Saturday, 9 August 2025
I thought I heard some rain overnight and this morning it looked very broody over towards Rawnsley Bluff. Looking slightly more towards the east it didn’t look as threatening though. Fingers crossed!
We were on the move again today, so after breakfast we re-packed the truck before taking our key back to reception. We drove back to Hawker this morning to have a bit more a look around town since we pretty much purchased fuel and kept on going on Monday. The BP Servo was our first stop this morning to top up the truck with diesel before we parked in front of the general store and post office to buy some supplies for us. No on-site restaurant at Willow Springs, we are going to have to make our own meals.
Gosh, if we are going to do longer road trips, to even more remote places we are going to have to get smarter about having a short list of food that is quick and easy to prepare with few ingredients. It’s not all that easy to buy food, especially fresh food, the further you go from the cities. We did manage to buy some frozen lasagne, garlic bread and salad for tonight’s dinner. It won’t be like my lasagne but it is easy and it will fill our bellies. Completely uninspired by any other items on offer at the general store, we purchased a few vegetables thinking we might be able to buy extra pies at lunchtime to heat up for Sunday night’s dinner??
Still wanting to try to find some fresh fruit, we crossed the road to the mogas petrol station across the street that had signs on its windows saying it sold fruit and vegetables. Yay, we found some kiwi fruit and they seemed OK and Bernie took advantage of a 3 x 600mls for $9.99 Coke offer.
We stowed our perishable purchases in the car fridge and the remainder in a shopping bag in the rear of the truck. With our meals sort of worked out for the next two nights we took a turn around town taking photos of the pretty cottages, the old railway station and the pub. The old railway station used to operate as The Old Ghan restaurant, but the owners retired and the restaurant closed. The building is now a private residence where they have to have signs up everywhere saying: Restaurant Closed, No Entry Private Residence. How annoying to have tourists like us wandering around taking photos of the lovely old station building. From outside the fences, of course!
Our next stop was at the Jeff Morgan Gallery. The gallery consists of a number of amazing panoramas of scenery in the Flinders Ranges painted by Jeff. His art is photo realistic and the panoramic images he has produced on a large scale are impressive. Jeff is also an AVID collector and the gallery also houses a walk-in, full-sized shearing shed display, a MASSIVE rock and mineral display, model cars, classic and vintage cars, decorative tins, plates, mugs and glassware and … the list goes on! But, everything is well organised and has its place and everything is clean, it’s not just dusty old junk stuffed in every nook and cranny. We decided that that might be what makes the difference between a collector and a hoarder?? After seeing Jeff’s collection of mugs Bernie has said that he will stop telling me that I have too many mugs.
While we were in Jeff’s gallery it had rained. Hmmn, we thought about walking around to the Flinder’s Food Co for lunch but with the rain getting heavier we decided to drive around. We arrived at the same time as half the population of South Australia. It was busy! We joined the queue to choose our pies from the pie warmer watching as people ahead of us purchased pies, pasties and sausage rolls ahead of us. The contents of the pie warmer was dwindling. Phew, when we made it to the front of the queue we were still able to purchase a peppercorn pies and sausage roll for Bernie and a pastie for me. We asked about buying cold pies to take away but that was a no. Damn, what else can we do that’s easy to go with the potato and tinned peas we have already bought??
After our savoury course it was still raining, so we decided to stay on for cakes and, in my case, a cappuccino. I had been told when dropping the key off this morning that the Food Co’s brownies are excellent. I enjoyed my brownie but Bernie was less keen on his vanilla slice which had coconut sprinkled on top of the icing. His verdict was that he doesn’t like coconut on a vanilla slice. The first time we’ve seen a vanilla slice done that way. My ‘thing’ with vanilla slices is that they must have white icing. I know pink icing tastes exactly the same, but pink icing is just … wrong! A bit like we could only buy tinned peas earlier, not peas and carrot or peas and corn because I abhor mixed veggies. That is wrong, wrong, wrong … like two fruits. Ugh, who ever thought it was a good idea to tin diced peaches and diced pears together? Disgusting!
The rain had eased off so we decided that we had better start heading north again towards our next stop at Willow Springs. Despite the weather being less than perfect we stopped in at most of the viewpoints along the Flinders Ranges Way. Our first stop was at the Elder Range (Urdla Warlpunha – Kangaroo Bones) Lookout. From this vantage point the massive ramparts of the Elder Range tower over the Arkaba Hills. This vista was a favourite subject for Sir Hans Heysen and feature in some of his finest works.
