Flinders Ranges National Park
We stayed our first night in SA at a rest stop just outside of Peterborough and then went into town the next morning. They had some really good railway history and we had our photo taken with Bob the Railway Dog. After picking up some groceries, we continued on our way with the aim of getting to the national park before dark. We made it easy, with a few stops along the way in Hawker to get lunch and fuel and then some lookouts along the road. The Flinders Ranges has some spectacular scenery and although we were just glad to finally see some hills again, the views were amazing. We camped the first night at Wilpena and walked into the Hills Homestead in Wilpena Pound the next morning. We then climbed to the lower and upper Wangarra Lookouts to have a view across the whole pound to the southern and western rim. It was awesome and we could only wonder how much more spectacular it would be from the air when you can see the whole rim. After lunch we drove through the national park to Sacred Canyon aboriginal heritage site. This was an interesting walk from the carpark up a dry creek bed to where there are etches or carvings in the sandstone walls of the canyon. It was very narrow and so it was great to walk up the creek with almost sheer walls either side. And we did manage to spot a few of the different carvings so it was worth the drive over the very bumpy unsealed road (our first major drive on unsealed road....but not our last!) we then headed for our overnight camp spot at Trezona camping grounds on the Geo Trail. This was exciting for us because the different rock outcrops along the trail show sediments deposited between 500 and 650 million years ago, and a Golden Spike at the boundary of the Ediacara Period (where we also found a geocache box!). The geo trail rail is actually a river bed for the last section so we drove through the middle of a gorge! This was a big test for the bus, and we survived!!! It was a relief to finally make it back onto the sealed road at the other end, but the sights were definitely worth the bumpy road!