Oz Trip - Day 13

Day 13 – 14/5/2012 – Bush Walk Day (a day out of the car!)

At last, a day not driving!!! We finally had a day where we were going to do a bush walk. We walked up to the Hills Homestead and then on to the two Wangara lookouts into Wilpena Pound. It gave you a really good view into the Pound. You had to walk through the only entrance into the Pound which followed Wilpena Creek. All up it was about an 8km walk.

The water source for Wilpena Resourt

Oz Trip - Day 12

Day 12 – 13/5/2012 – SkyTrek

This morning was the coldest that we had had so far. The temperature dropped down to 0.7deg over night. Not the sort of temperature you want when you have to get up relatively early, again!

It was also going to be another bumpy day on the road. We were going to do the Skytrek self drive tour today from the Willow Springs Station. It use to take you to the highest point in the Flinders Rangers that you could drive too, but some greedy conservationists put an end to that (purely my take on it, you can make up your own mind). Don't get me wrong, I am all about conservation and protecting the endangered animals, but to me it looks more like a bit of a money grab than anything to do with the well-being of the yellow footed rock wallaby. You can read all about it on the Willow Springs web site http://www.skytrekwillowsprings.com.au/resources/media1202.pdf.
So now the tour is all on the Willow Springs station.

We were only able to do about half of the tour because the caretakers said that the back half of the track was so dry and the bull dust was so thick that they didn't want to risk anybody getting stuck out there. As it was we still managed to find some pretty thick patches of it. The Pajero was absolutely coated in it. It was so think on the rear tailgate I had to use a brush to try and scrape it out once we were back at camp.

The first part of the tour took you through the gorges and out to an old homestead building.

Oz Trip - Day 11

Day 11 – 12/5/2012 – Flight over Wilpena Pound and Geological Trail

Another early start as we were booked in to do a 30min flight over Wilpena Pound and Flinders Ranges at 7:30am. It was a perfect day for the flight. Clear and no wind. It was going to be my first time in a light aircraft. When we turned up at the airport we found out that there were 3 other people also booked on our flight. So with the pilot that made 6 of us in the small plane. None of us were exactly tiny either!

The plane

Oz Trip - Day 10

Day 10 – 11/5/2012 – Hawker Day Trip

Because we had used up all of our fresh fruit and vegies before we hit the South Australian boarder and fruit fly zones, we needed to restock. We were planning on restocking at Yunta before we hit the dirt road but that town only ended up being pretty much two truck stops and we couldn't get anything. We were also planning on restocking at the Wilpena “Resort” because they said that they had a well stocked shop. They did, but not really with fresh fruit and vegies.

Oz Trip - Day 9

Day 9 – 10/5/2012 – Penrose Park to Wilpena

An early start as we were heading to Wilpena Pound in the Flinders Rangers. We were up at 6 and packed up by 7:30. We topped up the water tanks from a rain water tank on one of the sheds and was on the road by 8:15. We were a bit sad to leave as we really liked the peace and quite of the place.

At Yunta we turned off the main highway and hit the dirt minor road once again. The roads were open but there was warnings for sections of bull dust. It was a very scenic route despite the fact that it was slower than the sealed way. 

Airing down for the dirt road