Day 61: Fri 14 Apr 23 - Flinders Ranges (Wilpena Sound to Edeowie)

April 17, 2023

Fri 14 Apr 23 - Flinders Ranges. (Wilpena Sound to Edeowie) (Towed 117km)

9 Deg feeling like 7 Deg this morning reaching 26 Deg at Edeowie. We even turned the heater on for a little while this morning. We only had a short distance of 97km to drive today, through Hawker and up the Outback Highway on the other side of the Flinders Ranges to Edeowie Station, a working pastoral property 56km north of Hawker. We packed and left at 0830, driving south with the morning sun shining on the mountains as we drove away, the different layers and colours in the mountains looked stunning. It was hard driving away when I wanted to see and do so much more, but I’m hopeful we’ll return sometime soon. First stop was Hawker at the war memorial. It’s very a modest memorial and a little different to others that I’ve seen, but interestingly it was built through collaboration with the work for the Dole program and local Veterans. We stopped at the corner store in Hawker to buy a few essentials then had morning coffee at a cafe before continuing north along the Outback Highway with almost no traffic and along excellent road. We arrived at Edeowie, checked in at the station, paid our $30 per night fee (unpowered and no water) for three nights, then drove a couple of kms further into the station to our designated site - Maloga Camp. We were set up by 1300 had lunch and a wander around, and then went for a short drive on the property via the Edeowie Township Ruins to the Edeowie Gorge Entrance. Edeowie Station allows access to three different gorges - Edeowie, Bunyaroo and Brachina Gorges. Edeowie Gorge essentially drains from Wilpena Pound to Lake Torrens via Edeowie Creek which passes through the station, and I aim to hike in either tomorrow or the next day tot he falls. You can only access the gorge by hiking from Wilpena Pound where we came from this morning, or from Edeowie Station. We got back to the van at 1600 and sat around chatting for a while, then we had dinner by the fire, until the rain arrived at 2000, then we retired inside to our vans for the night. With the steady rain, we were starting to feel a bit uneasy about the amount of rain, and that it might impact our plans, or even stop us getting out tomorrow to look around.