According to the clock 9 days have passed since the last entry. Dunno! No TV, phone or interwebby thingy in the Flinders Ranges nor in the ancient city of Farina. Makes it hard to keep track of the days let alone ones own personal habits.
Anyway, back in civilization (or such as it can be considered in Port Augusta) we now have mod-cons and those intrepid followers of this drivel can rejoice along with us cos I can now operate this pooter again (well sort of cos I couldn’t do it very well beforehand anyhow).
The tech dead spots cover most of the Flinders Ranges (funny how the visitor information centre has life) and extend all the way north to the historic village of Farina. There were some spots of tech civilization along the way but I didn’t have the wherewithal to encompass it at the time, so here we are trying to catch up on 8 more days of fun filled frolicking, rollicking adventure (well it is to old folk – just getting up in the morning qualifies).
From a start in Port Augusta we headed for the Flinders Ranges. After some discussion with others with experience, we opted to camp up at Rawnsley Park Station which is on the fringe of the Flinders Ranges National Park. As it had all of the normal caravan park commodities at a reasonable price it seemed a logical place to stay. It was. Got in on a Thursday and set about exploring. Spent the next 3 days in and around the ranges, walking and driving the various trails. My limited vocabulary is insufficient to adequately describe the beauty, the exhilarating grandeur of this geological wonder. Even photos fail to adequately capture the magnitude and ruggedness of this landscape but here’s a few to try to excite the senses……
Then we went into Wilpena Pound – this is a massive depression in the top of a range and in an earlier time was the site of a wheat and sheep station…….
This depression at one time ran some 20,000 sheep (late 1800’s) but drought brought the farming venture to a depressing end. Now it is a fascinating and picturesque geological depression.
We moved on to Leigh Creek, a coal mining town north of the Flinders Ranges. Not allowed to access the coal mine itself so went on to Lyndhurst to park up and then in Suzy to Farina. Farina is an historic township originally on the Ghan rail line of 1878 and was perceived as a place to cultivate grain crops transportable easily via the Ghan, however the climate beat them all and eventually the Ghan and the town failed. Finally deserted in 1986 the town has fallen into disrepair, but is a monument to the tenacity of our pioneers…..
underground bakery has been restored and actually works, but not while we were there. Volunteers are progressively restoring parts of the town and are adding information panels all round. There is an operating homestead surrounding the site and the owners are further facilitating the restoration or at least the preservation of the site.
Farina is just short of Maree which sits at the junction of the Oodnadatta Track and the Birdsville Track below Lake Ayre South. We plan to access the Oodnadatta Track from Coober Pedy into William Creek sometime over the next week or so.
Our stay at Lyndhurst was shared with a French couple Mirieille and Marc who are exploring Australia after sailing around the world over the last 4 years and selling their boat in NZ a few weeks ago. They’ll head home in a few weeks and he will build another boat……
Theres more but I’m tired so I’ll get this to air before I go to sleep.
Goodnight Dick!
One Response
OMG those photos are awesome…. and not too far from Adelaide! I think it will be on the cards for a holiday for sure!
Regards,
g@z.