Day 2 Red Centre Trip -Parachilna Gorge to Coward Springs

Day 2

July 22 -361km

The wind was still blowing strongly as we drove back out of the lovely Parachilna Gorge and on to the highway again.

Since we had time, we took the detour to Beltana. This was a thriving little town when mining was strong and the railway passed through here. With the resiting of the railway line the town businesses closed, and now, although some people live here, it appears to be almost a ghost town, with it's buldings of old stone and old galvanized iron blended together. The remains of an old Afghan well stand outside the town reminding us of the part these people and their camels played in the opening up of the outback.

Beltana town well

Second stop was the now quiet Leigh Creek. I was happy to see that the supermarket there was still operational (I had forgotten to pack the butter). With a hugely decreasing population , due to the closing of the coal mine, you have to wonder how long that will continue.

We made another brief detour in to Copley. Alas the famous bakery is no longer in operation.

A further 60 km up the highway we again turned off, this time into the old Farina ruins. Here we struck lucky. For eight weeks each year a team of volunteers come to this ruined town and work on conserving and restoring the old stone buildings. Amongst them, a volunteer baker,who bakes delicious goodies in the historic underground bakery for sale every day. We took advantage of this lucky coincidence, and munched as we explored the old buildings.

Another 50km up the track, we came through Marree, and were on to the Oodnadatta Track. We stopped in at the viewing area to look out over the white, salty expanse of Lake Eyre South, and to admire the little white and yellow straw flowers growing in the sandy soil after the recent rains. The track was in relatively good condition, with average speed of 80km/hr easily achievable.

New pipeline going in!

Our old friends the mound springs Bubbler and Blanche Cup were next. With the wind blasting us, we climbed up to these springs, each sitting atop their mounds, formed from the minerals which are pushed up with the water from the artesian basin which stretches beneath a massive 22% of the Australian continent! These springs made living in these areas possible, and settlements grew up around them, as they were reliable water sources. Sadly, many of them are now drying up, due to the drilling of bores,which lowers the water in the basin.

These two still flow, and the sedge around them is bright green, with a whole micro population of plants and water creatures living in them, and a wonderful visiting bird population.

At last we made it to Coward Springs campsite. The higher trees (including palms) welcomed us, giving indication of the water which flows here from the man made spring, and sustains a wetland population. The water also flows into a small square spa pool, (where weary travellers can soak away their aches), and is pumped into showers heated by a wood fueled heater known as a donkey. I was hoping to see the hundreds of finches that I remembered from a past visit, but it was too windy. We could hear their tiny chirrupy sounds, but they hid pretty well out of the wind. We had a lovely sheltered spot to throw out our swags. By the time we had had a bit of a walk, our tea and a hot shower we were ready for bed, and dropped into our swags under a magnificent starry night to enjoy a better sleep.

Red centre trip day 1 -Home to Parachilna Gorge

Day 1 July 21st

Home to Parachilna Gorge -509km

We left finally at about 1045, then fuel stop before heading out of town.

Made camp at about 5.30 just on sunset, which meant we had just enough time to pick a spot before the the light was gone. We have pulled in to a flat camping spot about 10 km in from the main road amongst large gum trees. It is only a short distance from the road, but the road is not very busy, so that should be fine.

We came up in unseasonably warm weather (about 25 degrees), in just our shirts until we made camp. It was a stiff breeze though, and we used about 50 litre of fuel in the 400km between home and Hawker, where we refueled again.

We stopped at Pt Wakefield at about 1230 for a Cornish pasty before eating up the highway towards Port Augusta, with the lower Flinders on our right and the coast on our left under bright blue sky with varied formations of clouds. If only I was a meteorologist...

As we turned in towards Quorn and followed the Pichi Richie Pass beside the old train track between the craggy hills we really felt like we had come on holidays again. The winding road slowed us down and allowed us to appreciate the colours and shapes of the rocks and trees as we drifted along.

Note the unsightly wind farm

 Spot Trevor

Turning at Hawker we headed North again with the Northern Flinders on our right and marvelled at the craggy mountains , so green at the moment, but so inhospitable to the early settlers. We debated whether to stop at the Prairie Hotel for tea, but instead opted for the peace of our own company and our first bush campsite for the trip.

As we sit waiting for our tea to cook, we can hear an owl calling in the distance, and just the faint whisper of wind in the trees. We are appreciating the stars before the full moon appears to chase them away.

Our camp spot

Winter

We are going through a bit of cold winter weather at the moment.

Here, in Australia, winter occurs in June, July and August.  We have just passed the shortest day (the winter solstice is the 21st of June). The deciduous trees are losing (or have lost) their leaves, and the hours of daylight are greatly reduced right now.   I get up in the dark in the morning just before 7am, and walk home at 5pm in the fading light just after sunset. I listen to the rain on the roof, and feel thankful for being inside in the warmth.

It is winter, so it's not really surprising that it is cold and wet.  Maybe my perspective has changed because I have loved ones living in the UK at the moment, but I don't seem to be feeling that this weather it is too hard to take. In fact I keep on walking in it and thinking how lucky we are that this is as bad as it gets.

