DAYS 45 - 48 (31/5 - 3/6): Arkaroola (Adnyamathanha country)

 DAY 45 (31/5): Yes, we actually did have a day of rest.  I caught up on my blog, I read (currently reading 'Daddy Cool' by Darleen Bungey, Geraldine Brooks' sister), I dozed and generally pottered around. I tried to sort some of my million and one photos but I don't think they are catalogued much better than when I started.

While I was stuffing around, Pete was gainfully employed washing and ironing the bed linen.

We had an altercation this morning with one of the local birds that has obviously been fed. So precocious!  It was up on our kitchen bench and when I turned had taken cheese off a biscuit that was about 30 cm from where my hand was. Grrr.

Arkaroola is relatively quiet, which is good for us for a number of reasons. One, there are fewer people about and two, we are able to buy some pantry items from their kitchen which is apparently overstocked.  Just as well.  I'd forgotten to buy eggs and oats for our daily morning porridge!  We had run out this morning.  Also managed to fill a gas bottle so worry about gas is gone.

Our only real outing during the day was to go and visit the mineral museum they have here.  It has a great collection of rocks and minerals and good explanations, but looks somewhat uncared for.  Most of the exhibition cabinets were very dusty (I guess dusting here is a very unforgiving task) and the space is not inviting. Pity - too much good information here to go to waste.

We did decide later that we needed a little exercise, so we climbed the stiff climb up the hill next to our camp.  It is only a short climb, but it was steep enough to make me huff and puff all the same.  Good view from up there.  Our little private campsite is at the intersection of the two tracks - both of which seem hardly used. Unfortunately, Griselda Hill, the hill directly in front of the village here was not lit up by the dusk light since clouds were covering the sun until well after we had descended. 

We had thought that sunset would be a fizzer but we were wrong - right at the end the red glory of the sun's last moments in today's sky appeared.

Arkaroola Sanctuary is a dark sky reserve (although there is plenty of light around the village most of it orange) and they have a couple of observatories here for night sky viewing.  Unfortunately, the sky was cloudy last night and tonight and so I don't think much observation has been done.  Nevertheless, I only put on a soft blue light for my moths tonight.  Even so, I found quite a number of the little creatures.

DAY 46 (1/6): Out and about again today. Our plan was to go for a good walk. This we did by driving to the start of the Bararranna Loop Trail, which traverses a number of interesting geological sites, the Bararranna Gorge, and a number of other waterholes.  Such an interesting walk. By the time we'd finished going up a few side paths, we'd walked about 9 km.

There is going to be rock spam here. The variety on this walk was fantastic. There was an ochre pit; 

relatively 'new' shale, the shapes of which were incredible;

there was glacial rock, tillite,with 'erratics' (small, or large stones picked up in the glacial flow then deposited) in it; 

there was pink quartzite tipped completely vertical but all rippled, showing that it was once the bed of a shallow sea;

there were conglomerates;

there was volcanic rock.

There were quite a lot of birds, including huge numbers - thousands - of zebra finches, during the walk and I hoped to see yellow-footed rock wallabies as well, but I had no luck there. Instead, I made attempts to capture what birds I could and in the process I think I won the world record for the number of crappy bird photos (did you know there is a Facebook page dedicated to crappy bird photos?!!).  Fortunately, a couple came out. I even saw a butterfly.

 Small brown bird       

 Common Bronzewing

Zebra Finches              

        

 Singing Honeyeater    

           Australian Lesser Wanderer

Near the one waterhole with water in it, there were also a few flowers - very few and far between at Arkaroola at the moment. The most prevalent were weeds - I guess there was a time when Arkaroola was a pastoral station.  Most common were Mexican Poppy and a variety of Devil's Trumpet.

After finishing our walk, we decided (or rather I decided) that we'd head towards Paralana Hot Springs, another 23 km down the track. Just a little way down the track (where we had just been walking), the road climbs up and then provides a stunning view into an area known as Welcome Pound. 

The rest of the track was pretty rough again, but in just over an hour (covering about 25 km) we had arrived at the Springs after getting a glimpse of Lake Frome, which was unexpected. I did not think we would get high enough to do that.  The skyline of the hills to the west of the track is beautiful too.

