18-19/09/21 Walking and Lighting Fires: Flinders Ranges

We walked up to the Wangarra lookouts numbers 1 and 2, which consisted of a pretty walk along the creek and a steep half kilometre at the end. For the first time we got to see all of Wilpena Pound and to appreciate the persistence? optimism? of those early settlers who thought they could a) grow wheat there and that b) the act of ploughing would somehow trigger rain. And then they spent a year building a road so that they could get the wheat out, only to have it (the road, not the wheat) wash away in the first big storm.  It made me think of my Grandad loading cream in cans onto a mule: by the time he made it to the railhead the movement of the mule had churned the cream to butter rendering it useless to the butter factory which wanted it as cream. Farming in Wilpena Pound in the 1800s smacked of the same futility.

The views were nice though, as were the wildflowers.

The path wound along the creek to start with: very sheltered, shady, and flat.

These little flowers are out in drifts over the valley flats.

"What? I walked here and I could have caught a bus? No one told me!"
Nope. They didn't. Not an accident.

Looking into Wilpena Pound from the second Wangarra lookout. 

Striking an explorer pose.

On the way down I tried to say encouraging things to the hikers who were puffing and panting up the hill. I may have over reached myself when I walked past a small boy and casually told him to watch out for drop bears. His horrified reaction to the thought of bears sharing the mountain with him led me to skulk away from there as quickly as I could, hoping that his parents don't have to deal with too much hysteria as a result of my big mouth.

Another pretty flowers, to dispel thoughts of drop bears. These are in the campground in their thousands, but they're so tiny that you don't notice them. Once you look for them, they're everywhere.

We spent the evening building a campfire. The night was cold but at least the campsite was sheltered from the worst of the freezing wind and we thought a campfire would be a nice way to stay warm. The collection of firewood is not allowed in a national Park although the camping ground is suspiciously bare of any campfire-sized pieces of wood.  We were law abiding citizens and bought our wood in Port Augusta, and if you are in Port Augusta and want firewood don't buy it from the Woollies service station as I'm sure it's been treated with fire retardant. 

Our campfire, looking much better than it really was.

Mind you, trying to keep the fire alive kept us busy right up until bedtime and gave us something to do the following morning as we scouted all the vacated campsites for abandoned firewood. Not that we found any: firewood is a resource akin to gold in the Flinders Ranges NP.

We finally abandoned the firewood quest, got on our bikes, and pedalled down to the old Wilpena Homestead in the late morning This deprived Roger of his 1030 cup of coffee and caused him to lament  the fact that, having retired, he is now too busy to drink coffee mid-morning.

As luck would have it there was an exhibition by the Flinders Ranges Artists Group in the Wilpena Homestead shearing shed, so we checked that out too. Then we wandered, still coffee-less,  around the old homestead and out buildings and learnt some very interesting facts about early European settlement in the area. Did you know that the government conditions set for the land leaseholders were very strict and dictated, among other things, the stock density for the land. This had the unhappy effect of causing significant oversrocking and land degradation: many leaseholders were forced off their leases, the indigenous peoples had already been displaced, and no one was happy. Fingers crossed we've learnt a bit about land management since then, right?

There are many emus around Wilpena Pound. All of them are fat and not particularly troubled by humans in close proximity.

Off on the Mawson Trail, a 900km trail which stretches from the Adelaide Hills to Blinman. Another one for the Gunnadoo list.

Posing on the Mawson Trail. Now let's go back to camp for a nice cup of tea.

Wildflowers and river gums at the old homestead.

I can't find any lists or pictures to identify these wildflowers; any ID would be greatly appreciated.

Remnants of long-ago cattle/sheep yards.

Outbuildings of the old Wilpena Homestead, which benefitted from permanent fresh water springs in the creek. 

Our final walk for the day was along the Heyson Trail which goes up the hill behind the campground and gave splendid views of the afternoon shadows lengthening across the mountains of the Pound.

Afternoon shadows on the mountain.

River gums line Wilpena Creek on its way out of the Pound. The old homestead is hidden amongst the trees top left.

More mountains in the afternoon.

The Heyson Trail.

Another cold night is forecast so we have one mission tonight: to burn all our remaining wood before we leave in the morning. If you'll excuse me, I've got some serious fire tending to do.

Setting up for serious fire business.

Burn, I tell you! Burn!