Post 11 - Greetings From The Central Flinders Ranges SA - Journal

Greetings from the Central Flinders Ranges!
Hello everyone – welcome to our blog and to some of the most impressive scenery in the whole of the Flinders! Boy are we going to find it hard to leave here – this is wild and rugged country at its best with mountains that have been folded, crumpled and creased over millennia; dinosaur-looking ridges and peaks and abrupt escarpments and gorges that rise up from the flat plains. The scholar in me has reveled in learning about the European and Aboriginal heritage and how this is some of the world’s oldest landscape - literally where “life on earth” first began and containing Australia’s oldest mountains. At the same time, the wildlife spotters in us both have felt like we’ve been on safari with much to satisfy us, what with the complete range of kangaroos for our photographing pleasure plus emus and snakes not to mention a whole assortment of birds! The Flinders is a place where impressive, graceful and huge old River Red Gums line creeks that look bone dry (yet miraculously house water somewhere underneath them) and where earth can be both dramatically reddened by iron oxide and vegetated by native cypress tress one minute yet literally around the bend can spontaneously become limestone that supports low-lying, native lemongrass bushes the next. Beautiful caramel and butterscotch plains, that look as if they have been poured into a mould, are dotted with native forests here and there while elsewhere ever-unfolding hills roll on and on, playing host to long and winding roads that tease you by disappearing from sight, making you feel like you are Dorothy in the Wizard Oz! The scenery is simply breathtaking, jaw-dropping and something we don’t believe we could ever tire of! In fact the Flinders really is something of a chameleon, re-inventing itself constantly with the play of light throughout the day, so that mountain-faces dramatically illuminate and redden as they shimmer in the glow of a rising or setting sun, distant hills can change to almost poetic purples and grey silhouettes and, when the sky is a brilliant blue, there’s always that striking contrast against mountains that even within themselves have layers of reds, oranges, purples, green, pale brown and off-whites to lure the eye.
In short we have driven it, walked it, cycled it, photographed it, toasted it and had a blast! We’ve had great neighbors to share much hilarity, wine and beer with and have vowed to come back again! Needless to say it has been extremely hard to select only those photos that would make it into the blog (we didn’t want to run the risk of boring you!) but we hope you enjoy them and fall in love with this place as much as we have! And as far as the rest of this journal goes, enjoy our little stories and have a laugh on us!


Star-gazing “DOWN-UNDER” – you’d be amazed at what you can see!
For those of you who didn’t know, one of the things I have earmarked for this trip is to learn more about the starry night skies by taking advantage of the fantastic opportunities that the clear, non-ambient light of the outback provides. I wanted to be less of the ignoramus who couldn’t tell her north from her south, often got confused on the difference between a microscope and a telescope, who couldn’t fathom why there wasn’t a “top” or “roof” to the sky and was incapable of locating the infamous ‘Southern Cross” on any given clear night! So when we pulled into Rawnsley Park Station to set up camp and heard at reception that there was an astronomy tour on the property under the stars that very night, I was very excited indeed and immediately booked us in! The brochure said: “using a 10” Newtonian we can view distant galaxies, nebulae, star clusters and planets not seen with the Naked Eye”…….which sounded great to me but little did I know that it would be ME who turned out to be the star of the show and make a stunning contribution to astronomical science!
The tour started at 7pm and I must confess to having rather hurriedly swigged a large half glass of red wine before meeting up with our astronomer guide - though my disclaimer here as I write, is that I was by no means drunk, tipsy or remotely squiffy! Our guide was an extremely knowledgeable hobby enthusiast who had had the good fortune to have trained in the subject at some pretty prestigious places. He rolled out facts, figures, anecdotes and historical quips that filled my head and strained my comprehension to bursting point – not to mention had my eyes squinted to slits, my neck arched back more and more and my body whirling 360 degrees every 5 seconds (on what was very uneven ground!), as the avid and curious scholar in me lapped it all up and endeavoured to keep up with everything that was being pointed out and explained. Perhaps just this in itself could have magnified the effects of that half glass of seriously good wine but who can say. One thing I do know is that after just a few minutes of intent star-gazing and the astronomer busily pointing out all the constellations (different “sections” or groups of stars) in the sky, you really do feel like a cartoon character with “stars before your eyes” – so much so that, far from being able to make out the so-called “cooking pot and handle” constellation I could’ve sworn instead that I had been whacked over the head with one! Furthermore, my attention was less on spotting the constellation of “the upturned lion on its back with its legs in the air” and much more on ensuring that with all my star-gazing dizziness I didn’t embarrass myself by falling over onto MY back with leads spread-eagled!
