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The Mawson-Spriggina walk
The second walk was an easy one. It started from the Arkaroola Village complex. It follows the Mawson Valley and returns along the Spriggina ridge. The walk is named after two geologists who had a long association with the northern Flinders Ranges — Douglas Mawson and Reg Sprig. Or more accurately, Spriggina refers to a…
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Weetoolta Gorge
The first days C grade walk on the RASA Bushwalkers camp was in the Balcanoona Range. It was overcast as we walked along Worturpa Creek to Weetoolta Spring had morning coffee at the junction of the Balcanoona and Worturpa creeks, then walked along Belcanoona Creek to Grindells Hut. We had lunch at the hut, which…
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Balcanoona shearing shed
My time in the early morning before breakfast at Balcanonna was spent wandering around and inside the old shearing shed. I didn’t have that much time in the morning to wander too far between sunrise and breakfast as we had to be ready to meetup for the daily walks between 8.30-9am. The shearing shed was…
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Balcanoona
The drive on the Outback Highway from Hawker to the National Park Head Quarters at Balcanonna in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges went north to Parachilna and Copley, and then north east via Nepabunna and Italowie Gorge. The highway to Copley followed the old Central Australia Railway, which closed in 1980 when the standard gauge Tarcoola–Alice Springs Railway…
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Hookina Creek: deep history
Two months after the camel trek from Blinman to Lake Frome we returned to the Flinders Ranges to walk in the Vulkathunha–Gammon Ranges National Park under the auspices of the Retire Active SA Bushwalkers. On the way to Balcanoona we stayed at Hawker in the southern Flinders Ranges and in the afternoon I went looking for the…
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at Stokes Hill Lookout
As mentioned in an earlier post we stopped at Stokes Hill Lookout on our way to Hawker from Blinman the day after finishing the camel trek. The lookout offered a view of Wilpena Pound after the overnight rain. The deep past of the Flinders Ranges was historically defined as terra nullius: a land belonging to no…
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leaving Lake Frome
The morning (1/6/21) of our short walk away from Lake Frome to our pick up point for the return to Blinman was heavily overcast. We could see rain in the northern Flinders Ranges. Lake Frome at the south eastern end of the Lake Eyre Basin to be an intersection point between the winter rains from…
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Lake Frome: long history and deep time
I never made it to Lake Frome proper as we camped on a sand dune on the edge of Chambers Creek floodplain near the western shoreline of this ephemeral lake or salt pan. This stretches over a depression approximately 30 miles wide and 60 miles long It is the most southerly playa in an arc…
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to Lake Frome
Finally, the day (31st May) that we would reach at Lake Frome dawned. The early morning light was stunning, whilst the colours of the plants on the 2 tree plain were overwhelming.
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Two Tree Plain
We camped overnight on the plain between Chambers Gorge and Lake Frome after we walking over the low scrub of the flat plain with its Eremphila duttonii We had walked alongside Chambers Creek as it made its way east to Lake Frome. Chambers Creek started at the eastern mouth of the Chambers Gorge — for…