There is a bit of talk about Flinders Ranges so we went to check it out. In a book I read that if we were mere 60 million years earlier we might have attempted to climb the highest mountain on Earth. Too bad, bit late for that. Flinders are supposedly just stumps of what used to be a range higher than Himalayas. It’s very pretty though. On the way we stopped by a place called Flinders Ranges Information Centre and while they did have information on some small towns in the area, they didn’t know anything about the actual ranges, nor had they a map of walking tracks. So we continued towards the national park to a place called Wilpena Pound. Pretty sure that used to be a cattle station and now is a resort, the only one in the area that doesn’t belong to the Parks and Wildlife and charges pretty high fees for camping. We did manage to get some info there at the Parks and Wildlife Centre about the walking and camping in the area but again no map. To our disbelief we were told that maps for hikers are a waste. The fact that the office was otherwise packed with glossy brochures on just about everything didn’t seem to bother them. But maps for hikers are apparently a waste of paper. Anyhow, with a pathetic A4 print out with a sketch of the area we drove to a free campsite for the night. Now we can’t verify this but the campers next to us said that inside their van at 8.30am next morning the thermometer showed 4 degrees. Next day we tried to navigate with our sketch to a start of some walk and another campsite. We passed few signs on the way but none of them indicating 4WD track. In fact, according to one the campsite was 2WD accessible. So we were quite surprised when our poor van was suddenly crossing deep ditches and water. Not quite what we expected. At the camp we just dropped out of the car and didn’t even want to think about the way back. The walk was great though and the campsite beautiful. Next day we repeated our involuntary driving adventure and drove back to Wilpena as I refused to leave Flinders without seeing the actual Wilpena Pound. It looks like a huge crater and it’s really cool. After that we headed back towards coast.
trochu jsme toho slyseli o pohori Flinders a tak jsme se tam rozhodli zajet podivat. V jedne knizce jsem se docetla, ze kdybysme tu byli o pouhych 60 milionu let driv, mohli jsme se pokusit zdolat nejvyssi horu sveta. Udajne Flinders kdysi bylo majestatne pohori prevysujici dnesni Himalaje. Nicmene cas je celkem obrousil a holt uz to neni co to udajne kdysi byvalo. Cestou jsme zastavili v kancelari s napisem “Informacni centrum o pohori Flinders”. Tam sice meli informace o nekolika malych vesnicich v okoli, ale nic o Flinders. Nesehnali jsme tam ani mapu. Tak jsme pokracovali smerem k naronimu parku a mistu jmenem Wilpena Pound. Mam dojem, ze to kdysi byvala farma s dobytkem, dnes je to resort s predrzenym kempem. V tamnim informacnim stredisku jsme se sice konecne neco malo dozvedeli o tamnich turistickych trasach a kempovani v parku, nicmene k nasemu nemalemu udivu nam bylo mimo sdeleno, ze turisticke mapy netisknou. Pry jsou to vyhozene penize. Asi tu maji velmi levne zachranne vrtulniky, dokonce levnejsi nez papir. Navic to stredisko bylo jinak nacpane brozurkama o kazdym zapadakove siroko daleko, ale turisticke mapy jsou prej zbytecny. No nic, nakonec nam daly A4 s nacrtem oblasti a my vyrazili smerem kemp. Nasledujici sice nemuzu zarucit, ale nasi sousede nam dalsi rano tvrdili, ze uvnitr jejich obytnaku v pul devate rano namerili 4 stupne. Ja moc odhad nemam, ale je fakt ze jsem rano byla zabalena ve svym spacaku a odmitla vylizt dokud slunce plne nevyslo a nerozmrazilo nam okna. po snidani jsme vyrazila k zacatku znacenych tras a k dalsimu kempu. Cestou jsme minuli par ceduli, ale nebylo tam nic o narocnem terenu. Naopak na jedne jsme nasli znacku, ze kemp je dostupny i autum s phonem na dve kola. Tudiz jsme byli celkem prekvapeny, kdyz jsme najednou v nasi staricke dodavce prejizdeli vymoly, strme straze a vodni toky. Kdyz jsme se konecne dostali do kempu, z auta jsme doslova vypadli a razantn odmitli byt jen pomyslet na zpatecni cestu. Trek byl ale fajn a kemp krasnej a dalsi den jsme se nakonec uspesne opet probojovali nasim nedobrovolnym automobilovym dobrodruzstvim. Pred odjezdem z Flinders jsme se opet zastavili ve Wilpene a zasli se podivat (=vydrapali se po ctyrech) na vyhlidku, odkud bylo videt cele pohori. Vypada to jako velkej krater a je to supr.
Ruins of s sheep station which at it’s peak held 40,000 sheep
Pozustatky ovci farmy, ktera kdysi chovala 40,000 ovci:
Aboriginal drawings in a cave describing an initiation ritual.
Kresby Aborigincu, ktere popisuji iniciacni ritual:
A tady uz zase chodime:
Hiking again:
A tady jsou flinderske silnice:
Wilpena pound:
Pises dobre, jen tak dal! m.
ReplyDeleteOuch! Poor Betty. I hope she survived the ordeal.
ReplyDelete