To Flinders Range – 1/14/2013
Jan 16th, 2013 by admin
Last night during the Great Reminiscing Bout, Tom plotted out a route for us to get to Maree which is the starting point for the Oodnadatta Track into the outback. The route went north and avoided the standard motorway route up to the Flinders Range, following smaller roads through the Clare valley wine region.
There are a lot of wineries in this area and they are all along the road. They all offer tours, wine tasting and wine sales (of course, that is the point.) But this is the hottest time of the summer and there aren’t many people visiting this part of Oz. They’re all on the coast at the beaches so most of the wineries are closed. Still, it’s a nice ride.
After we leave the Clare valley, we enter a semi-arid area of farms, ranches and stations. The vegetation is all brown and the are less sheep and cattle than closer to the coast. This land just cannot support the animal populations like the areas closer to the coast that get more rainfall. The land gets drier and the vegetation more sparse as we move farther north.
Along the way, we turn off the main road onto a smaller gravel road. We heading for Bruce, a small town that was a railroad stop for a small railroad that connected Port Arthur, north of Adelaide, and Sydney. That must have been some train ride. The line ceased operations in the mid 60’s and only a few people still live in this almost ghost town.
The reason we’re here at all is because Tom’s family owns a home here, right down the street from the railroad station. He had volunteered for us to stop there (“I’ll call and have it opened up for you.”) but we politely refused. It would have been a unique experience but we’re going much farther north and don’t wan to stop so early in the day.
We do, however, stop and take pics. There’s Tom’s house, another building next to it, an abandoned art gallery/bar and the railroad station house. It’s quiet and the sun is just brilliant. It’s not very hot, yet, but the air is still and you can just imagine how quiet it bgets when the temps start egtting into the high 40’s and low 50’s.
On the way back to the main road, we stop at the railroad station and are promptly greeted by a very plump black dog. (The dog is so plump that a little starvation would probably do her a world of good.) As we get out of the car, I hear someone call for the dog. Around the corner; and the old caretaker for the station (it’s still occupied by the owner, a woman who works all week in Adelaide and then comes back here for the weekends.)
The old man is Robert Fulton, a retired railway worker, who has been working here for about three years as the caretaker for the station. I tell him that Tom had sent us to see thye house and ask him if we had the right house (we did, it’s the green one that we took pics of). “I remember those boys. They were up here a lot driving around the outback before they left on that trip of their’s. How’d they make out?”)
We tell them that they did fine and some of the details of their trip. He seemed quite interested. He’s got all the info on the railway (where it went; when it closed; what it carried) and he’s only to happy to talk (“We haven’t gotten rain is the last 12 months.”) We take some pics, pat the dogs (another seriously plump black dog comes out from under Robert’s pickup truck from it’s nest in the shade when we arrived) and thank Robert for his time. Back in the truck and back to the main road (“Through 2 creek beds, over the cattle grate, then follow the stock fence. Can’t miss it.”)
The road runs due north and the vegetation gets sparse and the wildlife disappears. Well, except for Skippy. There are ‘roos all along the road hiding in the shade of the scrub bushes. No problem with them jumpibg into the road. They have their shade and they aren’t going anywhere until it cools off in the evening.
We’re header for Walpena Pound in the Flinders Range National Park. The Pound is the carter of an ancient meteor impact. There is a fully serviced campground in the Pound and we decide to spend the night there. Toilets, showers, bistor and bar. What else could w epossibly want.
We set up camp in the deserted tent camping area. Across the road from our site there’s a small hillside and as the sun goes down, the hillside fill with ‘roos. John heads out exploring and I finish up a blog post. Then I head out to get some pics of the ‘roos.
On he way back to the campsite, I see a large gray male doing something at our table. The chip bag that I had finished was discarded on the ground. I had left it on the table and the small package of biscuits that John had left on the table was now empty and discarded on the table. And as I get closer, the big gray male is eating the park map that we had gotten when we checked in.
The roo had just moved in while we were gone. And he had no intention of giving up the paper map. When I approached him to shoo him away, he just looked at me, growled and kept eating. Yelling at him didn’t affect him at all. He just kept chewing. I tossed some pebbles at him. Nothing. Finally, I took and empty, red petrol can that we had just bought and managed to move him away from the table and save wha was left of the map. He only moved a few meters away and stood sentinel waiting for me to leave so that he could start on the map again.
While all this was going on, the kookaburras were hard at work on the other side of the car. We had left the car door open and the kookabuuras had dragged a bag with chips and cookies out of the car onto the ground outside the car. That had opened the chips bag and were munching as fast as they could. Until I came along and ruined the party.
Everything finally secured, John shows up and we head for dinner at the campground bistro. A bottle of white wine, a burger and chips and we’re headed back to the tents. Another long but wonderful day.
Obi-wan