We have been in Hawker now for 3 days and head off tomorrow. The population of this place is in the vicinity of 400 but it is a buzzing little community. It is a constant procession of caravans, motor homes and campers, all heading into this section of the Flinders Ranges National Park that contains Wilpena Pound and up a bit further Arkaroola.
I have done my reading on this area and at this stage I am looking forward to seeing inside Wilpena Pound. This is a huge area measuring 18 km by 7 kms. It is where millions of years ago the earth was forced up into mountain ranges and by some freak of nature they surrounded the area inside, leaving an entire eco system of their own. I was looking forward to checking out the inner area but it was not to be.
To see inside this huge area you must hike up to St Marys Peak. From this position you are able to see inside the Pound, but, the only drawback is that St. Marys Peak is 1188metres high and the hike takes 6 hours. I know that I always try to obtain the best photos for you all, but there are limits. When you read the information obtained locally it advises you that if you are unable to make the hike up to St. Marys Peak, which is rated as extremely difficult, then the only way to see inside is by a flight in a light aircraft or helicopter, which by chance, they have in this area for your convenience.
Anyway we chose to look at other views of the Pound and just for your viewing pleasure, we travelled 260 kms yesterday, driving up to lookouts, tiny towns and through gorges. 90% of this stuff certainly required a 4 wheel drive vehicle to access these areas. Just lucky for the poor unsuspecting tourist that, as well as the flights, they happen to hire out 4 wheel drive vehicles in the town.
Our first trip was up to Hucks Lookout and then a little bit further down to Stokes Hill Lookout. A very steep, definite 4 wheel drive track. Stokes Hill Lookout was probably the best but all we are really ever going to see is the mountains on the northern side of Wilpena Pound. Some of these peaks were fairly spectacular and they just went for miles. Well maybe 18 kms at least.
The rest of this area is extremely barren and the amount of road kill is extraordinary. Every 100 metres you have a dead kangaroo of some sort. It is pretty stressful driving as there are literally thousands of kangaroos in the undergrowth at the side of the road. Lots of them are virtually just one jump from being in front of your car. Some of them posed for photos, which was pretty good.
As well as a zillion kangaroos, there are also goats, rabbits and emus running around. At one stage we had a speedy emu in full flight run across the path of our car. It was certainly his lucky day. There were probably about 20 in his group spread through the scrub.
We then stopped at a tiny copper producing town called Blinman. It was about 100 k's from Hawker and it has a tourist mine, a pub and a café. Of course we had to have our customary coffee and lunch. For such a tiny place, it is really a go to place for caravanners to stop. While we were there, probably another 20 tourists came into the café.
On the way out of Blinman, we stopped at the local version of the Great Wall of China. This is actually called The Great Wall of China. I wonder if the people that have the copyright to that name (the peace loving people of China) are aware of that. At least our Great Wall of China has been made by nature. There are miles and miles of hills that have these great wall lookalikes on their peaks.
Even though we can't get into Wilpena Pound, there are some great rock formations, which make up the Northern wall of the Pound.
Our next bit of exploring was down the environmental track called the Brachina Gorge Track. This is on a bit of a loop recommended by the Information Centre. This track started out pretty easy but the further you got into it the worse it became. Now I know why it was called an ' environmental track.'
We did get some good shots of the mountains and then drove into a little off shoot leading us to the Aroona Valley. This led us to some ruins, unremarkable, and a wooden hut that was used by renowned artist Sir Hans Heysen. The wooden hut was fairly well made but definitely quite rustic. No mortar between the posts that made up the walls would have made it quite breezy inside.
As we got more into the Brachina Gorge, the sheer cliff faces on each side were pretty spectacular. At this stage the track had deteriorated to such an extent that half of the time we were driving along the dry creek bed. Very rocky and not sandy, thankfully. Would not like to get bogged in here.
My highlight of this track was seeing a couple of yellow footed wallabies. These lovely animals live in the rocks and are fairly difficult to see. The information centre attendant would never believe that we actually got to see a couple of them. We even have photographic proof.
