Friday, August 19, 2005
Last night was pleasantly warmer than the previous nights, though there were many months. When we went to bed, though, the wind picked up and blew in great gusts, threatening to blow our tent away. When we woke up this morning it had quietened down, but the skies were grey and the clouds low. Just when we had hurriedly packed up the tent it started raining. Luckily the campground had an outdoor covered kitchen, and we cooked breakfast in the shelter. We had planned to do a long 12 km walk to the Blinman pools, but the rain put us off. Don't quite mind the rain if we are suitably dressed. But we didn't have shoes which would stay dry and so we decided not to walk. Instead we drove out towards the Gammon ranges, which are the northern Flinders Ranges, and supposedly more spectacular, although fewer people visit it, because it is more remote. The Gammon ranges are about 140 km from Angorichina, where we stayed last night, and around 200 km from Wilpena.
The first town on our way here, down a winding track, was Blinman, which used to be a copper mining town. There's no mining now. But there were a restaurant, a hotel, a general store, all catering to tourists. It was still very windy and so we didn't feel like wandering around town. The track snaked its was through hills and gorges and along creeks, and then suddenly left behind the ranges and was on the open plain. We were back in the flat outback. It was different from the outback to the west of the ranges in that the soil was less red and more white. But otherwise it was the same, flat, stony and with a few scrubby saltbushes. Now and then the road crossed a dry creekbed, with gum trees growing in it. We saw little else, although in the distance we could make out the dark shapes of the Gammon ranges.
We came upon a signpost to Mt. Chambers Gorge and since it was also marked on the map as a place of interest decided to go there and have a look. It was a corrugated track which, once it got to the creek, followed its course, often in the creekbed itself. After parking the car, we walked along the creekbed, which in places had enormous boulders. The gorge is at the foot of Mt Chambers, which is sacred to the Andymanthana, the local aboriginals. There were some rock engraving on the gorge wall. Further down, the gorge rose spectacularly,with the mountain overlooking it on one side. The mountain was of fine sedimentary rock which was crumbling and sliding down the sides, looking like avalanches. While we were in the gorge it started raining, and the wind picked up. Suddenly there was a clatter and we saw a piece of rock land with a thud. The mountain was breaking down even as we watched!
We drove on across the stony plains. In the distance we could see Lake Frome, which is another salt lake to the east. What we could see was actually a sliver of bright white, which would be the salt crust, against the dark grey clouds. When we got the Balcoona, which is where the office of the Gammon ranges national park is, it was still very windy. We weren't feeling to keen about camping in our tent if the weather continued the way it was. And the weather showed no signs of changing. We enquired about accommodation. There was accommodation at Grindell's Hut, a stone hut on a ridge in the park, which sounded delightful. But we were told that it was full. The only indoor accommodation that was available was the shearer's quarters in Balcoona. Balcoona used to be a sheep station, and there was a shearing shed (where the sheep were sheared for their wool) and the shearer's quarters. We decided to take a room in the shearer's quarters. Having confirmed a warm sheltered place for the night we went for a drive. First we drove to Italowie gorge. The short drive was pretty, more so because of the weather. The sun occasionally struggled through the clouds and lit up some of the ranges, which were set off well against the dark clouds. A thick heavy cloud pressed closed to a mountain peak, and there the ranges looked dark and mysterious.
From Italowie gorge we backtracked and drove to Arkaroola, about 30 km from Balcoona. Arkaroola is a privately owned wildlife sanctuary adjoining the Gammon ranges NP. It was once a sheep station, but was then bought in 1968 by Reg Spriggs, who was a geologist and worked in an oil exploration company. He converted the sheep station into a wildlife sanctuary. It is a spectacular place. As we drove in we could see the road snaking through a valley, between mountains. The road led to Arkarool village which is where all the tourist facilities are. There is accommodation, a restaurant, a general store which also sells fuel, and even an observatory. After buying some fuel, we went in and browsed. The bar and cafe adjoined the store. The walls were filled with pictures of the family, certificates of various natures, and from various people including the Australian Government, the City of London, awarded to Reg Spriggs. He seemed like a really interesting person, from what we gathered. There is even an asteroid named after him (he must have discovered it from the observatory). The dining room was a traditional wood building, with tree trunks as posts, and strong beams and a wooden ceiling. The wooden beams were adorned with all kinds of oddities of a rural Australian flavour– horse shoes, shears, blacksmith tools, lanterns, bottle openers etc. You could spend hours examining them. Arkaroola looks like a wonderful place to spend a week or two in. There are plenty of walking tracks and 4WD tracks. We'll have to go back sometime. But this time we don't have the time. We're about 1300 km from Melbourne and have to be back in 5 days. So we're going to spend 2 days in the Gammon ranges and then drive back via Broken Hill, another famous outback town.
Back at the shearers' quarters we had the whole place to ourselves. It is a simple building. A verandah runs round on all four sides and there are rooms all along the verandah. Splitting it down the middle is a big kitchen and a common room with a TV, lounge etc. Not sure if the shearers had these facilities too. But I guess they would have been too tired at the end of a backbreaking day's work to want to watch TV. It's a hard life, a shearer's job, and people still do it today. There hasn't been a machine invented that can do the job. And there's a school in Tasmania for those who want to learn the trade.
Well, the wind is still howling around outside and we're glad to be nice and warm inside.