Our next stop was at the Rawnsley viewing area. At Rawnsley park we have been looking at the the bluff from a different angle so we stopped to view it from the lookout on the Flinders Ranges Way. Rawnsley Bluff is part of the south-east rim of Wilpena Pound. The basin shape of the Pound has been formed by a downfold (syncline) as the layers of sedimentary rock have been buckled and folded under pressure in the Earth’s crust.
Wilpena Pound is such a vast geological feature that I have struggled to piece together the whole thing in my head. Earlier, looking at Jeff’s amazing 360 degree panorama of the Pound it started to make sense to me. Of course it was at the moment, when we were at the end of the 170 metre track to the viewing area, that the rain started! We were a little bit damp by the time we made it back to the car!
We stopped at the Wilpena Pound IGA, still looking for inspiration for something to accompany the peas and potatoes we purchased earlier. We eventually settled on sausages which are one of my least liked foods. I only agreed because they’re easy AND we purchased a tin of Gravox powder and an onion to make an onion gravy to ‘elevate’? our bangers and mash. Even though we bought quite a bit of food earlier, we left the IGA with some blueberries and strawberries, more tinned veg, orange juice for Bernie’s breakfast and a loaf of bread. We have been splashing the cash around in the Flinders Ranges today, supporting just about every small business in the area.
Earlier today I noticed our atlas mentioned a Cazneaux Tree as a point of interest between Wilpena Pound and the turn off to the Bunyeroo Gorge. Although we drove this stretch of road twice yesterday, we did not see a sign for the Cazneaux Tree. Despite now having our eyes peeled for a sign declaring this point of interest … we missed it again! The sign was tiny and there was no prior sign to say the turn out was coming up. There it is! – I cried, as we sailed past at 100 kph. Fortunately, there was a spot soon after where Bernie could execute a U-turn.
Also fortunate … the rain had stopped. Not taking any chances though, I swapped my puffer vest for my ski coat so that I would be more waterproofed in the event of any more rain. Despite the teeny tiny sign out on the road, this stop had a really great guided walk laid out with excellent interpretative signs that taught us all about Harold Cazneaux, described on the first board as ‘an extraordinary early Australian photographer who felt that every image should be a work of art’. The board also welcomed us to Adnyamathanha Country.
The Spirit of Endurance Trail follows the photographic journey of Harold Cazneaux when he camped in this area beside the Wilpena Creek with his wife and son in May 1937. How amazing to be looking at the very trees – some 80 years older – that feature in his iconic photographs, the negatives of which are held in the National Library of Australia. Some of these magnificent red gums have lost branches or suffered some die-back, but most were still recognizable as the trees in Cazneaux’s photos that appeared on each board. Most boards also continued the story of the Adnyamathanha, ‘rock people’, the original inhabitants of the area. We were impressed with the trail that Parks SA has provided at this site.
We made one last stop at Hucks Lookout where Bernie jumped out of the truck to take a single photograph of a very overcast view. We drove past the turn out for Stokes Hill Lookout hoping that it will be clearer tomorrow night and we can return to the lookout for sunset. It is supposed to be a great spot to watch the sun set over Wilpena Pound. Fingers crossed.
Just a couple of hundred metres past the lookout, we turned into the driveway of Willow Springs. We drove in to the office, to check-in for the next two nights. We had also booked in to drive the station’s ‘Skytrek’ 4WD track so we were given instruction to reach the Overseer’s Cottage and given a map and briefing on undertaking the 4WD adventure tomorrow.
On a cold and damp afternoon we were keen to unload our gear into the cottage, crank up the a/c and settle in for a cozy evening. Bernie had to walk down to the camp kitchen, where wi-fi is available, to find out the result of the Tigers vs Saints match at the MCG. Earlier, before we lost reception driving up here, the Tiges had been in front. Unfortunately, he returned to the cottage with the sad news that Richmond lost by four points. On the plus side, that is not an embarrassing result.
Phew, the previous occupants of the cottage had the a/c set at 30°C. That is too hot, even for me. We have closed off the second room of the cottage that contains two single beds and we’re finding that having the thermostat at 22°C is quite warm enough. Maybe even too warm as Bernie is watching the Port Adelaide vs Fremantle match with his eyes more closed than open, ha, ha.
Steps: 8,060 (5.42 kms)