Once all these weird shapes had been pointed out to us, the tour moved on to the “telescope” part of the night and of course, it was a great deal of fun and very cool indeed, to stand to the side of the telescope and look through the eyepiece in order to view things such as the surface of the moon in detail, Saturn with its rings and moons not to mention star clusters etc. However, at the end of the day you still have all these bloody stars before your eyes so that you almost get to the point where you can’t see anything anymore! In fact, you feel like the kid at the birthday party who’s had the scarf put over his eyes, has been spun mischievously by his mates and now has to go pin the tail on the donkey!
And so that’s how it transpired that right at the end of the night, it was ME, the long-odds-outsider, who discovered a brand new star and constellation and made a significant contribution to the science of astronomy! You see, our last star of the night (I forget its name) was one that had just popped up over a hill in the distance and had the amazing properties of changing colour from green to red and then to white. Naturally we all wanted to witness this cool phenomenon close up and, whilst I was yawning with tiredness and finding it hard to keep my eyes open, I too was very keen to see what it would look like through the telescope. The astronomer located it through the lens for us and did mention that it wasn’t as spectacular as he had thought it might be but that nevertheless you could see it change colour. Perhaps at this point you, the reader should understand, that unlike everything else we had seen on this night, this star had only just come above the horizon and so the telescope angle was now changed, being now almost horizontal, which meant that unlike every other viewing thus far, you had to bend right over just to get to that eyepiece I mentioned earlier (which, to recap, is on top of the telescope near the end that is pointing at the star). Now, I was last up for viewing and even though I was bone-tired, I considered myself a pro by now, what with all telescope work I had done that night. While everyone else was avidly chatting to the astronomer about what they had seen, I busied myself with peering and squinting and focusing in and out - trying, trying, trying to see this star. I could indeed see something very bright and was convincing myself it might have even turned green but thought I ought to pause and just check with the astronomer as to whether I had it right or not. No sooner was my question out than both he and Gordon were creasing themselves laughing as the astronomer cried out “You’re looking at your crotch!!!!!” Now I thought that that was simply his way of saying “You’re way off!” but when he showed me again how to look into the eyepiece and I (a little defensively) declared that that was exactly what I had done, he screeched with laughter again “No, look – you’re literally looking at your bloody crotch!”. Sure enough, as he proceeded to point out to me what I was doing wrong, I finally “got” it - that in my bone-tiredness and dizzy, head-reeling state I had, instead of standing to the SIDE of the telescope to view the star through the lens, indeed unwittingly stood directly BETWEEN that star and said telescope - meaning that indeed I HAD been getting a fantastic view of……my crotch! You can imagine the howls and screeches of laughter from everyone (myself included) and we couldn’t work out whether it was more hilarious that I had done it in the first place or that I had actually managed to “find a star that I had convinced myself had turned green!” And of course if that was NOT a star (but in fact my crotch) then it also begged the question as to what the shiny thing actually was that I had seen….which in turn also led to the wondering as to whether I needed to seek urgent gynaecological assistance when we get to the next town! And so there you have it folks – my amazing contribution to the science of astronomy – allow me to introduce: The Caroline Constellation and the Crotch Star!


4WD Adventure Flinders-style – or: “The tale of the Tortoise and the Hare……the Laying Hen and the Salami”

Hi Gordon here! As we’re now entering closer to the Outback it was time for a little test of “man and machine” – i.e. it was time to see what our 4WD (and its driver) could do! A number of the properties in the Flinders Ranges allow access (for a small fee) to some of their more remote tracks for a taste of 4WDing Flinders style. We chose a track on a property called Arkapena, which is a large sheep station adjoining Wilpena Pound. I haven’t done a huge amount of off-road driving before, so I was “interested” to see what the track would throw up before us. I think Caroline was a little more “interested”, as being in the passenger seat is a slightly different experience! Not only was she unsure what the track would be like and how capable our 4WD was, she was I think also wondering how capable the driver was!
