Flinders Ranges Pt 4. Willows Springs, Wilpena Pound, Flinders-Ikara National Park

Day 7

Today we said fairwell to Bendleby and headed for our next station stay at Willow Springs, on the main drag of the Flinders ranges around the Ikara Flinders National Park. But first, a pub lunch at the remote Cradock Hotel.

On route, Rob had a lucky escape with the caravan when it popped off its hitch on a cattle grate. Fortunately, there was no damage, and no traffic around. The guys were able to resolve things and get moving again pretty quickly.

The historic Cradock pub was a welcome slice of luxury after camping for a week, sitting at a big table and eating a massive schnitzel on what felt like fine china..it was good. Well worth a stop, great food and a friendly publican.

Being school holidays, I thought it'd be quite busy along the scenic Flinder Ranges Way, but surprisingly it was still pretty quiet on the road. Emus on the roadside became a common sighting (and hazard), still a huge novelty seeing them in the wild.

Willow Springs is one of the main stations in the area, and features the Skytrek self-drive 4x4 tour. It has a huge spread of camp grounds across the property, and top notch ammenities. We lucked out and got a camp ground right next to the Camp kitchen. Where Bendleby felt a bit wilder and more remote, things felt a bit more standard (though very nice) caravan park-ish here with a lot more people around.

After getting ourselves settled in, we headed for the Stokes Hill lookout to watch the sun go down over the epic ridgeline of Wilpena pound. The mountain's colours shift to dramatic glowing reds as the light changes, it's an awesome show.

Day 8

Today was the day of ticking off the big scenic highlights of the area, starting with the Bunyeroo Road scenic drive. I could write a lot about what an incredible bit of country this is region is, but undeniably, the highlight is the Razorback lookout. Looking out over a valley with an imposing set of jagged peaks on the opposite side, it's a postcard perfect scene. One you could spend all day at easily, enjoying the changing light and colours.

Wildlife was everywhere around this road, Emus and roos and loads of birdlife, including many falcons(?) dancing around in the wind. I was very keen to see the Yellow Footed Rock Wallabies the area is famous for, and Jacob took us to a stop along Brachina gorge where he'd seen them last time he visited. After looking around for a while with no luck, I was about to give up - as I was holding everyone up. but thought i'd try one last look down the dry creek bed and got lucky!

We headed to the Aroona campground for lunch, a stunning spot with an old homestead sitting in a field of flowers at the foot of looming orange mountains. We did a quick walk through the ruins in the area along a part of the Heysen trail, up to a clearing that overlooked the valley. Again, incredible scenes.

These roads weren't "4x4 tracks," but they were rough. Dropping tyre pressures was necessary.

Everywhere we went was bone dry (bar one big puddle in the road), despite there being heavy rainfall and floods in the weeks prior. But the area is riddled with ancient creek beds - it must be an amazing sight when water is plentiful, supposing that ever happens these days.

Eventually, we headed into the Wilpena National park visitor centre, which is also a small supermarket and bottlo. Expensive, but welcome. Graham and I decided to tackle a short hike up to the Wangara lookouts. That man is incredibly spritely for a 77yo, his pace was crazy. The walk did escalate into an enjoyable climb over rocky ground, culminating into epic 360 views of the pound. Not a lookout that photographs well, but worth doing none the less. Got to see some more wallabies too!

The pound itself is heavily forested, a miraculous recovery considering it was almost completely cleared for farming, before it was abandoned due to drought. Apparently it's called a pound because it naturally resembled a fenced off area, like an animal pound.

On the way out, we were lucky enough to see two wedge-tail eagles tearing up some roadkill by the roadside.

All in all, this was one of the best days of the trip, absolutely jam-packed full of incredible sights and wildlife. Fun driving and walking. Completely over-stimulating! I was knackered.

Day 9

Saturday morning, Skytrek day. This is a 77km 4x4 drive around the Willow Springs property, following a printed sheet with notable sights along the way.

To be frank, the first couple of hours of this drive were fairly dull. But admittedly, I was tired..I was too overstimmed from the previous day to sleep. So my vibe was off this morning. The document noted sites of aboriginal rock markings and even fossils, but we struggled to find anything.

But as we neared the northern end of the trek, the terrain got more interesting. Interesting mountainous formations, like a layered cake, rose out of the horizon. The colour of the earth we drove on changed continuously, and my mood improved.

A creek bed under an cliff of vibrant ochre clays showcased eons of erosion and floods, creating amazing textures in the rocks. The mind boggles at the spans of time involved.

Around the western and southern ends of the loop, Skytrek earnt its name as we ascended the hills and switched to low-range. More epic views and stops for group photos.

After the incredible tracks at Bendleby, the driving was perhaps a little anti-climatic. Slightly rough with a couple of decent climbs and ascents, no real challenges. But, it was still worth doing, beautiful country and I got some great footage.

Returning back to camp, I'd intended to have an early night. But Andrea got the boardgames out, and once she'd gotten a bit of wine in her, things escalated. I did escape at a reasonable hour, but hilariously i could hear her cackling well into the night.

Day 10

Today the main event was heading over to the west side of the ranges to hit the Prairie pub for the feral feast lunch. But first, we headed up to Blinman to try one of the cafe's famous miners pasties. These were great, one side of the pastie is your classic meat'n'vegies, the other is apple pie. Apparently so the miners in the ol days could get a main and a dessert sweet treat in one convenient pastry package. I got around it in a big way.

Then we stopped at Wadna on the Parachilna Gorge road. This is an amazing aboriginal gallery with an incredible amount (and quality) of work on show. I bought a small painting for $200, which I thought was very reasonable, and I love it. Kristain, One of the people that run it ,was there carving wood and had a lengthy chat with Graham about all the various local timbers and their qualities.

We continued to cruise down Parachilna Gorge road, stopping to take in the epic cliffs and have a wander around. This is a free camping area, something I took note of for the trip back in a week.

Once again, quite suddenly the rugged terrain ends and you're met with an enormous flat red plain and a nice wide road. Hitting a road like this after days of winding around mountains actually felt bloody amazing, got me feeling that elation I felt outside Port Augusta all over again.

At the junction of Parachilna Gorge road and the Outback highway is the Prairie Hotel, and we were surprised to find the place absolutely jam packed as a shit-box rally group had stopped in. Also surprising, the pub wasn't the characterful and crumbling old sticky-carpet joint I was expecting, it was fully renovated, inner-city-style gastro pub..but in the middle of the desert. It was..quite weird.

The Feral feast was a 3 course almost fine-dining affair. Camel, emu, kangaroo, goats cheese - very enjoyable!

The pub also brews its own beers, so we each grabbed some for our travels. I went with the session ale, which was excellent, but a bit $$$ at $35 a six-pack.

From the Prairie we cruised down the outback highway, which is an awesome scenic drive itself and cut back through to the east side by heading down the Morlana road scenic drive. The late afternoon light was hitting just right down here, prime time for the camera, and I decided enough was enough. I had to split from the group and spend some time on my own.

I hadn't realised 'til then, but being on a led club trip, I was VERY tired of making no decisions about what we were doing. So I had an leisurely time cruising around on my own taking snaps, and finding a spot to take in the sunset.