Day 171 Ikara Flinders Range part 2

For our second day in the Ikara Flinders Range we decided to explore the Wilpena Pound Area. From the Wilpena resort you can take a bus through the woods to the starting point of different walks. Two of the walks to mountain peaks are closed for summer, but you can walk to the Hills Homestead and from there up to the Wangara Lookouts. Just after starting our walk to Hills Homestead you need to get up a staircase, where we surprised an Emu that was on its way down the staircase. A few metres later on the walk, there was another Emu walking on the marked pathway and looked pretty surprised to see us.

Together with some nice views at the landscape and luckily none of the snakes around, about which we have been warned, it was a nice walk to the Hills Homestead. At the Homestead there is just one building left and a memorial, but it is a pleasant spot to watch some birds and enjoy the views before moving on.

From the Hills Homestead there is a relatively short, but pretty steep walk up the hill to the Wangara Lookout. The first lookout is after a few hundred meters, but the views from the top lookout is the amazing one. Given the rain the last week, everything looked green and growing, so pretty different from photos taken around that time of the year in the past.

On the walk you can see some wildlife such as Goannas, lizards and lots of butterflies but also wildflowers still with blossoms.

On the walk back to Wilpena we saw some water left from the rainfall, which is pretty unusual given that summer is about to start and walkways will be closed due to the dry, hot & dusty conditions in summer. On our drive back to Hawker we saw this time some kangaroos which out of nowhere jumped on the street. Luckily they were far away enough for us to slow down and wait till they have crossed the street together.

For the rest of the day it was laundry time after the last weeks of rain because the washing machine at the accommodation and the sunny weather allowed it to dry pretty fast, so that Stuart got finally a fresh towel again.