A bit of an odd day but all turned out
well in the end.
After my walking feat of the day before
and at the suggestion of one of the ladies at the caravan park
shop/office, I decided to walk to some waterfalls. First I took the
wrong road, soon remedied. There was only one other car in the
carpark and with the walk twice as long as to Arkaroo Rock and the
hills looking steeper, I squibbed on walking on my own in that much
wilderness. Instead, from the same starting point, I did a short walk
to the top of a mesa-like land feature, Twidale Top, again with 360 deg views.
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| A couple of cars at Station Hill Lookout |
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| Caravan park and cabins dotted in the centre. Posh eco-cabins, a few dots at the left. |
And so on to Wilpena Pound, the feature of the Flinders Ranges. I got
started on a walk but didn't get far before the path was blocked by
the rarely flowing Wilpena Creek.
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| Flooded Wilpena Creek |
At that point I gave up, realising
that what I wanted to see wasn't going to fit in with my lunch plans.
But it did get me organised for the next day. I noticed an art
exhibition in the woolshed and decided to call back for that after
lunch.
Lunch was at Blinman, an old mining
town that looks pretty ramshackle. The mine was actually at Blinman
hence working men's type buildings rather than the managers type
buildings at Burra.
I chose lunch at the local (only!)
cafe. A miner's pastie – aka a Cornish pastie, of course. It was
full of the traditional veggies, no meat. But unlike any other
Cornish pastie I've ever eaten, one end had been dipped in sugar and
there was apple inside – a two course meal in one! It really was
delicious.
Dessert wasn't. Yesterday's 4WD guide said that when cooked,
quandongs had a rhubarb-y flavour. Yum! So I bought a quandong crumble
pie to follow the pastie. Way too much pastry for one lunchtime but there wasn't much
else on offer anyway. So - no rhubarb-y taste – not any taste at all
really. Disappointing but I'll know for future reference :-)
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| I lunched on the verandah ... with flies for company. How like Oz! |
Across the road from the cafe, there
was an art exhibition at the Blinman Memorial Hall – painters of
the Flinders and nearby areas. It's an annual event to raise funds to
keep the town's historic buildings standing and also to support the
Flying Doctor services in the region. There was some very good work
there but the raffle prize was such that I didn't buy a ticket. What
if I won?!
As planned, I returned to the
exhibition at the woolshed at Wilpena. I want to win their raffle! [Late note: I didn't :-( ] But overall, the Blinman exhibition was marginally better. Here
though, I did find out that these two are part of an annual series of
exhibitions. Not realising it, I'd also visited two others on the
program, at Port Pirie and Parachilna. I might even fit in one or two
more (of twelve) on the way home.
I asked when the woolshed was last used for sheep and shearing - 1985. And you could still smell the animals!!
The drive to Blinman was quite pretty.
Also, the number of wildlife spottings
increased – more emus and kangaroos and now dragons (some of whom
I'm sure would have been squashed before they got across the road),
kookaburras and black hairy caterpillars!
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| A friendly little dragon |
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| "Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree ...." |
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| A very hairy caterpillar :-) |
In spite of the messy visit to Wilpena
Pound, it turned out to be another more than satisfying day.
I found
an extra blanket and slept soundly without having to turn the heating
on :-)