I remember being over in Europe myself this time last year in the summer time, where we stood through a day of bone-chilling rain in Sweden at an orienteering event (when we weren't trying to keep our shoes on our feet as we waded through the bogs on our courses) , and got soaked in torrential rain in Cornwall. And I understand why people migrate from there to Australia for the sunshine. We have just so much of it.

I'm lucky to live close to the coast in South Australia. I'm one of the fortunate majority who live in the temperate weather zone. I used to think it was not very temperate, but these days I appreciate it's nature more somehow. The blue area on the map below is the temperate zone (thanks to the Bureau of Meteorology for the map). If you looked at a coloured map of the population density the blue area would also pretty much reflect the majority of that as well. You would have to extend it up the East coast a bit for the sun-loving Queenslanders who don't mind a bit of humidity.

Some people love the sticky warmth of the north eastern tropical and subtropical areas (pale and dark green) , but personally I can't stand being sweaty without reprieve , let alone the cyclones and dampness.

The inland desert areas (orange) have a special beauty, with the red soil and wide horizons of startling blue sky, but the heat and lack of water makes them a tough place to live for anyone. 

The yellow areas I could compromise on, but it would be nowhere near as comfortable, with times of drought a constant risk, and extremes of temperature so much more, without the soothing weather effect of the sea nearby.

So I'm appreciating the pretty colours of the leaves, the warm fire at night time, and the fact that I have a cosy home to shelter in and a warm husband to cuddle up to. I'm also appreciating that I live in such a wonderful spot in the world. 

Boots

As I was driving home today
Upon the grass some brown boots lay
Where they were from I could not say
... a lonely pair of boots

Did someone treat them really rough
And find that they weren't tough enough
To handle all that hardy stuff?
...a gentle pair of boots

Or did they run away from home
And dream of deserts and frothing foam
And other places they might roam
...Adventurous old boots

I couldn't help but wonder why
They sat outside beneath the sky
And caught my eye as I went by
...That puzzling pair of boots

Day 20 Pt Augusta to home

The weather was pretty bad overnight and we were glad that we had opted for the cabin option again. Our little cabin had been very quiet and cosy.

Since the weather was still rainy and grey, we decided to have a day of scenic driving around the local area, and aimed to be at Pt Pirie in the mid to late afternoon to catch up with Peter, Belinda and the kids. 

As we headed out onwards the lower Flinders Ranges via Horricks Pass the clouds were sitting low over the heads of the ranges and we wondered how much we would see. 

8

Our first diversion was a detour up to Hancock's Lookout, where we admired the view all the way over to Port Bonython across the gulf and Trevor found a cache. The road was a bit hairy in the wet, with quite a bit of slippery mud.

We had never been to Alligator Gorge, and had decided the night before that we would do this, so had paid our online registration for park entry from Pt Augusta. Stupidly they have moved to this system where you can't pay any other way but online. It means that spur of the moment camping or visiting is very difficult, and we think it will discourage visitors to the parks.

The road in had some very steep gradients, but was bitumen all the way to the parking spot at the top. From here we were able to take two short walks (of 15 minutes and 20  minutes) to lookouts. The gorge is very impressive and it would be amazing to walk along down the bottom beneath the towering cliff walls of jagged rock and arrive at Mambray Creek 20km later. Sadly it was either raining or threatening to do so for the entire time that we were here, but at least we didn't get too hot on our walks. 

You can see the other lookout in this picture if you look hard.

This was a wonderful background of the many Emus and roos that we saw. Many of the roo type creatures we think were Euros, with the stocker body and short front legs, and they seemed to have a more dappled, thicker coat.


We travelled on through Melrose (Mt Remarkable had his head in the clouds), Murraytown and Wirrabara to Stone Hut, where we made the difficult decision between the marvellous pie and pasty offerings at the Stone Hut bakery(this is where you can find crocodile, venison, buffalo, wild boar, emus,  seafood,  curry chicken and more normal flavours)  they had and sat down to yummy lunch, coffee and tea and also a delicious Vanilla Slice. Trev even sampled the latest in the line of Golden North Giant Twins (toffee and hazelnut flavoured) icecream which is made nearby.

We decided to track back through the Wirrabara forest and stopped to visit the aptly named King Tree. 

Sadly , we had a small altercation with a tree in the car park here, which rather took the enjoyment out of the day, as well as the windscreen out of the back of the Prado.  We headed onwards though the mostly burnt forest (there was a major fire here just over 2 years ago) and felt sad at the loss of so many magnificent trees. The eucalypt are recovering in their usual way, but the pines will not recover and are being harvested. Great rows (or piles) of blackened timber abound.The stand of young burnt pines shown below was sad to see. 

