The one good thing about early morning bird hunting

It’s my birthday! And as always, my only plan was “to be away”. So poor Flo had to come up with a plan.

A very loud bird woke us at dawn but we decided to go back to sleep and then slept in a bit. Flo insists that I tell the whole story: He got up, climbed on the stone table and shook the tree to get rid of the damn bird.

Again, there was no cloud to be seen in the sky. Flo managed to get a nice picture of a lizard sunbathing. So we packed our things and drove on only a couple of kilometres to Arkaroo Rock where a nice walk through shrubs and red sand led us to rock paintings by the local tribe. During the hike we found an almost unreal looking little place with a tiny waterfall. So cute!

The significance of the place made sense

The paintings themselves had to be secured behind bars because obviously people are d****. There was one rock a bit closer to the track where e.v.e.r.y.o.n.e. had left their “I was here” mark.

The view on the Flinders Range during most of the hike was gorgeous and we took way too many photos. We even saw a whole flock of emus at the roadside.

Our next camp is only 52 km away from Hawker. Entering the Flinders Range National Park, we saw many, many more emus on the road leading to Wilpena. Wilpena is a bit of a touristy spot as it is the only “official” caravan park/campsite in the National Park. Flo couldn’t help but detest it a lot at first when we set up camp. They even have a restaurant and bar here. We got some fresh veges for a nice tomato salad for lunch and I got a birthday ice cream. 🙂

A look back down the access to Wilpena

After lunch we set out for another hike, this time to the Wangara Lookout. The suggested time was 3 hours and you could shorten the journey with a bus ride. The first two kilometers were basically on a dirt road as the bus goes along there but it was still nice with gum trees left and right and some grassy areas in between.

After 2km, the track started to ascend slightly towards Hill Homestead after which the track became a constant climb up to the lookout along Ikara (Wilpena Pound). Up there, you have a view along the rugged hills or mountains that frame the valley. It’s beautiful up there especially if you are the only people because you didn’t take the bus and didn’t end up here with all the other tourists.  🙂

Can you spot the bright green bird?

The sun was quite low when we headed back. Dusk is a really good time to see wildlife and truly, we saw a couple of kangaroos on our way back. One pair was seemingly avoiding us, hopping along our side for a while then suddenly turned onto the road and cross it right behind us for some greener grass on the other side.

In the evening, Flo went on to cook delicious dinner and we shared the bottle of Princess Moscato with it. I also still had some of my Haigh’s chocolates.