This weekend we left early on Friday morning to head north to the Flinders Ranges and to Wilpena Pound National Park to do some hiking and sightseeing with our fellow Canuck, Chance.

We arrived at Arkaroo Rock first and took a 1 hour hike back to see some ancient aboriginal cave paintings. It was very cool! We also saw some wildlife...kangaroos on our way back to the car. It was a hot afternoon and we were all ready to get to the national park and set up camp to prepare for our next day.

We awoke early and headed out to the trail after a good breakfast. Our hike was supposed to be 7 km there and 7 km back from St. Mary Peak. We ended up taking the wrong trail, the long loop, to get to the peak and arrived within 1.8 km of the peak after hiking 12 km through the wilderness and hills. On our way up we saw some dead kangaroos, live ones, and an Echidna!! It was very cute and timid and very pokey to touch. Layla was getting tired but was doing very well. Since it was getting later in the day and we heard the last 1.8 km to the top was difficult, Chance and I forged ahead and climbed to St. Mary Peak which was a tough hike but very much worth it. The peak is the highest point in the entire range, very amazing. We decided to head home the short way which involved 2km decending down rock faces and then a 4 km hike back to the visitor centre. Layla was so amazing at not giving up and keeping her spirits up that I promised to get her anything she wanted at the gift shop! All said and done, it was a 20km hike through some very difficult terrain and it was made even worse because of the flies!!