Day Thirteen – Thursday 2nd May – Wilpena to Angorichina Tourist Park On the road again

After our usual visits by two kangaroos and a few birds all looking for breakfast, we packed up and headed north again. We’re booked into Angorichna Tourist Park as it is the start of the Blinman Pools walk. We completely lost connectivity so there was a bit of confusion about where we were meeting. Fortunately, Jude / Graeme /Jude/ Liz’s car and van stopped at Blinman. I say fortunately, as they purchased a loaf of freshly baked dark rye bread from a café that could have been in downtown Melbourne. Slightly out of place in an isolated town full of rustic stone buildings and one pub. Ewan and I thought they were ahead of us so when we didn’t see them in Blinman, we headed up the 15kms of rough and undulating dirt track to reach the Angorichna Tourist Park. No connectivity but a Telstra pay phone that worked beautifully! It’s very isolated and self-contained: camping facilities on top of a hill and a tiny, but well-stocked, store. It has half an aisle dedicated to wine which seems remarkable in the middle of nowhere! But our group was most appreciative. They even stock Flinders Gin which I have been considering buying as we’ve seen it advertised in a couple of places. It comes in three flavours, so I must decide! Tricky.

After the others arrived, we set up camp and prepared for the Blinman Pools Walk. Suddenly Liz tripped over, skinned her knee badly and twisted her ankle! After doing lots of rough walking, mountain climbing and negotiating all sorts of rough surfaces she had survived beautifully over the previous days. I’m sure when we least expect it and aren’t paying attention, we fall over the smallest obstacles!! After providing bandages, antiseptic, ice etc. she elected to stay behind as her ankle was swelling and she was in a lot of pain. Under strict instructions that she was to stay put and elevate her leg etc., off we went. With no connectivity we figured she could have a quiet time without any interruptions. The end of the story is that when we returned she had done her laundry, erected her tent, been to the shop three times, unpacked and swept our caravan, sorted out dinner etc……. but she did read some of her book! She’s hopeless at relaxing!

The Blinman Pools Walk was great. There are two large pools one at 5kms and one at 6 kms that are swimmable. But as soon as we started to walk along the dry creek bed there were lots of small pools of emerald green water, many surrounded by reeds and some with native watercress growing on the edge: I’d never seen it before. The pools and the first of the two large pools are fed by natural springs, so they always have water. How difficult was the walk I hear you ask?? It very much depends on A. the tread on your shoes and B. your proficiency in climbing rocks, boulders, scree and stones. I was very happy that I had purchased comfortable shoes with a good tread on them as often we were climbing over shiny slate rocks or boulders. I’m sure the others didn’t consider it too hard, but it was a challenge for me. If I fall over it could ruin my new hip so my confidence is low!! However, I persevered. It supposed to take 6 hours to the second pool (16kms return) or 5 hours to the first pool. I managed about 7 kms I think in about 4 hours and that was enough. The others went a bit further to see if they could see the first pool but gave up and caught up with me returning back to camp. The biggest issue was to identify the track. I was working on the assumption that I would follow the footprints. Good idea but they disappeared frequently in the rocks and often there was a choice. The problem is that lots of people may have had no idea -just like me- and I was busy following their footsteps!!

We saw some of the wildlife – kangaroos and feral goats – and one dead goat (the best kind around here!) Apparently, they have been culling the goats and using the meat more than the few sheep that barely survive. The creek bed was surrounded by high rock escarpments. It would be quite a sight when it rained and the river obviously rises to a high level, so the tracks we walked on would be well and truly under water. Lots of debris would be washed along the river and many of the trees had branches and debris wrapped around their trunks. It was a lovely warm day: temperature mid-20s. Perfect walking temperature. Once the sun goes down it starts to get cold, so we were glad to get back to camp and eventually, as the temperature dropped, warm up with a fabulous lamb tagine (thanks Liz!) and put on our winter woollies. We’d been chatting to a couple earlier in the day: Cindy and Bazza from Gawler. They appeared after dinner with a bottle of red wine (which they don’t drink!) and we had a lovely time learning about SA and lots of their experiences. We seemed to have a few empty bottles of wine although the drinkers assured me that they were only half-empty to begin with. Mmmmmm. Off to bed early Your sober and fatigued correspondent Dianne