We headed back and then turned down the Bunyeroo Gorge. Most of the way along here we had much the same mountain range in the distance, but some of the smaller hilltops had quite distinctive features. If I was a geologist, I could bore you to tears with all of the different rock types here. All of these areas were heavily populated by kangaroos so it was definitely not a fun drive. Just to add another feature to it, some of the rocks on the road had really sharp edges so that was something else to look out for.
It was now off these roads and onto the bitumen back towards Hawker. Just in front of us on the road was a really cute echidna that was crossing the road. They have no road sense at all, so it was good to see it get across ok. Even though we are now on bitumen, nothing has changed. It is getting a bit later and there are hundreds of kangaroos within striking distance of the side of the road. At one stage one of them bounded across in front of us. I braked fairly heavily as I was anticipating his partner to follow and on cue, across in front of us he leapt. The 2nd one was fairly close but thankfully missed.
This morning it was off for a stroll around the town. Just inside the caravan park entry they have a beautiful Sturt Desert Pea flower in full bloom. It is really beautiful and it is the first one I have seen. We headed over to check out the Hawker War Memorial.
They have done this really tastefully. There are so many feature to it. There are Lest we Forget tribute boards, one for each war, even Vietnam and Afghanistan. All soldiers from this area are on the boards, with those deceased also highlighted. They even have an avenue of honour, leading up to a lone pine tree. The posts on each side have the name of a deceased soldier on them. Overall it is really impressive.
We headed into a pretty cool art gallery of Jeff Morgan. He is famous for his incredible landscapes and outback history. Inside the gallery there are some awesome panoramas. One of them is of Wilpena Pound.
It took him 13 months to complete, averaging 10 hours a day, 7 days a week.
At least I can say I have seen the inside of Wilpena Pound now. The artwork gives you the same view as from St Marys Peak.
There are incredible artworks in this gallery, mostly huge and even too big to photograph. The one titles Rons Creek is awesome. This is 15 metres x 4.3 metres. In front of the artworks, he has placed all of the local soil, tree branches, rocks and models of local fauna.
Holding pride of place in the gallery is the Arkaroola Panorama. You really need to see this to appreciate it. I think I took half a dozen photos and a short video to take it all in. The panorama totally encircles you from the viewing area. He started the artwork in 2016 and has just finished it. It is 46 metres long and 5.5 metres high. The amount of work involved is awesome.
Also in the gallery are just thousands of rock and gemstones from all around Australia. There are numerous perfect crystal ball shaped gemstones of varying sizes. The cost would be fairly prohibitive.
It was now time to go back to the van and relax before heading off tomorrow. About 4pm we decided to go and check out one more lookout. We headed up to Jarvis Hill Lookout, about 5 k's out of town. I think we should have read the sign better before starting UP UP UP this lookout. The sign said 260 metres to the top of the lookout and estimated time for the trip, 40 minutes round trip. We should have read the signs. The track??? was almost non existent. It would have beaten the best mountain goat. Of course it didn't improve. We felt like mountaineers at some sections. There were direction arrows occasionally, but some were not quite specific in which direction to go.
We eventually made it to the top and got our photos and then made the treacherous trip back down. On more than one occasion we lost track of the track????? and had to back track. It was bloody horrendous.
Just to totally add insult to it all, when we got back into the car I found that the caravan keys were no longer in my pocket. What a bloody disaster. I have no idea how they came loose, but I can only imagine they are now on the mountain goat track. We headed back to the van, just in case I had left them in the door, but to no avail. We headed back to check out the car park and walked back along a bit of the goat track but by now it was getting dark so we gave up. Thankfully we have a total spare set of van keys in the caravan.
I intend getting up early tomorrow morning before we head off to again climb the goat track to see if I can find the keys. Not holding much hope but you just never do know.
Anyway that's all for now.
Barry and Deb.
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