Friday, 10/19 Wilpena Pound Campground to Roadside Campground in Flinders NP

Fly Crazy

     We had our coffee and cereal and said goodbye to Anne and Daniel. We drove to Bunyeroo Gorge to take a hike, but between the misleading trail maps, heat, and most of all flies clouding around my face I said “*@#% it”, if you want to go on the hike, go ahead, I'll go wait in the car. Two surprising and helpful facts, the flies barely venture into the LC, even with the windows down, and because the humidity is so low, the 104 temperature inside the car is tolerable, more so than being out directly in the sun.

     I sulked for awhile, then ate some peanuts and cookies, then dozed off. When an hour had passed and Diana hadn't returned I started to get a little worried. It wasn't that interesting of a place so I couldn't see why she had been gone so long. She only had a small bottle of water with her. I grabbed a bottle of water and headed out the one of three trails I though she would most likely have gone on. Of course the flies were still out but I did my best to ignore them. Big hero!

     I walked quickly about 15 minutes up the trail, then headed back to start up another, already planning to ask for help if anyone else was around when I returned. As I returned to the parking lot I saw Diana heading up one of the other trails. She had returned to the LC while I was out, and was now beginning to look for me. She'd left a note at the car but we found each other before I got there. Needless to say, I had the same sort of emotions one has when their child disappears and returns, relief and anger. As we pulled out of the parking lot we agreed that we would have some kind of defined plan if we split up in the future.

     [Diana's Note: My hike was not very exciting so I decided to go as far as the gorge mentioned in the trail notes, so it wouldn't be a complete waste of time. I was rewarded by seeing a yellow footed rock wallaby! They are endangered and uncommon. You can tell them immediately because their tails are striped and kind of bushy! To make up for my extra time in the gorge I jogged for a km in the sun and 104 temp. I used most of my half liter bottle of water.]

Elusive yellow-footed rock wallaby

      We did a cursory inspection of some more homestead ruins, then drove out the Brachina Gorge drive for more rock watching. Finally an hour or so before sunset we stopped at a NP campground, which look more like a roadside pullover, and invented the 'Outback cocktail'. We don't carry beer in the cooler, too expensive, nor do we buy soda pop or any other cooling beverage. We do have ice most of the time, but water wasn't going to cut it after that hot and stressful day, and hot red wine just isn't palatable. However, dissolve a few teaspoons of sugar in water, fill your glass with ice, then add warm wine, and you have a cool, soothing drink that you can down without getting drunk. We had a couple glasses each before our dinner of leftover couscous lamb. So, the day ended on a much better note.