The drive to the start of the track brought its own surprise. As we passed through Arkapena Station we were greeted by an expansive paddock with a huge mob of red kangaroos in it – it was a fantastic sight and as far as the eye could see there were kangaroos bounding off into the distance.
The track itself was in two distinct sections – the first, on the southern side of a wide valley, traversing the base of the Chase Range and the second, tracking the ups and downs of the ABC Range on the northern side of that valley. It turned out that the two sections were not only physically separated but that they were also distinctly different in degree of difficulty too!
The track started fairly sedately really, winding its way towards the foothills with just the occasional section giving clues of what was to come. For example, one feature of this arid country is that when it rains, it often rains heavy and in the arid soils this creates deep and steep washouts. All was conquered well though and this first stage was, so far so good and the reputation of both man and machine was intact.
Every now and then the track would climb to the top of a rise, which would give us a fantastic view of the valley and surrounding ranges. By the time we came to the second section the first instruction on the track notes was “engage 4WD low range” – a clear signal of the change in terrain to come! 4WD tracks seem to come in a variety of types – sandy, rocky and steep. This one was partly in the rocky type but mostly in the very steep camp! Apart from the times when we were perched at the top of a climb, our view consisted mostly of a rocky track below us, a deep culvert at the bottom when going down and nothing but blue sky going up! Climbing the steep climbs was an odd sensation – a bit like at the beginning of a rollercoaster ride, slowly inching your way to the top, not actually being able to see what’s coming but knowing that it’s a big drop.
After about 4 hours of negotiating ups, downs, rocks, bumps, culverts and washouts we emerged from the end of the track, a little shaken and stirred but otherwise unharmed! Along the way we experienced some fantastic country and were treated to some views that can only come by getting off the beaten track. And as far as man and machine passing the test? The machine passed with flying colours – these 4WD’s are amazing pieces of engineering and they can go places you wouldn’t believe. And me? Well, we got back in one piece and without any dramas, so I guess that constitutes a pass!
And hello again from Caroline…… well it’s testament to Gordon’s cool and steady demeanour that he was not put off his stroke by the shenanigans that I was doing in the passenger seat during the whole of the above account! He really is a very good driver! Those of you who have been with us since the first couple of blogs will recall that hanging by his scarf by my passenger seat window, is a rubber salami character called Fannimal, who is dressed as a soccer fan, has bulging eyes and a contorted open mouth and who shouts random high-pitched insults when you whack him against something hard. Well, as Gordon has already relayed, the going was extremely bumpy and rocky at times not to mention full of steep inclines where all you could see in front of you was the sky. So while I was busy holding on with all my might and my neck, head and body feeling like they were trapped in a washing machine on full-cycle, Fannimal was also being chaotically hurled around - sometimes doing 360 degree circles and other times just swinging madly from left to right like a pendulum, with legs shooting out the open window parallel with the passenger seat side mirror! Now and then at only the most opportunistic times, he would set himself off and hurl Gordon a most perfect insult – “awww, you’re RUBBISH!” and “Send him off!!!” and “AGGGGGGHHHHH!”. It was so hilarious that I couldn’t stop laughing – to the point where I had gone from cackling to clucking and sounding as if I needed urgent medical help to extricate an egg that wouldn’t depart my clenched buttocks! My stomach ached from all the uncontrollable laughter but there was nothing I could do about it because it was everything I could do to hold on and keep a decent posture going in my seat! And yet Gordon stayed cool, calm, focused and collected – now that’s my Gordy!!! And that my friends, is the tale of the Laying Hen and the Salami. And the tale of the Tortoise and the Hare? Well that would be to do with me “suffering” for my art and “sacrificing” myself to make my husband look good! In other words, allowing Gordon to seemingly effortlessly drive up some very steep inclines while I initially stood at the bottom to take photographs of his success……and then had to trudge slowly up the same hill - with only my two legs to get me there, muttering under my breath and sweat dripping from my brow… while he was at the top smugly taking a photo of me with the other camera!