Outdoors In South Australia

by A. J. Reynolds

The migrant to South Australia who is keen on fell walking, climbing or potholing has plenty of opportunity to follow his sport if under very different conditions to Europe.
Firstly the problem of distance—South Australia is several times the size of England with a population of only one million, most of whom live in Adelaide.

Then to go into remote areas a four-wheel drive vehicle is useful and sometimes essential. As I write thirteen people in ordinary cars are being rescued from the north of the state after heavy rains have turned the main roads into thick mud.

Finally a major obstacle is provisions, particularly water. This is the driest state of the driest continent and rainfall in Adelaide is about 20 in. each year but in the north this may be as low as an average of 5 in. per year, with rain only falling every other year. This week’s rains in the desert are the first for over twelve months!

The official description of the state is “generally of low relief, the inland area being largely featureless plains, sand or stony deserts. Even the highest mountains are below 1,200 metres.” This makes poor reading as it does not give a true picture of the state’s countryside.

Wh3.t is there to do and see in this vast unpopulated area? Our camping trips have taken us to several of the more interesting areas, both to the south and to the north, as well as walks in the local national park areas.

Camping in the Flinders Ranges

The ranges start about 150 miles north of Adelaide and stretch in a north-easterly direction for about 500 miles, finishing in the Simpson Desert. We have camped twice at Wilpena Pound, a natural amphitheatre with a twelve-mile diameter surrounded by hills from 2,000 to 3,600 ft. high. St. Mary’s Peak (3,600 ft.) has been climbed twice, once in the cold drizzle of a Lakes autumn and once in Australian heat. Leaving the camping ground, past the warnings not to leave the paths, to take plenty of food and water, not to set off after 10 a.m. and the list of what can happen if these warnings are ignored, the first two or three miles are along a sandy track through the gum trees until the path turns left and sharply upwards. This is a slog of 1,200 ft. to the col where the track divides; left to lower hills, right to the summit and straight on down into the Pound and along the floor back to the camp site. Our first visit in the rain forced us to go to the summit along a ridge where the route varied from parts like Striding Edge to walking through tunnels of small trees and shrubs.

At only one spot is there any danger, where a long downwards and outwards sloping ledge has to be followed. Fine in fine weather but decidedly stretching the nerves when wet and greasy. A fixed line would be a great comfort. From the top the Flinders can be seen away to the north and Lake Torrens (salt pan) and other smaller salt pans are also visible. It is difficult to realise that looking north there is over 1,000 miles of flat sandy, stony countryside until the north coast is reached. To the west the same is true, except it is 1,500 miles to Perth and to the East there is possibly 500 miles of rough country to the nearest big town.

On a second visit we went to the summit and then back and through the Pound. On the top the wind kept the temperature down but in the Pound, protected by trees and shrubs, the mercury shot up and the water we carried was only just enough to last the trip. It’s easy to see how people get lost in this area, once on the floor of the Pound all landmarks vanish, hidden by the undergrowth and trees. This undergrowth can be twenty feet high and impossible to walk through. Only a few months before a middle-aged man had walked off the path and was never seen again. Reported to be carrying only a Nikkon camera, by now this is all that will be left, the foxes will have scattered his bones over a wide area.

Other walks we did in this area were mainly to look at Aboriginal art, cave paintings, rock carvings, etc. These trips usually involve tramping along dry stream beds with occasional pools of water in them; not to be compared to “becking.” These pools of water are dirty but warm. The hazards are not slipping on wet rocks, but snakes, scorpions and centipedes.

To the average Australian camping is just an extension of home life and caravans are used much more than tents. These caravans have air conditioners, fridges, T.Vs., radios, etc. etc., and only the spartan use tents. Camp sites all have flush toilets, electricity points for caravans to plug into, hot and cold showers and, in many cases, small shops open to sell food and drink. Particularly drink. During our first visit to Wilpena we were mystified on the first day to see people leaving the camp site in cars about five o’clock in the evening, returning an hour later loaded down with dead wood. This was our introduction to the Great Australian Camp Fire. Everyone seems to try to outdo his neighbour with the size of his fire. The largest would be suitable for ox-roasting. We cooked on ours so we had to limit its size. But what a sight in this wooded twenty to thirty acre camp site to see many fires burning through the trees. As the evenings wore on our fire got bigger and bigger as the temperature dropped from around 90 °F. during the day to very near freezing.

It is of interest to note that all these fires were illegal and subject to a £300 fine. Virtually the whole of South Australia has a total fire ban from November to April. During this time no fires, wood, coal, gas or electric are allowed outside. Cooking is supposed to be done inside tents or caravans only but the ruling has been relaxed on this particular camp site at Wilpena. All these precautions are to stop bush fires which burn out thousands of acres of bush each year.

