Flinders Ranges

I left Min's house on Tuesday (8/10/2009) morning and after I sent another bunch of CouchSurfing requests to people in Alice Springs I finally got to a good hitch-hiking spot at the beginning of Princes Highway at the north border of North Adelaide.

I decided to try out another method of hitching - with a big sign with the name of the destination city written on it. I really felt like it was the right time and right place for it. So I wrote "Port Augusta" on the sign and started hitching. Unfortunately, it wasn't a good idea at all! I kept waiting for four hours before a bus arrived and I gave up and just jumped on it. It was quite expensive but I was fed up with waiting. I think the problem was that Port Augusta is quite far from Adelaide and not so many people were going all the way there. And those that would have given me a lift just for a couple of kilometres didn't stop when they saw the sign. Well, that's a common drawback of hitching with signs - you can get a lift all the way to your destination city but you generally have to wait longer. I prefer (and have better experience with) usign just my thumb a being happy for every kilometer I get closer to my target.

The travel by bus took ages and I got to Port Augusta around 9pm. I had no clue where to go to stay over night but luckily I noticed a taxi driver waiting on the parking place so I asked him where I can find a camp ground. He gave me a tip and after about an hour of walking to the other side of the town, I finally pitched my tent and went to sleep.

Next morning, I asked in an Information centre how to get to Wilpena, which is a small town in the middle of Flinders Ranges and the last town on sealed road. They told me that there is a bus service going there every thursday and coming back every friday, hehe. Very handy! Moreover it was really expensive and I would have had to book it in advance. So I had no other choice than hitching and even though I was a bit afraid that it might be hard I was quite happy I wouldn't have to pay for a bus again.

A friendly local taxi driver (not having a shift at that moment) started talking to me at the street and later on, when he was passing by, gave me a lift to the turn-off to Quorn, which helped me a lot. After that I could try to catch every car going to Flinders Ranges!

I was waiting for a ride and because I was quite bored, I finally started training juggling. Although time flies like crazy for me when I'm waiting on the road, I like to use it somehow, especially when the traffic is low. So sometimes I juggle, sometimes I read a book...

After about two hours I got a lift by a local guy that was very happy to tell me everything about the area and he took me all the way to Hawker. He also told me that he used to hitch around Oz too when he was young and that once he had to wait three and a half days somewhere in the middle of Queensland before somebody picked him up. Nasty!

Another hour and a half waiting in Hawker and I was finally picked up. This time by a german traveller Matthias heading directly to Wilpena. He told me he was also traveling around Australia and right then he was on his way from Adelaide to Flinders Ranges for two or three days of hiking. Since it was exactly the same plan as I had, we decided to share petrol costs and do the hiking together.

We arrived to Wilpena (which is just a camp ground, information centre and a petrol station) and climbed up on St Mary Peak. We wanted to sleep there but we didn't make it to the summit before sunset so we camped just below it. It was awesome!

Next morning we finally reached the peak. The views were amazing - you can see the mountains going to the north and to the south as well as Wilpena pound which is a kind of ring of mountains - like a huge crater. It's really interesting and absolutely charming. We walked back to Wilpena across the pound but it was a bit too long and monotonous track.

We took a shower in the campground and moved about 30 kilometers on gravel road to the north to Bunyeroo Gorge. I didn't enjoy the walk that much because it was bloody hot, no wind and milions of flies. But we saw an emu from perhaps 5 metres and that was fantastic. Also the end of the gorge is worth reaching - you can climb up on some of the rocky hills around and enjoy amazing view over the border of the national park - the end of the range and the beginning of flat desert.

We found a nice place for camping, just near the end of the gorge. I fell asleep looking at the stars...

Next morning was a bit cloudy and later on that day even started to rain. So we just quickly visited Wilpena Solar Powerplant and Arkaroo rock paintings. I was really curious about the power plant because it's supposed to be the largest one in Australia. What a disappointment! It's just a few solar panels...

Arkaroo rock paintings are aboriginal paintings on the walls of a big cave. The cave is in a big boulder and there is actualy a few more beautiful boulders around. Oh well, I respect the cultural significance of the place but the climber inside me cries how nice bouldering area it could be, hehe.

Matthias dropped me off in Port Augusta on his way back to Adelaide and I visited an exposition in Wadlata Outback Centre. You have to pay around $10 entry fee but it's very well made and definitely worth visiting. It explains the history of the region from three different perspectives (in three parts of the exposition) - the geological history, aboriginal Dreamtime stories and european colonization. It's really big so you'd better allow two to three hours to see it all.

I spent my last night in the town at the camp site again. I met an interesting spanish couple there - they had been on their bike tour around the world. They'd started in Argentina 15 months ago and right then they were on their way from Adelaide to Darwin. Nuts! Although it would be nice to do some big bike trip somewhere in the world, I guess.