. Walking back, I stood on a giant tree that had fallen over a ditch. We also saw several goats, which we think were feral goats descended from domestic goats.
My tooth was continuing to worsen, so I had ramen for lunch, and then we drove out for some scenic drives. Our first stop was a solar power site, where we walked a short trail and were stared at by a lot of kangaroos hanging out in the shade. Despite the arid-looking surroundings, it was actually rather cool and windy. We visited the Cazneaux tree, a rugged eucalyptus tree that was the subject of an award winning photo called "The Spirit of Endurance" that was taken by Harold Cazneaux in 1937. It was still recognizable 71 years later, which was awesome.
Next, we visited Sacred Canyon, which required a long drive, and we had to open a heavy gate to let ourselves in. That felt strange, but it's a pretty remote and self-service kind of place. We walked up into a narrow, jagged red rock canyon to find some Aboriginal petroglyphs (rock carvings). We were pretty sure we found some, but they also might have been made by teenagers the previous week. We drove on, stopping by a couple of scenic lookouts along the way, like Hucks Lookout and Stokes Hill Lookout. It was surprisingly windy and chilly, but the views of the outside of the pound and the surrounding area were pretty spectacular.
Our next destination was the Brachina Gorge Drive, which was like a drive through time. Layers of sediment were deposited over millions of years at the bottom of an ancient sea (up to like 650 million years ago), and then the land was folded so that the horizontal layers were forced into a dome. The dome eroded, leaving the edges of the layers exposed, so as you drive along the route, you travel through about 150 million years of geological history. (If you're a geology nerd like me and Julie, this is really awesome.)
The drive was really interesting, with a lot of different kinds of rocks, formations, and fossils, and a short trail out to an old watering hole. Unfortunately, we couldn't find all the interpretive signs, which I always find frustrating. Along the way, we saw a cute kangaroo drinking from a watering hole, and saw a couple of yellow footed rock wallabies, which are apparently somewhat rare. The Brachina Gorge Drive ended at a main highway, which we drove for a bit. The highway was really flat, which was odd, because everywhere else we'd been driving was very hilly.
Next, we drove the Moralana Scenic Drive, which was a dirt road on private land - a sheep farm. There were a lot of free range sheep running away from the car as we drove, and also some kangaroos and a few emus. We saw a flock of cockatoos in a tree, and some very rugged, mountainous scenery. It started to get dark as we headed back to the resort for the evening.
My camera started acting up late in the day - I bought it a few years earlier for our first Australia trip, and it had seen a lot of rough times and harsh environments. I backed up the photos to my laptop just to be safe, but luckily, it survived the rest of the trip before dying for good a couple of months later. Then we put in some laundry and had dinner in the restaurant, which was slow but pretty decent (except for the constant presence of my toothache, which cast a pall on everything). Laundry was challenging as always - it took forever to dry, and we eventually gave up and took it out of the dryer damp so we could go to bed. I took another Vicodin, and managed to sleep fairly well.
Thursday, March 27th: Wilpena Pound
It was surprisingly cool (jeans and sweatshirt weather) as we got started for the day, although it got hot while hiking in the sun by the afternoon. Our first destination was Arkaroo Rock, to see some Aboriginal cave paintings. We hiked through the woods on a rocky uphill trail for a while, with kangaroos hopping around us along the way, and saw a weird chain of fuzzy caterpillars. We got to a site where there was a strange rock overhang with a rail in front of it, and just stared at it for a while going "is that it?" There were just a few indistinct marks and scratches that could have been done by a kid the week before. We walked on up the trail and came to a fenced-in rock overhang that had some much better cave paintings - animal tracks and other symbols that were pretty distinct. We looked at them for a while and then hiked back, enjoying some nice mountain views along the walk.
Next, we drove along a dirt road up to Bunyeroo Gorge for a hike up the gorge. We saw a cool dead tree along the way, but the hike turned out to be the first of several failures for the day. The trail generally followed a sandy, dry creekbed up a wide gorge. There were signposts periodically along the trail, and we tried to go from post to post, marking spots in the GPS, but the poorly marked and maintained trail combined with the meandering creekbed, animal trails, and all the footprints from other people's mistakes made it impossible to follow the trail. We passed a couple walking out of the gorge that seemed to have had similar troubles.
We also had to wear our fly nets to avoid being driven crazy by little black flies, but the nets made it impossible to see the trail or the scenery, so I kept mine off as much as I could until it got unbearable. We made it about 2 km up the gorge that way, only intermittently sure we were on the trail, and we eventually came across several kangaroo carcasses in various states of decay, which wasn't an encouraging sign. We finally gave up and turned around, following the GPS breadcrumbs to get us back to the car. We weren't too likely to get lost if we just followed the creekbed, but it was frustrating and not much fun to have to work that hard.
We came back to our room and walked to the store for lunch (a sandwich for me, ramen for Julie). My tooth was acting up - I was struggling with a really extreme toothache all day long - but I figured I was better off hiking than just suffering in the room, so we set out for a short hike near the hotel called "Drought Busters," theoretically an interpreted hike about drought-tolerant plants. For what was supposed to be an easy hike, it was also really frustrating. After a while, the trail and its markings just disappeared into a maze of animal trails and false paths. We used GPS breadcrumbs to return to a place where the Mount Ohlssen Bagge trail (a harder trail to the top of a mountain) forked off, and decided to give that trail a shot.
The Mount Ohlssen Bagge trail was very slow going, with a lot of quasi-steps up rocks. It was hot and sunny, and we were pretty tired after a few hikes already, but I was determined not to fail again. But when we were kind of staggering and came across a sign that said we still had 1.4 km to go to get to the top (and it had taken us forever to do the last 0.4 km), we decided to sit and enjoy the view from where we were for a while and then throw in the towel. With my tooth starting to throb again, we headed back down to the hotel.
When we got back from the hike, I was miserable. I basically laid on the bed and writhed and moaned for about 15 minutes. I was pacing the floor, considering taking a Vicodin, and trying to figure out a way to see a dentist ASAP. I thought I had figured out a small comfort - drinking sips of water to submerge my tooth temporarily made the pain go away. But it always came back, so it was a momentary reprieve at best, and you can only drink so much water, even a sip at a time. Julie started doing another load of laundry (much earlier than the day before), and I spent some time checking e-mail on a computer in the hotel lobby to pass the time. Eventually, the pain finally subsided a bit, and thankfully it stayed manageable for a couple of hours. We spent an hour and a half doing a crossword puzzle, then went to dinner just before the kitchen shut down. (My chicken was pretty good, but hard to chew with a bad tooth, and Julie's steak was tough and gristly.)
As is customary, we had trouble with the hotel laundry, and gave up and hung our slightly damp clothes up in the room about the same time as the evening before, despite the earlier start. I took another Vicodin and slept pretty well through most of the night.