Flinders Ranges

Hey everyone! Sorry I haven't been updating, but I have literally just been going to classes and sitting around my room. This past weekend, though, I went on a camping trip with the International Student Services Unit into the Flinders Ranges, at the edge of the Outback. This map shows where we went; on our way back we passed through the Clare Valley.

We left Adelaide at 6:30 in the morning and headed to Quorn, a fantastically named little town that seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere until we traveled further and saw what the middle of nowhere actually was. On our way we passed by the Spencer Gulf, home of Australia's longest wooden jetty. There was also this, which we couldn't quite figure out.

We stopped for lunch in a small town, where we saw some Kookaburra! Every time we would try to get close enough to take a picture, they would fly away and make a very loud call that sounded remarkably like a laugh.


Finally, after driving for a ridiculously long time, we arrived at Alligator Gorge, where we did our first hike. There were lots of wild kangaroos around and the gorge itself was beautiful.


Finally, we arrived in Quorn, put our stuff in the hostel, and went on our first real hike, up Devil's Peak. I don't have too many pictures of the way up, as I was having difficulty breathing, but I finally reached the top. The views were incredible, and the haze you see comes from the oils in the eucalyptus leaves.It was very windy, and I was trying my best not to die in this picture. There is a sheer drop all around the top of Devil's Peak.




We all wanted to see the incredible sunset, which unfortunately resulted in us having to run down the mountain before it got dark. Some people saw an echidna, and I was very jealous.

That night we had an amazing stir fry and relaxed in the hostel. We got up bright and early the next morning, spent about ten minutes wandering around the train station, and then headed up to Wilpena Pound, the "gateway" to the Flinders Ranges. This is the train station in Quorn. It was pretty much the only thing there.


On our way up, we stopped to see some Aboriginal cave drawings.

Finally, we reached Wilpena Pound and began the hike to St. Mary's Peak. Right away, we spotted a kangaroo with its older joey. They were both very cute, but wild kangaroos are very flighty and it was hard to get close enough to take pictures. A lot of them are also very large and intimidating.


Does this scenery look familiar? I was reminded very much of hiking around Arizona while we were climbing the trail. For a lot of the hike, we had to actually scale the rocks so I got to use some of my rock climbing skills.

At the saddle before the peak, we had a beautiful view of the mountain ranges. Australia's mountains are extremely old, and these are some of the oldest. The person in the picture is Anthony, our guide/driver.

More views from the top.

At the end of the hike we found this gigantic eucalyptus and had some people stand inside of it for size comparison purposes.

After the hike, we were all extremely tired and sweaty, and we headed straight to our campsite. It was evening, and we had to drive very slowly over the dirt road because there were TONS of kangaroos and wallabies eating by the side of the road. Sometimes they would hop alongside the bus for a while. We also had to wait for a camel to make its way across the road, which was unusual. That night we had a barbecue, and it was amazing. We cooked vegetables, steak, sausages, and kangaroo meat. The kangaroo was very lean and had a sweet taste; I really liked it. That night we sat around a fire and played games. When the generators turned off, the stars were incredibly clear. You could very easily see the milky way and the sheer number of stars was incredible.

The next morning Anthony made us all pancakes, then we rented bikes and went for an 8 km bike ride down a dirt road that passed through a gorge. Once again, lots of kangaroos and great scenery. As with the hiking, I somehow found myself at the front of the group (perhaps I inherited the 'hiking really fast and leaving everyone behind' from Dad?), and so I was able to take pictures of everyone coming in. Once you hit the top of this hill, the outback just stretched out forever. There were cockatoos flying overhead, and in the distance you could see the silhouettes of emus walking around; they looked like dinosaurs.


A flock of cockatoos at the station where we dropped off our bikes.

On our way back, there was a sign for a motel that cooked roadkill. Mmm.

We stopped at two wineries in the Clare Valley on our way back to Adelaide. Both were in very beautiful places and the wines were good, although I don't know anything about wine so that doesn't mean much. At the Sevenhills Winery, there was a cat named Frontignac who was my favorite part.



So that was my trip. I'm sorry that I didn't write too much; I really am not feeling very creative or inclined to write right now, but I figured that since I haven't updated this in a while I probably should.