What a surprise, an early start and off we went to the
Flinders Ranges where all but one of the group set about hiking up Mt Ohlssen.
This was a 6.4km round trip that would take a good few hours to complete; it
was comparable to the toughness of Castle Hill in Townsville but this walk had
some climbing involved also. The panoramas from the summit were pretty
spectacular – one of the girls said they were better than the views from the
Table-Tops in South Africa. We could see the Wilpena Pound bowl and miles and
miles into the distance. Danny also got the chance to see what he’d wanted to
see in Oz; a wedge-tailed eagle soaring overhead, with Corrie getting a pretty
awesome shot of it as it circled above. Part way down, we all came to a halt as there was a very long line of processional caterpillars cutting along the path. The line must have been at least 3 metres long! The walk back down was a lot nicer than
going up (apart from two of the group who did their ankles in) but lunch was
even better! Some went in a pool after lunch before we carried on with the
day’s activities.
The next little stop was at Yourambulla Caves where a 10
minute walk took us to the site where we could have a look at some authentic
aboriginal paintings. Unfortunately there’s no way of finfing out the true
meaning of these markings as the tribe who did them were wiped out by the
white-men.
Next we visited the ruins of an old village from the 19th
century – Kanyaka Homestead. This wasn’t very impressive but was a good example
of an abandoned settlement.
Our final outing was at Warren Gorge where we went on a
stroll to try and spot some yellow-footed rock wallabies. We found them and
kangaroos again; we’ve seen more and more wild kangaroos as we’ve ventured down
from Alice Springs. This place is one of only two where you can see these
wallabies as they were close to extinction; a programme has been set-up to
replenish their numbers.
Then it was back to the hostel place for tea and an attempt
at an early night (also to give our feet a rest.)
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