Out on the hills the Australian camper is much like the British casual visitor to the hills. High-heeled shoes, mini-skirts, tennis shoes, T-shirts, seem to be the order of the day. No-one wears boots, or carries a rucksack. Insulated containers are carried in the hand, and if the beer or coke gets much above freezing point, it is only consumed under protest. So festooned with cameras and containers the Aussie heads for the summit. Long queues form when hands are needed to ascend a cliff. Bags are passed up or down, cameras likewise. Partly clad bottoms are in evidence as short-skirted girls go up the rise. Ample bosoms show on their return. Blisters develop, first on the feet and then on the face if the day is warm. All of which shows that camping in the Flinders is very similar to England.

The Mount Gambler Camp

Mount Gambier, 250 miles south of Adelaide, is renowned for its Blue Lake. The area is one of limestone with sink holes several hundred feet deep all filled with water. Scattered around the district are several extinct volcanoes, Mount Gambier being the biggest with two large lakes and Mount Schank being the next most noticeable.

The Mount Gambier lakes, although separated by only a short section of volcano wall, are completely different. Brown-bows is shallow in a basin with fairly shallow sides. The area has a park and is used for swimming, fishing and water-skiing. The Blue Lake is fairly small, contained by vertical sides and it is used for the water supply for the town. There is no connection between the two lakes. In November when the weather starts to get warm the Blue Lake turns bright blue. Reckitts blue is almost the colour, this colour stays until the end of the summer in April/May when the water turns to a more normal blue/grey.

No official reason is given for this change, micro-organisms, solubility of copper or cobalt salts are suggested, but rumour has it that the local council buy lots of blue dye during the winter and dump it in the lake when the weather gets warmer.

But, joking aside, the colour is really an intense blue quite unique throughout the world.

We made visits to the local caves about fifty miles away, Tortanoola to the north and Princess Margaret Caves to the East. Tortanoola was discovered fairly recently within a few yards of the main road. In best Yorkshire tradition, a dog was lost and when they dug it out they found a small cave but filled with formations. The most interesting section shows evidence of a large land movement, most possibly an earthquake, where a broken column stalactite has a twelve-inch crack in its mid-section.

The other caves are much more extensive with ample formations of all sorts. Strangely, colours are not so evident as in English caves.

Visits to the sinkholes were most uninteresting. The biggest called Piccaninny Ponds are only a mile or so from the sea but contain only fresh water. From the surface there is a general impression of a big pond with weeds growing around the edges. Underneath the water it is a different story. Divers have gone to 350 ft. and still haven’t bottomed yet. Side branches have been explored but not taken to their limit. Several people have drowned over the years, trying to find what the mystery is of these holes, such as where does the water come from, why doesn’t the level change. Diving is now forbidden except with Government permission. These holes and caves appear to be very isolated, although the whole area is covered in several hundred feet of limestone. I would think that only freak discoveries or a massive digging programme will expose any more of underground Mount Gambier.

Kangaroo Island Camp.

About five hours’ boat journey from Adelaide lies Kangaroo Island, forty miles by fifteen miles, and what we thought would be a good spot for a week’s camping. How right we were! Completely unspoilt, with scurvy, wild animals and bush land, this was one of the best camps we have had.

During our stay we saw dozens of very tame seals on one very long beach. Tame, that is until you got too near. To get to the beach involves a scramble down a fifty foot sandy cliff with clumps of shrubbery scattered along the whole length. Seals had managed to climb up the cliff, moderate for humans, very difficult for seals, and were lying on the sandy sections, basking in the sun. Being almost the same colour as the rock very often the first sign of a seal was a growl and a show of bare teeth.

Down on the beach the bulls had their harems of maybe a dozen cows, with a sprinkling of pups. The bulls looked very fierce, but it was still possible to get to within three or four feet before any reaction set in.

Further along this coast are the Remarkable Rocks, enormous granite boulders that have been eroded to incredible shapes by the wind. Another ten miles along, the cliffs gave way to sandy coves and a three mile walk got up to one that had obviously been a sea cave in the long past. The cliffs on both sides of the cove contained small caves with dozens of weather-worn stalactites and stalagmites.

Camping in the bush at Smoke Lagoon was all part of the fun. Fortunately we could get water from the Ranger’s house, about ten miles away. No snakes appeared but wood collecting was done with care because of the scorpions that lived in the dead wood.

At meal times kangaroos and emus appeared on the scene to collect scraps of bread, although emus are supposed to be able to digest tins and plastic bags. The wild life on the island is most varied, but includes the world’s most poisonous snake. We saw eagles, parrots of all colours, snakes, koalas, as well as the roos and emus. Although we looked, we could not find any duck-billed platypus in the rivers; no doubt it is an early morning or late night search.

Well, that’s part of our outside life in Australia. It’s a big place and we’ve only scratched at the surface of a very, very small corner. Trips being planned are to the Nullabor, to see the cliffs and caves, Alice Springs for the Olgas and Ayers Rock, Victoria for the Snowy Mountains and New South Wales for gemstone hunting. There’s a lot to do and so little time to do it in.

Finally, to anyone who plans to go bush in Australia, the following recipe is designed to keep you from starving:

Take a Galah—a white and pink parrot found all over in large numbers.
Boil a billy of water.
Place Galah with six or seven round pebbles in the boiling water.
Leave in the boiling water until the stones are soft.
Then the Galah is tender enough to eat.