We hammered down South doing days longer than appropriate with a 4-year-old in tow. We did Yulara (Uluru) to Flinders Ranges in two days. What a shock to the system. We literally needed to acclimatise from a top of 38 to a top of 14, two days later. Backs got sore, too many ice creams were eaten, and everyone got grumpy and started arguments with each other for no reason whatsoever. Such is the long-distance car driving life.
And then, as if within the blink of an eye we were in the beautiful, lush and purple flower covered rolling hills of the Flinder’s Ranges. What a site for our tired eyes that had gotten used to and even grown to love the dusty, terracotta, spinifex covered endlessly flat outback. They’d had a torrential downpour just a week earlier it was showing. Beautiful white and purple flowers covered the landscape. It was like being in Austria but better. In Austria you can’t go 4-wheel driving or camp alone, wherever you want, on a riverbed in a sheep station. In Europe, there is always someone else camping close by, no matter what season or day of the week it might be. Another great thing about Australia, (and being stuck here without a choice) where else would you rather be anyway?!
In SA there was no pervasive dust, no oppressive heat and no kamikaze bugs. We put on socks and shoes and I marvelled at how strange and tight my boots felt after so long in sandals. We sat and drank tea for almost a whole day. Ahh how I’d missed tea in Northern QLD and the NT. I am not one of those people who can drink tea when it’s hot. I get the more expected response from drinking a boiling hot drink, it makes me sweat and it makes me hotter. And now we were in the SA, we could go for long hikes in the crisp fresh air without worrying about heatstroke, drink tea until the cows come home and generally just get a good night’s sleep in comfortable sleeping temperatures.
Having never been to the Flinder’s Ranges before, I marvelled at their beauty and just how under-rated they really are. Although we live in the state next door, I have virtually never heard someone say they are going to the Flinder’s Ranges for their holiday or camping trip. And that suits me just fine, more space for the lucky ones who make it here. Not that more space is needed. This place has just about the best bush camping I’ve ever come across. That’s right, we discovered South Australian Station Stays. Camp at the base of a mountain, in a riverbed, on the edge of a riverbed, in a cypris forest. CAMP WHEREVER YOU WANT! Being able to drive as far as you want around curly, barely there 4WD tracks, damns, mountain ridges and through creek beds – and having the possibility of camping at any spot that tickles your fancy, these Station Stays delivered the feeling of freedom I am forever chasing when free camping. If you generally love camping because you enjoy getting away from other people and being alone in nature, then this is the place for you.
And if you go travelling to drive from one gourmet restaurant or pub to another, then this is also the place for you. We had emu, camel, saltbush and gourmet s’mores for dessert all in the one pub, the super quant but surprisingly upmarket Prairie Hotel in Parachilna. You can also dine on modern Australian cuisine at The Woolshed Restaurant at Rawnsley Park Station (just make sure you book well in advance!).
Oh, and if you love hiking – The Flinder’s Ranges is also the place for you, with each different Station Stay having their own professionally marked out walks with detailed printed maps. This is not a national park folks, it’s someone’s private property, and they are letting you in to enjoy the 300,000 acres full of flower covered rolling hills they own complete with aboriginal rock art, wandering wild animals and (oh yes!) gourmet restaurant. Oh, and did I mention, you can usually just CAMP WHEREVER YOU WANT!! We did the Wilpena Lookout walk plus the Rawnsley Bluff walk – challenging even for the fittest, we found it truly invigorating with absolutely stunning views over Wilpenna Pound and over the mountain range in all directions.
Another Station Stay, Willow Springs Station went one further by actually allocating each camping spot booking a completely private spot down its own long and windy 4WD track. We ended up by a dry riverbed between two steep, grass covered hills. With our own fire pit supplied and even our own little private out-house this was the ultimate camping experience. It was freezing, we drank more cups of tea, toasted marshmallows, sat in front of the fire and ran up one of the hills and watched the sun set. All this with the feeling you were completely alone with no signs of humans or habitation as far as the eye could see. This is why we go camping. To feel alone. And to feel closer to the loved ones we are with. To hear the quiet. To concentrate on nothing more than the cup of tea warming our hands.
This is the last night of our trip and what a pleasant surprise to have something so beautiful turn up so close to home where it’s always so accessible (even during the dreaded campground-full school holidays!). What a relief to come back to the colder weather not with negativity but seeing it in a new light – with all the possibilities it brings with it. The ease of doing a long hike, the beauty of enjoying a cup of tea, the feeling of cosiness you get from being in a small, warm space when it’s cold outside.
I am so thankful for being able to see the extremes that Australia has to offer on this trip – the dusty, unbearably hot outback with its red earth and magnificent water holes and hot springs. The perfect weather, Australian surf beaches and sugar cane fields of NSW and South Queensland and the other-worldly Daintree and endless summer of Northern Queensland. Most of all I am thankful that I’ve been able to return home being able to see the beauty that we have on our own doorstep right here in Victoria and South Australia, and to realise how lucky we are too – although it’s not always beach weather, the surf is always pumping, and swimming if you are brave enough is possible all year round. The weather’s almost always great for hiking and you can always get a good coffee or sourdough bread.
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.
George A. Moore.
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time.
T. S. Eliot.
Article by Tania from Achtung Camper. Read all the Around Australia We Go columns here.