We spent Wednesday morning packing up and headed to Big W in search of butane, basket and rear rack. We ended up with only the butane and then found a bike shop where Kitty bought the flashest bike basket around, quick disconnect and carry handle making it great for shopping. After the doctors visit we started the drive up to Willow Springs Station, near Wilpena.
We couldn't resist the urge to visit an old mine on the way up, which was discovered by Wombats.
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| Old Copper mine near Burra. |
Overall, it took around five hours to get there and we setup and settled in for our best camping sleep yet, the weather was perfect! Willow Springs is a working sheep station and was recommended to us by Andrew as they had stayed there in the past and had family friends in the area. Our campsite was great and secluded, we were the only guests and were around 1km from the homestead and hot showers, though we had our own loo.
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| Artwork sign at the entrance to the property |
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| Campsite at Willow Springs Station |
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| No need to unpack our table and chairs! |
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We were on the edge of a creekbed.
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Thursday we headed to Wilpena pound for a walk up Mt Ohlssen Bagge, which took around 1hr 10min to climb, the temperature steadily rose to 38 during this time. We enjoyed a cool drink and salad (+ham) rolls, enjoyed the vista and some not to nice ants!
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| The start of the walk and the only really flat bit! |
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| A view of the pound from half way up |
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| The view from the top |
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| Lawrie getting his bearings |
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| View to St Mary peak |
The descent (circa 500m vertically) was a thigh killer so we made a beeline for the shop (ice-cream!) as a reward then drove to sacred canyon to look at the engravings. We were baking at this point and the sun was relentless so our stop was brief.
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| Walking into sacred canyon |
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| View up the canyon towards the second waterfall. |
Friday morning early we drove to Skull rock, another tip off from Andrew. This is right in the corner of the national park and only really accessible from Willow Springs and by 4wd. The track took us past some spectacular formations and views, past old barite mines and to the scull, made of a tufa limestone formation.
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| Heading to the Skull |
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| Skull Rock |
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| Barite mine entrances. |
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| A view from the track |
Andrew's advice had so far been on the money so we decided to do a loop through Blinman, Parachilna and back through Brachina gorge. At Blinman we stopped at the old copper mine & smelter. Interestingly, the town gets its water from the lower levels where it can be pumped easily, the old miners must have done a good job as the water is not tainted or acidic.
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| Adit into the mine |
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| They stoped up to the surface |
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| On the drive to Parachilna |
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| Gums in the riverbed, we followed gorges the whole way |
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| The water was still flowing. |
After Blinman we went to Parachilna for a feral feed, refer to photos! (NB: Kitty maintains her vego status)
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