Flinders Ranges Wrap-up

I bet you weren't expecting to hear from me this soon after the last post took three months to generate - two issues in three days and it's not over yet!

Our 10 day trip was great!  The better than usual rainfall in the months before we arrived had made things unusually green and lush for this part of the world.  The wild flowers were blooming, the magpies, cockatoos and parrots were noisily going about their spring business in and around our camp site and there was no shortage of kangaroos and emus to be seen.  We even came across a few herds of feral goats whenever we ventured further north.  On the sunnier days the reptiles were out too.  I even did my Steve Irwin thing and grabbed a couple of these critters to show Heather - right up close and personal!  The evenings were cool enough to warrant making a fire to sit around for a couple of hours before heading to bed but the nights didn't get overly cold.  To get to some of the sights we did plenty of dirt road driving which highlighted just how much dust can get into everything without actually revealing where it got in from!

To keep this short I have included some photos that I hope you find at least a little interesting.

Scenery

Typical scene in the Flinders Ranges

Wilpena Pound is the centrepiece of Flinders Ranges tourism

We did a few hikes while we were there.  The most strenuous one was to the top of Rawnsley Bluff.  This 5km trail was well sign-posted but quite a steep climb.  The view from the top was worthwhile and all the more interesting given the fact that we are able to say we looked down upon a helicopter that was taking some folks for a tour!

We climbed to the top of Rawnsley Bluff

Grant sitting atop Rawnsley Bluff

While out and about seeing the sights we came across an ochre wall.  Ochre is a naturally occurring soft rock that can be found in a number of different colours and is prized by aboriginals as the raw material with which they make ceremonial face and body paints. Simply grind it up and add a little water and animal fat to make into a paste.  This wall was a beauty as it contained several colours in the one location. 

This Ochre Wall is over 50m long and about 3m high - the mother lode!

Purple, white, gold, yellow and brown veins of ochre are easily accessible in the wall

Flora

Early September (spring time in Australia) was the perfect time to see an abundance of wild flowers blooming.

Floral Emblem of our home state of South Australia - Sturt's Desert Pea

Sturt's Desert Pea up close - blood red and glossy black

The green and gold of Australia's national floral emblem - Golden Wattle

Fauna

We saw plenty of kangaroos, emus and rabbits especially as the sun was going down - not a good time to be driving.  I have posted plenty of photos of kangaroos and emus before so will not bore you with them again.  Instead, some scaly cold blooded locals for your viewing pleasure.  Warning: Steve Irwin moments ahead!

Up close with this Bearded Dragon

These guys are no danger to people - bugs and beetles are their main diet 

CRIKEY! Lets just give this little fella a belly a rub before we let him get on his way!

These are Shingleback Lizards - more commonly known as Sleepy Lizards

Well that's about it for the Flinders Ranges - it is a great place to visit.

I have decided to clear my backlog of WTF? - Where are The Farrows? blogs via two or three short posts before I head back to work next week.  In the New Year I will get back to something closer to real time posting of blogs of our new adventures - at least that is my New Year's resolution.  Let's hope I can stick to it!

Aboriginal Cave Paintings and Rock Engravings

I started this blog in September just after we got back from our trip to the Flinders Ranges but life got in the way, as it tends to do, and it is only during the Christmas break that I have found the time to finish it off.  So, my apologies for being tardy with the blog and best wishes to you all for the Christmas and New Year period!

Across the duration of our visit to the Flinders Ranges we took the time to stop at four locations where aboriginal rock paintings and/or rock engravings were accessible to the public.

Without a Rosetta Stone of sorts it would be pretty much impossible to decipher the meaning of the images and patterns seen on the rock walls found in the region.  Fortunately, information boards have been located fairly adjacent to each site to help the viewer to understand what they are looking at.  Unfortunately for you, the blog reader, you are likely to be unable to read the descriptions of the symbols on the photo of the information board - you are just going to have to trust me on this when I tell you what appears to have been going on at one of the ceremonies described by the engravings on the walls at Mt. Chambers Gorge!

Information boards assist viewers in their interpretation of the symbols seen engraved into the rock walls

The easiest to get to were the rock engravings found in 'Sacred Canyon' near Wilpena Pound.  These are just a couple of hundred metres easy walk up a normally dry creek bed from a parking lot at the end of a 12km access road.  In the photos below you can see the smooth polished rocks in the creek bed and given how infrequent the rain is in these parts it must really whoosh through the canyon when it does flow!

Heather making her way into Sacred Canyon

Deep within the walls of Sacred Canyon!

Next as far as degree of difficulty of access is concerned were the rock paintings at Arkaroo Rock.  A 1.5 km hike along a well marked trail climbs about 100m up from the trailhead to the rock paintings located under the overhang of a rock face.  A 1.5km descent trail delivers you back to your starting point.

Nice scenery along the way to the Arkaroo Rock paintings

Three examples of rock painting are located at Yourambulla Peak situated 12km north of Hawker or 50km south of our campsite.  Easy highway access but when we got there we found very little by way of trail markings.  Add to this the fact that it was pouring with rain made this art gallery quite difficult to get to.  Once we got there, although soaked to the skin, we felt it had been worth the trouble to find them.

If you click on the picture it will enlarge and hopefully you can read the sign!

Most difficult to get to, primarily due to their remoteness from our base camp, were the rock engravings found at Chambers Gorge.  These were by far the most expansive and impressive to look at.  I think the combination of the sheer number of engravings, the smooth red rock of the gorge walls that were used as the 'canvas' for ancient story telling and the stillness of the dry creek bed on the day we were there made this location our favourite.

Just one of the rock walls at Chambers Gorge used to record important events of times long ago

This place had all sorts of engravings that described communal meetings, locations of food and water sources, initiation ceremonies, match-making and good old fashioned gossip!

There were documented stories (literally carved in stone) of old men hoping to be paired up with young women, old women helping make the young ladies pretty before their big night out (by making them walk through the smoke from plum grass fires!) and telling the young girls what to expect, and of young men lurking in the shadows of these proceedings given 'ceremonial' beatings by the older men - one friend of ours has commented that this is remarkably similar to some of the parties he used to go to as a younger man!  In addition to the stories of these 'parties to end all parties', was general information exchange about where to go to get good bush tucker (food) and where to find permanent water in the district.

We found it very interesting to see the rock art and engraving examples up close - the photos don't really do these places justice but we thought them worthwhile to share.

If you are interested, the link below will take you to a 6 minute video on YouTube made by Heather about some of the rock art and engravings we saw.  The video contains more details and better pictures than I was able to provide here.  It also tells you about a steep hike we took to get to the top of Rawnsley Bluff at Wilpena Pound.

https://youtu.be/qJawMIh3qKs

That's all for this installment of WTF? - Where are The Farrows?  Hope you liked it.