Cycling in the Flinders Ranges

We started our trip to the Flinders Ranges by visiting Adelaide where we caught up with the extending Pyman family. The latest addition is Isla - my niece Rikki's lovely new daughter

Have you seen such a smile before

Clucky Jill

After a couple of days in Adelaide where Carol treated us to a couple of wonderful dinners we took off to Clare in the mid north of SA.




The attraction here was the Riesling Trail, a cycling path made on a disused railway line. It is a touch over 20km long and passes many wineries for which the Clare valley is famous - http://www.southaustraliantrails.com/pdf/riesling.pdf

We got to the caravan park at lunchtime on Tuesday 4th Aug which was a nice fine day. After a feed went for a cycle along the trail past Clare - about 14km return.

Unfortunately next day saw the rain come and although I managed a short 8km ride late in the afternoon it was a cold disappointing day The trail seems to be an easy interesting ride so it was a pity we didn't see it in all its viticultural glory.


So on Thursday we set off for Blinman about 4 hours drive north right into the middle of the Flinders Ranges.

Blinman

Fourth hole at Blinman Golf Course

Jill at the lookout

Blinman is the northern end of the Mawson Trail, a mountain bike trail starting from Adelaide, about 450km south

The Mawson Trail

Our plan is to cycle some of the stages in the Flinders. This last bit is on the road so not that interesting so instead of riding we had a drive and a walk in nearby Parachilna Gorge.

See the wallaby in the foreground

After a day here we decamped for Wilpena Pound, one of the iconic attractions in the area

Wilpena Pound is a  natural amphitheatre as you can see and it is the centre of the Flinders Ranges National Park.

The Mawson trail runs along side the east side of the pound and we took advantage of great weather to go for a 20km ride along it.

Jill on the trail

Py further up the trail

It was a great ride with surfaces varying from smooth tracks to rocky creek crossings. Kangaroos, emus, feral goats and heaps of birds were visible along the route. Great fun!

Next day was the hike to end all hikes.
The climb up St Mary's peak, the highest point in SA
The track follows one of the old original boundary fences through stands of native Cyprus pines for the first hour or so, with some stunning scenery.

Another hour’s climb to reach the highest point in the Flinders Ranges – St Mary Peak. There are 360° sensational views that can be described as breathtaking.

On the way down we took the loop route - much longer and painful over rock after rock after rock.

After about 8kms of this it finally became flat and easy walking.
After about 22km we got back to the van thoroughly stuffed!
 
Next day we moved about 20km to Rawnsley Park station to see some more of the Mawson trail.
 

As you can see the terrain varied with the scene generally more open with fabulous scenery.  We rode on a 15km loop and once again saw heaps of flora and fauna as well as plants and animals.

Later in the day we climbed up the Kangaroo lookout to view land to the south

Another ride which looks great is the "Flinders by Bike" - 200km through sheep stations and the ranges.

The map below shows where it goes - takes about 3 or 4 days staying at 2 station homesteads, Wilpena chalet and Rawnsley Park cabins.

Final Leg Home

The drive out from Kalbarri was very pretty with wattle in bloom on roadside verges mixed up with heaps of wildflowers.

Kept on going to just south of Geraldton to Dongera - Port Denison where we stopped on the foreshore for a few last hours of sun and some lunch.

It was a really picturesque spot and I spent a bit of time checking out the boat ramp activity.

Later on we drove on to a free camp. Once in bed Jill got a bit wary of the location - and so we moved on to another spot 16km up the road at New Norcia, Australia’s only monastic town.

A Benedictine monk community was established in 1846 and continues today. It has beautiful Spanish architecture with awe-inspiring cathedrals .

Next day continued the long haul home. The sky had closed in and for the first time in 10 weeks saw grey clouds and rain.

Got to Kalgoorlie, having planned to stay for a day to look around but the weather was ordinary so kept going leaving Kal for next time. Camped at Kambalda before continuing on to Norseman, then the "90 Mile Straight" - the longest bit of straight road in the country.

Still raining!

Free camped just before the WA -SA border and then on Wednesday drove through the southern tip of the Nullarbor - still cloudy and raining

and kept going to Streaky Bay.
On Thursday we got to Moonta in SA where we had some drinks and food with Trish Jackson, Gibbo (Trevor Gibbons) and his wife Cheryl - friends from my Whyalla days in the late 60's and early 70's.. a great night remininscing. Gibbo is the main man associated with the Moonta Historical Railway and has been featured on several TV travel shows.

