Day 170 Ikara Flinders Range part 1

Sunny morning with about 14C and a forecast of about 28C sounds like a perfect day for exploring the Ikara Flinders Range, especially as the temperatures supposed to be around 10-15C higher under normal weather conditions. Our first walk was the Arkaroo Rock Walk to view some Aboriginal Art in a protected cave. The walk was not too difficult or long, but you need walking shoes due too all the rocks on the way. During the walk there are amazing views of the Flinders Range, wildlife and plants around. Stuart was very happy with all the views but was in desperate need for some lunch before we were driving on to the Arkaroo Lookout, which is just a small detour from the main street.

On our drive to the Youngoona area we saw an Emu with quite a few chicken around just next to the street, so we had to stop to say hello. The Youngoona Waterhole was pretty empty and the ruins were just the leftovers of one house.

We drove on to the Brachina Gorge scenic drive, which can only be done with a 4WD, but the drive through the gorge is just amazing, offering great views on different rock formations. The gorge is mainly known for the Brachina Gorge Geological Trail, meaning rocks at the east side of the Gorge are about 150 million years older than on the west side of the Gorge. There are different sides marked with some information about the geological background, but Stuart rather enjoyed the amazing views in the gorge and we did not see on the rock formations the different ages...

A detour from the scenic drive leads to the Aroona Ruins and Lookout. On the drive to the ruins we saw for the first time a kangaroo hiding underneath a tree in the shadow before jumping away. At the Aroona Ruins there were many, many, many flies and just the ruins to see, while from the lookout you could see in a distance more kangaroos.

Back in the Brachina Gorge there were more impressive rock formations but also kangaroos visible. Stuart enjoyed the views as well as looking out for kangaroos on the drive. Near the west end of the Brachina Gorge we discovered some kangaroos in the grass, but as soon as they saw us they jumped up the rocks and Stuart realized that we have found the very rare yellow footed rock wallabies. On other walks in other parts of Australia we were always looking for these wallabies but never discovered one, so Stuart was very happy about this sighting.

On the last part of the drive through the gorge we came past the Teamster Grave and saw one emu walking around. Given the amazing weather with blue sky and no dust in the air we were able to enjoy the amazing views on the pretty greenish Flinders Range on the drive back to our accommodation. Well, it could have ended as a nice day with amazing views & rock wallaby sighting, but did end with a spider hunt - a big Australian spider was waiting for us in the accommodation. Reminder to ourselves: bug spray does not work with spiders...