Flinders Ranges - Day 2 & 3

Next morning we woke up just before sunrise and packed our gear for our next adventure. We reached the Flinders Ranges National Park gateway and paid the permit fees to enter the reserve area. The interesting part was that it was an unmanned post. We had to write our own receipt and drop the money and a hand written ticket into a small pay box. I found it a bit amusing.







The drive was real fun. Nykaj and I took turns to experience the joy of driving in such a rough terrain. It is a bit hard to sit in the passenger seat when you are going up, down and sideways. We went through Brachina Gorge which was absolutely spectacular. You find yourself in a different world, one which you never even thought existed. We stopped at almost all the Lookout points to immerse ourselves in the beauty surrounding us.



On the top



The ranges we were going to cross




Inside the gorges




All alone in the middle of nowhere



We continued our journey and went to Parachillna via Blinmen. We stopped at Blinmen which is an old, copper-mining town. We had a coffee and cake at the Wild Lime Cafe. The Cafe also had an Art Gallery with lots of Aboriginal Art Works on display.



The Wild Lime Cafe at Blinmen

Afterwards, we walked around Blinmen a bit and found that the town was having one of its local Food and Wine Festival. The place was packed and we saw people camping and cooking, outback style. They had coal burning on the ground and old pots filled with slowly cooking vegetables, meat etc. Also, some of them were baking bread over coal fire.


After a few hours at Blinmen, we headed towards Parachilna. The Prairie Hotel at Parachilna is famous for the Ferrel's meal they provide. We ordered their signature dish which had Emu, Roo and Camel meat in it. Was really good. They had put tiny flags on each meat type which looked rather cute.






A stick on every meat type stating what it is

After that heavy meal, we wanted to see what is there further up. We knew that the Desert was somewhere up there. We thought, maybe if we drive a couple of hours we might get lucky and hit the desert. After 2 hours or so of driving, we had managed to reach only Leigh Creek which is another mining town bordering the desert.


We asked a few local guys about heading to the nearest desert but it was getting late and I think it was another 3 to 5 hours away. Time was against us so we decided to postpone the Desert trip for another day and returned to Wilpena Pound via Hawker.



View Larger Map

The route we travelled through the ranges


We were really tired and as soon as we reached our shack, we crashed into the bed for half an hour. At around 7.30pm we had dinner at the Woolshed Restaurant.

The next day, we woke up early in the morning and headed back to Adelaide. It was a 6-hour drive @ an average of 110 Km/hr. The journey back was as breathtaking as the onward one. I took a few pictures from inside our car.




We reached home at around 4 in the evening. Nykaj and I were in the dream land of Flinders Ranges for another month or so! It was a wonderful holiday and I am sure we will visit the Flinders Ranges again, one of these days...

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