On Friday it was still raining so also left Moonta (a great looking little place) for next time and headed for Adelaide and spent Friday night at a pub with Mum, Dad, Ian, Carol and Alanna.

On Saturday Jill and I caught up with another old mate Rex Munro and his wife Maureen at their lovely place in Willunga. A great meal at the "bottom pub", a walk around town and heaps of old (tall) tales completed the afternoon before we went back to Ian and Carols for tea. Ate too much.

Left Adelaide on Sunday morning and drove to Ballarat for our last night of our trip - will drive home tomorrow morning

The end of the most fabulous holiday!

Kalbarri

Stayed on Friday night at a free camp on the Murchison River.(I tell you some of these free camps (maintained by the WA Roads Dept) are better located than many caravan parks)

before heading into the Kalbarri National Park early on Saturday morning.

The wildflowers here are just fabulous

Below is Eagles Point, on the Murchison River (can you make out the Eagles Head rock formation)

and another view of the Murchison flowing through the National Park

and the view from the road driving into Kalbarri - just beautiful

Kalbarri is a pleasant tourist / fishing town on the Murchison mouth and with the weather much improved is a place to stay for a couple of days

After watching the Grand Final (didn't envy the 14deg temp) went for an 8 km bike ride south towards Red Bluff (pic below).

This will be our last coastal stop before heading home so will make the most of it before leaving on Sunday afternoon.

On the way out stopped at the Red Bluff lookout for some final pics.. Not bad I am sure you will agree

Shark Bay

Left Carnarvon early on Thursday morning for Shark Bay - main places being Denham (where we booked into the caravan park) and Monkey Mia. Shark Bay was placed on the World Heritage List in 1991.

On the way we called into the Hamelin Pool area, an area of hyper saline sea where stromatolites (colonies of micro-organisms that resemble the oldest and simplest forms of life found on earth about 3.5 billion years ago) are found.

These colonies are relatively new being "only" 3000 years old.

Hamelin Pool is one of only two places on earth where living marine stromatolites exist (don't know where the other place is).

Walking to the coast to view these organisms some feral goats (of which we saw heaps driving from Carnarvon) were browsing the country. They are a huge problem here and the authorities have several projects going trying to control their - and feral cat - numbers)

Having checked into the Denham park we drove out to Little Lagoon - reputedly a good fishing spot being a whiting habitat. It was pretty breezy and so I got into a position to cast with the wind. Had to walk out to almost waist deep to get the line into serious water.
Half an hour later, with things starting to freeze off and not one bite, I conceded defeat and drove back into Denham to warm up. The wind really picked up and during the night reached gale force proportions.
Up at sparrows to get to Monkey Mia at 7:45 next morning - it was pretty cool and the wind was still blowing. Pity really cos Denham would be a pretty good place in decent weather.

Anyway got out and had the famous dolphin experience. Pretty interesting with about 10 presenting themselves.

Inside the car on the drive back it was nice and warm.

Looks like a flying saucer landing pad below - must be dried up lake

It was still coldish and windy and after a drive to the Francis Peron National Park we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and set off south looking for an escape from the gales.

Stopped for a break and something to eat at Shell Beach. Millions of tiny shells (10 feet deep) making up the surface.

Then drove about 300km south to some better weather just north of Kalbarri.

Carnarvon

Left Coral Bay about 8am on Tuesday 22nd and drove into a headwind all the way to Carnarvon - would have been the worst fuel consumption for the whole trip if I had been game to measure it.

Because we've done about 11,000 km so far I had booked the Prado in for a service at the local Toyota dealaer - 80,000k service and got it there at 11am.

We went for a quick bike ride around town, had lunch and soaked up some sun until the Toyota dealer rang saying the car was ready. Needed that to go and get some more beer, wine, cider and food.

Next day rode out to the mile long jetty

It hard to believe that a train could run on those tracks - but here it is

Then had a look at the small boat harbour (small boats not a small harbour, although the harbour is pretty small too)

and the "Fascine" - which is the bay formed by the Gascoyne River and sea.

We drove out to Quobba Point where there is a blowhole (waves forced up through holds in the cliffs)

There is a sign there saying "Killer waves Kill", a plaque with names of people who drowned while fishing and a couple of life buoys. Fishing from these ledges would be ok don't you think?

Anyway I chickened out and went fishing a bit further south down on a safe beach. Got a couple of small salmon (both marginally bigger than a large goldfish).