Day 10 – September 10 2012

We planned for a 9am start for a drive around the Flinders.  Our first stop was the Wilpena Pound Visitor Centre for a quick dose of information, then off for a drive through the Bunyeroo Gorge loop road.  The scenery was amazing with each twist & turn down Buyeroo Creek unfolding another beautiful scene.  The colours & shapes of the ranges, trees & landscape is truly spectacular, the photos do not do it justice.  We stopped at lots of places to get out & have a photo session along this road.

We ended at lunchtime at the Aroona Ruins, a former stone farmhouse sited on a small ridge with the most spectacular views of the nearby range.  Hans Heysen used to visit Aroona to paint the landscape & when you see the scenery, you can understand why.  We had lunch under a beautiful shady gum tree, replete with resident red robin, looking down the Aroona Valley.  After lunch we drove through Brachina Gorge, following the Brachina Creek out of the ranges.  Again absolutely stunning scenery following the many twists & turns of the creek, amazed at some of the beautifully shaped flood battered gum trees lining the creek. At some places they had signs to inform about the type of rock formation & approximately how many hundreds of millions of years old they were.  When you see how old these things are, we humans are very insignificant.

Driving out of the ranges was an amazing transformation, one moment we were surrounded by mountains, all of a sudden we were staring at the bleak expanse of a totally flat to the horizon landscape.  The Flinders Ranges seem to just jump out of the ground.  We turned onto the bitumen & drove south towards Hawker, turning off left at the Moralana Scenic Drive, another dirt road dividing Wilpena Pound & the Elder Range.  Again we were treated to some great views before reaching the bitumen & heading back to the Rawnsley Park Station campground.

A brief rest with coffee & listening to one of our fellow campers playing his musical keyboard beautifully, then it was off to the Pugilist Lookout to view the sunset glowing off the Chace Range.  This was only a short 15km drive from camp.  We got there early & watched the colours changing over the range as the sun settled lower.  Again, a very pretty sunset with the afternoon sun glowing orange off the Chace Range.  Back to camp as it got dark then dinner, tired but satisfied after 196km of driving around the Flinders.

The day was absolutely perfect around 24C sunny with a light breeze just right to walk around.  Tonight a big sky full of stars, pleasant weather to sit outside & eat dinner with Rose & Mike.  Helen & John didn’t join us because Helen hasn’t been feeling well with her shoulder & todays rough long drive aggravated it more.