Flinders Ranges Pt. 3: Warren Gorge & Bendleby Ranges

Day 5

Waking up a little before dawn in Warren Gorge, I decided to beat the mild hangover (campfire beers had escalated a little) that would settle in if I let it, and do the walk up to the Smoke-Oh lookout before we headed off at 8am.

The woodlands around Warren Gorge were almost North American. Open forest with ancient red gums alongside she-oaks and native pines. Completely different country to anything in Victoria.

Climbing up the mountain, I surprised packs of goats a couple of times but was otherwise, the climb was uneventful. Smaller birdlife darted between the trees, only catching a glimpse of the tiny Red-Capped Robins here and there. No sign of the cheeky Apostlebirds that invaded the campsite the previous day. The look out itself was a bit of a surprise, not only did it look out over the campsite areas, but also over the surrounding land. I hadn't realised the campgrounds itself were within a fairly elevated area. Epic.

Hangover long forgotten, I strutted back into camp at 7.45am and quickly packed up, ready to hit the road. We were off to Bendleby Ranges, but via a convoluted, completely time-inefficient route. Back south through Pichi Pichi and onto Port Augusta, then north up Warrakimbo rd, then east to Bendleby. A big ol loop. I hadn't even clocked what a ridiculous route it was at the time, I was content just following the club.

Coming through the Pichi Pichi area, the scenery shifted to an oxide red as we cut through the southern part of the Flinders, alongside the Pichi Pichi steam train railway. It was really giving a wild west feel. But quite suddenly you're free of the mountains and on a dead flat plain on the approach into Port Augusta.

Port Augusta has a rough reputation, but it was fine. A dilapidated industrial port town with salt plains on one side, desert on another, and ocean on the other. It'd get old, but to me..it was interesting.

After fueling up and gathering some groceries, we set off into the desert on Warrakimbo rd. Running roughly North on the western side of the ridge line, this was my first proper outback road experience. Where the eastern side was woodland, this was diesel and dust territory. We had to spread our convoy out over kilometers to maintain visibility in the red dust.

Without thick vegetation, the varying colours and geological drama of the land was on full show across the looming ridgelines. Emus and roos darted between the shrubby bush, while we dodged shingleback lizards sunning themselves on the road.

I can't really explain why, but I was utterly elated on this drive. The cloudless blue sky over the vast open space, the red dust, the wildlife - it felt like i'd waited a lifetime to see this side of Australia. Our bizarre route now made sense, it was definitely worth the extra drive time.

We stopped at some ruins for lunch and were reminded of the other famous part of the Australian outback. Bloody flies. Clouds of them.

Cutting back through to the East side of the ranges, via Hawker and Cradock, the landscape shifted back to green and we finally made it to Bendleby Ranges in the late afternoon.

The girls at Bendleby gave us a full brief of what's on offer on their station. 2 mountain ranges, Bendleby and Hungry with loads of 4x4 track. All tracks rated 1-10 difficulty. Huge campsite, firewood supplied, camp kitchen and showers. Drinks and souvenirs available at reception. Perfection.

After a day of travelling a little painfully slow for our liking (caravans..sigh), Graham and I made a break for Sunset Ridge with a couple of beers. Possibly going a little quicker than we should have been up the mountain, we made it in time to watch the sun mosey down behind the ranges as we sipped.

The night turned out to be moonless, and given the remoteness of where we were, it was a pretty incredible night of stargazing.

Day 6

Our first day of no transit! Still plenty of driving though - this was a day dedicated to exploring Bendleby's 4x4 tracks. The video will do best justice to this, but it was an awesome, sweaty-palm inducing day. We decided go straight for the 10/10 difficulty tracks, Billy Goat Ridge and Pats Peak. No muckin around, straight in.

I wouldn't personally call them 10/10 difficulty, but they were really great tracks and it was the toughest driving i'd done in the Patrol. Billy goats escalated into a skinny ridge line track up a mountain with some very dicey off-camber rock steps and big drops. If you goofed up, you were going over!

That morning I thought i'd try my drone again, and thankfully it had resurrected itself after its dip in the creek at Alligator gorge! After a couple of days of trying, i couldnt believe it.

Which leads me to the next round of drone shenanigans.

I sent the drone up over the main climb to get some footage of us all going up. By the time I got up to the top, and went to bring the drone in, it had gotten low on battery and returned to the take-off point. At the bottom of the mountain.

Being a one way track, it'd be disastrous if I drove down and some traffic came around. No room to turn around at all, one party would have to reverse.

So walking was my only option. And when i say walking, I mean running, because I only had minutes of drone camera time left. Once the battery ran out completely and the drone camera's live view turned off, i'd never be able to find it. At least while the camera was on, I had a chance - i could see it was looking at a distinctive dead tree.

Anyway, after a frantic search, I found it. The climb back up just about killed me, but I got there. I was a mess.

Back to the tracks. Pats Peak was up next, and that was a nastiest descent I've ever driven. Very steep, jagged rock steps jutting out of the hillside got all of us sweating, and worrying about our tires. but we all got through no problems.

I didnt keep track of the tracks after that, but we cruised around for rest of the day, taking in the varied and beautiful country. Eventually, ending up on sunset ridge again where we put on a spread of snacks (so. much. salami) and took loads of photos as the sun called it quits on another day.

Utterly exhausted, I had some soup and went to bed.