16.3.2023 from Marree to Flinders Ranges NP

16.3.2023 from Marree to Flinders Ranges NP

Once again, at 7.30 am we are the last ones to leave the site, except for the overnighting technicians and a motorcyclist in the small cabins arranged around the hotel pool.

From Marree, the road is paved, not for long yet. In the 2009 guidebook, I read about an unsealed track up to Leigh Creeck. The railway line of the old railway accompanies us and the next interesting place is the young and already dying mining town of Leigh Creek dating back to the 1980s. Brown coal was mined here until 2014 for the power plants in Port Augusta. An attractive settlement has emerged, with a school, library, supermarket, pool, tennis court, and much more, when things were going uphill. Now the tennis court is neglected and people go where there is work. That's what the librarian tells us when we visit her to access the World Wide Web. We want to see for ourselves where it is raining, where the roads are bad, and how we can proceed.

Unfortunately, the internet is weak. We inform ourselves at the library PC about the weather, it doesn't look so bad, about the road we can take, and we write a very short email to Anna, telling her that we are doing well.

We book a campsite in the Flinders Range NP. We noticed the park on the tour north, but at that time we decided on Cooper Pedy. Now we get to see the famous gorges after all. In the park, there are 2 big gorges that can be driven in the dry season. Unthinkable in Germany. When the water has drained away, the staff of the national park authority push through a new path through the canyons. There are campsites on both sides, basic facilities, but with a toilet. We drive through both the Brachina and the Bunyeroo Gorge. It is explained over and over again which layers of rock were deposited here when. From Razorback Lookout, we have a great view of the mountains. Our campsite today is by the road, we are alone here, we don't expect anyone else anymore, and we are happy to have returned to our national park visit program. Unfortunately, there is none on tomorrow's route.