South Oz (pt 3)

The plan was to walk the last four days of the mammoth Heysen Trail, walking north from Wilpena Pound to Parachilna Gorge. Ella, Jacques and I hit the trail on foot with ample supplies of 'pocket cake', whilst Helen took the 'support vehicle' on enjoyable drives during the days and met us each evening (with more cake) at campsites which were fortunately accessible by 4WD. This gave us walkers the opportunity to walk with relatively light packs, not needing all the camping equipment ... which we replaced with medicinal portions of cake.



The going was really fairly flat, and considerably less tricky than the rock-hopping we got used to in Tassie. We covered decent distances, and ended up doing the four scheduled days in three instead.



The scenery was very interesting - there were lots of ridges surrounding us and scores of dry river beds that we often walked along.





Dumb and dumber!





The temperature was fairly cool, and there were a few rain showers, but generally speaking it was good walking conditions. Not so good for the local Kangaroo / Wallaby populations though, as we saw lots of dead ones along the way.



Despite the arid landscape there were some truly immense trees. Some of the dried up rivers were massive, (I'd love to see some of these rivers in full flow) but it was in these that the largest trees were found. In this photo you can see Jacques at the base of the tree showing how big it is.


Some of the great geology on offer in the Flinder's Ranges.


It was a great walk, and we didn't even feel that tired after three days walking ... thanks in no small part to Helen for driving and meeting us at the end of each day, and the cake she'd provided. And here she is, trying to keep warm as we finished the walk!


All good fun and the holiday was only just beginning. We were heading north, to the desert to experience frozen tents, more campfires ... and to eat much more cake (to keep us warm of course).