29/8/22
We have a tight camp-site here at Rawnsley Station caravan Park in the Flinders Ranges, on gravel. No matter. We're here.

This is the view from our camp-site.

 

Today we took off for a drive and forgot to take any of the maps, so took a punt and drove off onto the Bunyaroo exit. Happily, that took us right into the Brachina Gorge and we drove right to the very end. It was magic. We are so aware of the ancient history of the landscape, which was pushed up between two techtonic plates and was originally the bottom of a shallow sea. As a result, palaeontologists have discovered some of the oldest marine vertebrate life-forms in this area.

We examined rocks, were astounded by the power that raised almost vertical plates of rock in the surrounding hills, and admired the majestic river red gums (although the creeks were dry just now).

A fantastic day, and discovered by chance on our part.

We called into the Wilpena Resort on the way back, which is quite flash and has a small IGA store, information station and coffee bar.

30/8/22

Today, we paid $60 (!) for the keys to gates on the station which enabled us to take a 4wd trip through station land.
It was a real 4wd trek, of similar difficulty to the Old Telegraph Line track up in the Gulf, and tested out the capabilities of the Isuzu. No worries and only one scratch on the duco. We could have saved $10 because we had had enough of driving the 'AWD/4WD' track and reckoned the '4WD only' section would be even more hairy. Good fun, just the same, although there were very few places for views over the ranges.

31/8/22

This was the highlight so far, as we paid our $585 for a 45-minute flight in a small plane over the Ranges. The views through the tiny windows were a bit limited, but we took Go-Pro, camera, tablet and phone photos and videos, so have plenty of footage. This place is bucket list stuff and we're so glad we came.

 

 

 

After our flight, we drove up the bitumen to the tiny Blinman settlement, where we had excellent mochas and a sweet treat and bought a pie for Ian and a miner's pastie for me (3/4 usual pastie, with apple for dessert at the end). Blinman was a copper mining town. From there, we drove the loop through Glass and Parachilna Gorges. Very different from Brachina - smaller, more open, greener and very pretty.
We arrived back late afternoon, tired and happy. It was a perfect sunny day, full of wonders.

1/9/22

Our last day here, so we drove the Moralana scenic drive, but on an overcast day, it didn't show us many of its delights.
We drove from there to Hawker, filled up the fuel tank, and had an excellent mocha again at the classy and surprising Flinders Food Company Cafe. There's very little else in town, but the Cafe was full of tourists enjoying the food.
We're now at Wilpena Resort again, taking advantage of their free WiFi, then it's back to camp to clean up the van and car from all the dust, ready for the trek up the centre to the Rock and Alice Springs.