We left the viticultural delights of the Clare valley reluctantly behind and travelled on towards the Flinders Ranges National Park. Our stop for the night was at Melrose Showgrounds, which was a massive grassy park covered in trees. It sat right under Mount Remarkable which was well named and also the first mountain of the Flinders Ranges. We lit a fire and enjoyed a classic SA windless, starry evening, sipping our Rose.
We moseyed on the next day, pausing to have lunch at Quorn and then made it to Wilpena Pound campground by early afternoon on Monday. I was a bit excited because we had received a message from Cate, with whom I had worked in Keith, to say that they had arrived in the Pound the previous day. Unfortunately, it appeared to have rained very solidly that whole day and even hailed at one point. The ground was orangey red and slick, our first glimpse of red dirt! The ranges had been fairly obscured with low cloud as we arrived, so we were thrilled to see the sun the next morning, lighting up the strata of reds and oranges in the rocks as we drove out to see Arkaroo rocks. This site had the Aboriginal art depiction of part of the dreamtime story of the formation of Wilpena Pound. The Pound is actually a ring of rock, some peaks up to 600m, enclosing an area of about 17 km by 4 km wide. It looks as if it should be an extinct volcano or meteor crater, but it is in fact a geological phenomena that is thought to have formed between 450 and 600 million years ago. The dreamtime story states that the walls of the pound were formed when two giant Akurra ( dreamtime serpents) gate crashed an initiation ceremony and ate up all the people. They were so full after that they couldn't move and turned to stone, each snake forming one side of the pound. It was my first experience of actual rock art and I could not believe the colour the was still so bright- this site had been dated at 5000 yrs old.
That afternoon saw another walk, this time to the top of the Pound walls to check out the view. It was a 7 km round trip and after the mornings 3 km effort, we were all ready for a good nights kip.
We caught up with Cate and family and shared a fire and a few yarns before succumbing to the siren song of the pillow once more..