Southern Flinders

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I have inadvertently passed through many narrow gorges that were part of Mount Remarkable National Park on the road to get to Mambray Creek

Because I didn’t stop, I realise I am a bit over gorges.

Where I will camp for a few nights is near a small one, beside the partly dry Mambray Creek.

There are only a few walks short enough for me. They are mostly through native pine forests, with plenty of the amazing Wira or River Red Gums, in all stages of survival. No wonder the Nukuna people revere them so much.

This one was forming a useful bridge as an alternative to the rocks in the creek crossing.

So many of these magnificent trees had been almost split in two or burnt out, and yet they still supported a living section of tree, and all the myriads of lives that this entailed.

Much in demand by everyone, but only over-cut and over-used by settlers, the mighty gums were not appreciated and protected in the past, as they are now.

The Mount Remarkable Range is the southern Flinders Range, of 800 million year-old sandstone.

You can even see the fossilised ripples of beach sand from its time as an ocean bed.

This is the last and most gentle part of my Flinders odyssey.

Like all of the Flinders it is very rocky, and the patterns and colours of the rocks and their lichens could absorb me forever.

Along the track I passed two kangaroos, quite dark Western Greys, too involved in courtship to bother about me. From my time at the Mountain with Eastern Greys, I recognised the ritual…

On another walk, I had good views back over the range, and was delighted to see that one of the millions of bush flies here had strayed into frame at just the right time.

At the campground, almost everyone, including children, wears a black net fly hood under their hat, so groups of unidentifiable people wander about looking like aliens.

I am wearing one now, even in my van, but hatless. It makes walking awkward, as you proceed with dozens of small black flies bobbing about within an inch of your face.

From that same hill, looking west I could see the blue of Spencer Gulf across the plain.

The end of the Flinders…

6 thoughts on “Southern Flinders”

  1. I didn’t go any further south towards Adelaide, Sue. Just wanted to hang onto my dry land impressions.
    And Ariel, glad you enjoyed the blogs. They help me organise my thoughts as wel las the photos.

  2. We have camped at Mambray Creek, during my family September school holidays. There was a very windy steep hill to go down , I remember, and on this occasion my father stopped to check with a local farmer to see if it was ok for our caravan to go down there. It was. a good place to break before getting further north. Ican identify with your feeling a bit”over” gorges. You’ll enjoy the very different scenery as you approach Adelaide…from whatever direction.

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