We drove through to Port Germain via the Germain Gorge (rebuilt since the massive fires and the resulting floods which took out great sections of the road)  and then to Port Pirie, stopping in to see our wonderful friends for a quick catch up and some assistance with a more windproof repair job for the trip home.
As we drove towards Pirie we saw a magnificent rainbow so thick and bright that all of the colours could be well identified. It became still thicker and brighter with both ends clearly showing and moving towards us on either side of the road ahead. A second, fainter rainbow flanked this extra bright one. It seemed that we would pass through the rainbow arch, and could have reached out on either side of the car to pick up our gold. As the moment of passing through arrived, suddenly the rainbow evaporated into thin air. This amazing experience of a close quarters rainbow experience moved me to tears. It was truly an extraordinary thing to see.

The start of our rainbow experience

We finally pulled in to our own driveway with pizza in hand at about 8.45 pm after a wonderful 20 days of adventure and 7417 km. Today is a day for cleaning up, repacking and replanning.  We will put Joc on the plane back to Perth tonight after 4 nights of life in a swag (thanks Janette), 3 nights in a bed, and lots of adventures. It was been wonderful to hear her stories as we drove, and to share our lives in a more relaxed fashion, with time just to be together. It was great to have time to see so many places that we have heard of, and some that we just found by accident. Of course we need to go back to many again and spend more time.  

Day 19-Streaky Bay to Pt Augusta

We checked out of our Streaky Bay cabin just before 10 after making use of  the kitchen facilities for our bacon and eggs. First we headed to Dani and Paul's house, but, finding no-one at home, we then moved on to the Evans Oyster Shed,  where we found Paul and his Dad Tom.  We had a nice catch up with them before proceeding on our way.

Our first step was the loop route around Cape Bauer , where we saw the water whistling up through holes in the cliffs and took some chances with the sand tracks, which saw us putting our Max Trax to use (they worked very well, thank heavens) to help us get out of a tricky situation. We also saw a few birds of prey hovering over the cliffs. (White bellied sea eagles?)

Letting the tyres down a little later than we should have

Finally, at about 1230 we headed on our way out of town. The next stop was Tcharkulda Rocks, where we had our lunch in the shelter that we slept under on day 2 of this trip. It saved us from a very windy time.

We stopped to find a cache at Waddikee Rocks (between Kyancutta and Kimba ), finding out about the explorer John Charles Darke who died here after being stabbed by aborigines.

We drove once more past the land newly set aside for the army (whatever they are doing) and this time I took a photo of the signs which so fascinated me on the way over.

The weather forecast was for high winds this afternoon, so we were hoping that we could make it to Pt Augusta before the gale force winds came in again. As we headed in to that city, we enjoyed the reflected sunset on the Flinders Ranges and wondered where the wind and rain were.

We still stuck to our agreed plan to take a cabin again tonight, and are now safely ensconced in our cabin in Pt Augusta as the winds start to pick up and hoping that tomorrow night we can manage just one more night in our swags before the end of this adventure.

Hooray for WA Day 18 Scott Point to Streaky Bay

We took our time packing up this morning after a lovely night being lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves under that wonderful starry sky. I climbed the sandhill nearby and watched the sun rising over the hills and reflecting on the beach further over. The red red sunrise gave a warning of what was to come, but for the moment we enjoyed the lovely blue sky and the white sand as we took a brief drive over the sandhills to the beach beyond.

We took another turn into Fowlers Bay (via a road across the slippery mudflats) to read the information there, admire their jetty, and be blown around. Initially we had thought to try to get a shower there, but when we learned that they still struggle for water we decided to wait a little longer.

We stopped briefly at Penong for Joc to see the growing windmill collection (the official grand opening will be on September 10th).

Then on to Ceduna to have a brief shower at the highway one service station, (on the run on the west side of town) for free!!,fill with considerably cheaper diesel, shop for provisions, and eat fish and chips at the pub for lunch. By the time we left it was after 3 pm, so we decided to stop between Smoky Bay and Streaky Bay at the Acroman Conservation Park. Finally we arrived at a campsite in really good time, and after starting our fire and setting up a shelter (it was starting to rain) we settled in to do a crossword, and have a cup of tea. An hour or so later the rain was steadily falling, puddles were forming and the wind was picking up. The mosquitos were also having an absolute ball. The decision was made to abandon ship due to a good chance of a very unsatisfactory night ahead. We broke the record for putting out a fire (lots of water now available as it bucketed off of the tarp), stuffing the swags all inside the vehicle as best we could, and drove through now very wet roads to Streaky Bay, where we took a cabin for the night.

We are sitting in our cosy cabin, listening to the wind howling outside and the rain tapping on the roof, and thanking our lucky stars for Joc, who suggested the change of plans, and for all of us having the good sense to be willing to change before it was too late. By now we might well have been floating on a large puddle in our cosy little camping basin between hills, and we might have been feeling extremely miserable. Who knows what damage the wind also might have done??
87km/hr winds have been recorded at Thevenard tonight (that is not too far away) and tomorrow might be worse, with gale force winds expected.  We are currently debating whether to move at all tomorrow.

We have enjoyed butter chicken and rice for tea, followed by pancakes and maple syrup with cream cooked in the luxury of the cabin kitchen, instead of over the fire in the pouring rain. We also had some lovely wine to go with it. What a treat! Now to top it off with another hot cuppa without having to boil a billy :)