Living in a hallway: Outback Adventure (Lots of dust)

Arkaroola 11/10-14/10

A gorgeous couple

We left Copley on Tuesday morning and are off to Arkaroola which is about 130km's on the dirt. We were advised by David at the Copley Caravan park to take it easy as the stones on the road are quite sharp and shred tyres. We did see evidence of this as we travelled along. The road took us through the Gammon Ranges National Park so we stopped off about 30km's from Arkaroola at the ranger station to pick up walking track guides and any info on the area. The ranger station was once a sheep station and the old homestead and buildings are still there being used by SA National Parks.

Woolshed

We arrived at Arkaroola just after lunch it was a warm day and the last 5km's were as rough as guts. We have set up camp on the banks of another dry creek bed and are using our bikes to get around the main areas of the wilderness sanctuary. Arkaroola is a geologist's paradise. There are so many different types of rocks and minerals here.

Arkaroola Camp.

On Wednesday we decided to walk the Mawson-Spriggs track, it's an 8km loop starting at the Arkaroola Village. It goes through the campground so we started here and were doing it in reverse which meant we missed the actual track and we spent the first part of the walk on one of the 4WD tracks. Once back on track, we found it pretty easy going the views of the different rock formations, and valleys were spectacular. The landscape and plants are quite different from what was in the Flinders Ranges. The main trees here are Curly Mallee, Black Oak, Corkbark Trees and Tea Trees. Most of the wildflowers have finished but we did come across displays of tiny billy button daisies and an unusual flowering red succulent plant.

Pinnacles

Arkaroola Ridge

Tiny red succulent plant

Thursday was a cooler. Perfect for walking. We did the Acacia Ridge Walk. We'd got dropped off at the Station which is one end of the walk and then started our climb up to the top of the range. The plants at the start of the walk are very thirsty looking, the emu bush (which makes the best fly swat) was shrivelled and wilted along with the last dregs of the wildflowers. Around 2km's from the start, there is a sheer rock face that meets the track. This provides a different habitat as when it rains the water drains off the surface of the rock into cracks and soaks the soil at the bottom. The plants here were quite lush with coolabah trees, native grass trees and even some flowers still blooming. The higher we got the views improved and we finally made it to the summit at 566 meters. The 360-degree views are amazing, there are views across all the ranges to the flats with Lake Frome just visible in the distance. We rested at the top admiring the views then we continued along the ridge making our way back to Arkaroola Village.

You can see where we started.

Plants in the cracks

Doing our bit.

A shady spot to stop for a drink

I can see our house from here,

Or is it over this way?

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Where we're going.

Back at the village we stopped in for a drink and caught up with our camping neighbours and then wandered across to the Wallaby feeding. The yellow-footed rock wallabies come in each evening for something to eat. As the sun was setting you could see them on the rocky hill (Griselda Hill) jumping around on the cliff tops from rock to rock.

Wallaby feeding.

Our final day at Arkaroola was warmer so we are doing the drives, we did start out on the 31km trip to Paralana Hot Springs, which is the only radio-active heated hot spring in the world. There are a few sites to stop off on the way, our first stop was the Ochre Wall, Lively's gold find, Welcome mine where copper was mined, and then Stubbs waterhole. When you leave the Welcome Mine the 4wd track starts the track was pretty good until Stubbs Waterhole. Then it gets quite rough and the journey is slow going. We made the decision to turn around as we hadn't seen any other people out here and if we broke down it was a long walk back to the village.

Lively's gold find

Ochre Wall.

Stubbs Waterhole.

I'm not convinced these are genuine.

We then did the shorter drive from Arkaroola village to the Bolla Bollana Smelters, Bolla Bollana Spring and the Nooldoonooldoona waterhole. This drive was a treat. Both the spring and the waterhole had water in them, the water in the Nooldoonoldoona waterhole was clear even though there wasn't much in it. We topped off the evening with a glass of port and some star gazing.

Bolla Bollana Smelters

Cousin Its

Quorn 15/10

This morning we are leaving Arkaroola and heading for Quorn we found the trip back down the dirt road faster than when went in, it just didn't seem as bumpy.

Out of Arkaroola.

We stopped off for lunch at the Prairie Hotel in Parachilna. It's a brewery pub that has kangaroo, emu, and camel on the menu. We had the camel sausage rolls which were quite nice. (Tasted like Chicken.)

Quorn 15/10-17/10

We are now relaxing in Quorn and had a good meal at the Austral Hotel on the first evening. We spent 2 days in Quorn and on the first day we did a walk around north Quorn admiring the stone cottages, we had lunch at the Quandong Cafe and dropped in at the information centre which is the old train station.

Quorn Main Drag

Quorn Station.

Flash old house

The Pitchi Richi railway runs mainly on the weekend but the steam train is not running at the moment as the state government has brought the fire season forward by two weeks.

The next day we walked to the native flora reserve which used to be the old quarry where the stones for the buildings in Quorn came from. There were still some of the wildflowers out in the reserve which helped us identify some of the flowers we had been seeing in the outback. In the evening we went to the Silo light show. Instead of painting the silos, a film is projected onto the silos. It runs for about an hour and tells you all about the history of Quorn and the railway.