1/03/2004 - Day 13, Page 3 of 3 - Wilpena to Roxby Downs, SA
We stayed the next two nights (27 and 28/02/2004) at the Wilpena Caravan
Park in the Flinder's Ranges National Park and decided to do a bush walk
through Wilpena Pound. Wilpena Pound is a ring of mountains which surround
a lovely plain filled with trees (including my favorite red gums!). There
are some really good aerial pictures of it on this website (and some other
good ones of the Flinder's Ranges)
http://www.petedobre.com.au/products_postcards_FR_2.html
Anyway, we walked around the St Mary's Peak track (about 20km) on
28/02/2004) which took most of the day, and most of our energy! We skipped
along pretty easily for the first 15km, but the feet started sulking loudly
over the last 5km! Following is a pic of bradley sitting in front of St
Mary's Peak and then one of me walking down into the Pound.
The next morning (29/02/2004) we packed up our goodies and headed north.
We'd heard on the radio that the Diamantina River, the Eyre Creek and the
Cooper Creek were in flood and spilling into lake Eyre. Now this is a rare
thing! The last time lake Eyre was filled to capacity was the early
1970's. So we checked out the map to look at the possibility of doing a
dash for Birdsville to see it in flood and mud. Sadly we had to conclude
that we'd not be able to make Birdsville and then get back to Roxby Downs
in time to see Glenn on his time off, so we decided to take the shorter
trip and head straight for the Cooper Creek crossing on the Birdsville
Track (roughly 100km north of Marree). This effectively canceled our
previous plan of visiting the Gammon Ranges after the Flinders Ranges.
Well, off we went. Stopped in at Blinman for a quick look. Now a word of
advice. If you ever find yourself in Blinman, go to the general store and
buy yourself a home made lamb and mint pie. No, buy two! They're
absolutely sensational!
Back to the story... Drove off to Marree via Leigh Creek. Stopped in at
the Maree pub to get the news on the flooding and road conditions up north
(tried the police station, but that was empty). Went into the pub, sat
down, ordered two beers and some twisties and then in comes one of the
locals leading his freshly washed pony called Hugo. Yes, that's right, he
just walked the horse straight into the bar! He wanted a bottle of water
to drink, but if he tied his horse up outside it'd roll and get all dirty
again. The only solution was clearly to bring it in with him so he could
keep an eye on it.
Anyway, we weren't quick enough with the camera to get the horse sitting on
the bar stool, but we did get some info about the floods. The waters were
at Birdsville, and the northern section of the track had been reduced to
4WD only. Sadly though, the waters had not reached the Cooper Creek
crossing and the locals didn't think it would without further rain up north
in Queensland. If they do get more rain though, they think the water will
take at least two more weeks to get to the Birdsville Track crossing of the
Cooper.
Well that turned our plans to poo! We chatted a bit more and agreed to
return to Marree for the Camel races in the first weekend of July. With
our flood watching plans now in tatters we headed off west along the
Oodnadatta Track (see pics below), then down the Borefield Track and into
Roxby Downs where we surprised Glenn, Amanda and the kiddies by turning up
un-announced)!
Stayed at Roxby last night (29/02/2004).
That's about all for now folks. You can all get back to work now!
Love to all, Katie and Brad
