Flinders Ranges
On The Fringe Of The Outback
Aug 30 - Sept 6 1998
This trip report is a joint effort between Tom Glynn and John McKinlay
Those who went: Tom Glynn, John & Jan McKinlay, Peter & Elvyne Hogan, Peter Galvin, and Jan Gray
Tom... A very enjoyable trip to the Flinders by 5 club members and 2 guests. The magic of this area is difficult to describe and not even good photos capture the spirit and spectacular colour. The long drive was worth every kilometre of it and it is my (Tom) intention to return around the same time next year and arrange to have at least 8 days walking with a few overnights. This gives all of you that are desperate to get to the Flinders a whole year to plan for it.
John... The combination of landscape and Australian trees and other Flora are what make the Flinders Ranges a wonderful place. The geology is ancient and convoluted. A seabed of many layers was deposited, and then squeezed into high ranges, and hardened at the same time. The end result after a lot of erosion is a series of steep scarps across the flat plain. Across the plain are the creeks with large boulders and rounded stones of many colours and types. The other creek feature is the redgums, which are twisted and turned into fascinating shapes.
We started our walks with a short one from Wilpena to Ohlssen Bagge, only 5 km but a peak rising to 410 m. Rain bedevilled us the next day, but a rain-walk to the old Wilpena homestead and around about had its own charm. Next day we drove through slushy roads to Bunyeroo Gorge and on to Aroona camp and bore.
The walk along Bunyeroo Gorge was only 7 km return but was slow because we kept finding interesting stones in the creek. Our day walk from Aroona covered some 19 km to Trezona Bore and return, including Yuluna Gorge – high, sheer and forbidding. Then we returned to Wilpena for our overnight walk into the pound to Edowie Gorge and Cooinda Camp. The overnight at Cooinda was very blustery, even though fairly sheltered. Next day we walked out over a hard track with many stones firstly to Tanderra Saddle then St Mary Peak. Then over more rocks we returned to Wilpena, all fairly tired.