Paralana Springs are unique in the world in that they are heated by shallow hot granite rocks and radioactive decay of uranium. This of course means that you cannot swim there or drink the water because there are small amounts of radioactive materials within the water.  However, that does not seem to deter either animal or vegetable here.  What an oasis!  Plants in profusion as we've seen nowhere else on our trip in the arid regions, and plentry of signs of animal life.  There are bulrushes, rushes and sedges of various types, tall eucalypts and all manner of other trees and shrubs.

Unfortunately, we did not have enough time here and Pete and I ended up having a disagreement about being there in the first place.  This did not make for a good drive home - ah well, even the best of us have not-so-good times.

Tonight's sunset was a real fizzer as banks of cloud lined the lower part of the sky. We have booked to be taken to the start of another walk tomorrow.  It is not a loop walk so Arkaroola provides a lift to the start.

DAY 47 (2/5): We both woke up on the right side of the bed this morning and were looking forward to hiking the short but steep 5.2 km Acacia Ridge trail. This is a one-way trail from outside the village but Arkaroola has a donation-cost service that drops you off at the start of the trail. We had booked this last night.  There was one other couple doing the walk.

The climb takes you steadily upwards until you reach the top of Acacia Ridge.  The views are amazing.  

Unfortunately, while we were up there the other couple decided to sit three metres away from us and have a detailed family conversation on their mobile (since we did get reception right at the top).  Grrr.  Fortunately we had a little time to ourselves before they arrived.  After finishing morning tea we headed off, only to find that the other couple had decided to do the same – while continuing their conversation!  Even more grrr!  We went off track and let them pass and made sure not to catch up with them again.

Highlights of this walk were two spots with Xanthorrhoea (grass trees) and a steep cliff with a healthy collection of Callitris (cypress-pines) growing in impossible places.  On the ridge itself, you could see occasional very healthy plants next to completely dead ones and it was impossible to see what was different about the location.  Seems so random but maybe the trees were unhealthy for some other reason as well.

I found some sleepy Dusky Woodswallows using dead trees as roosts along the way.

After lunch, I wandered around the creek bed near our camp trying to find an interesting rock I had found before but no luck. Meanwhile, back at camp, Pete was making jelly.

Later in the afternoon we climbed to the top (or very nearly to the top) of Griselda Hill, the hill that overlooks the Arkaroola Village.  A good stiff climb and the top was a rock scramble.  

We were rewarded with wonderful views and even a few flowers.  Interestingly, except for weeds in Barraranna Gorge, all the flowers I’ve seen at Arkaroola have been on ridges.  I can’t work out why that should be.  

Descending Griselda Hill needed a little care since even on the path the shaly rocks make for slippery going at times. 

Once back at the village we went to book dinner for tomorrow night at the restaurant.  It’s funny how you can feel as though you are camping by yourself in the bush here, but still have the amenity of a restaurant!  When we booked that, we noticed an advertisement for a guided geological walk at the cost of donation to one of the causes they have tins for, and decided to put our name down for it, not quite sure whether or not it would go ahead. However, later in the evening we received a call from the guide to say that it would be on, even with just the two of us, and to let us know the details of when and where to meet.  We are looking forward to some answers to our myriad of questions relating to the geology of this place.

Pete then helped me find the rock that I had been looking for earlier before both of us searching for firewood for a campfire tonight. 

Around the village is one of the few spots on this trip where we have been allowed to use local fallen timber for firewood. Our campfire was lovely.

We are quite tired tonight and I’m sure we’ll sleep well after our climbing today.

DAY 48 (3/6): Our geological tour started at 9am and we had to drive out towards Barraranna Gorge again. Our guide, Garry, was sooo enthusiastic about geology.  He had a white board and when words weren’t enough explanation – out came the whiteboard and he explained things on that.

It was such a good day and he didn’t mind my million questions. We learned: about tillite rocks that originated something like 800 million years ago from glacial melting; 

how to recognise feldspar with its shiny surfaces; about the limestone here that is the end product of a barrier reef created by creatures no-one has yet identified; about how to recognise stromatolites from all sorts of angles; 

about shale (which is everywhere underfoot); 

about cross-bedding and braided streams;

about copper mines in the area and their lack of success despite numerous promising signs; about Blue Mine Conglomerate; and all sorts of other things. He was quite knowledgeable about flora and fauna too, so was able to help me identify some of the plants I had been seeing around the place.

We walked about 9km all up, most of it off track.  I’m glad he knew where he was going!  

What a great day and it was a privilege to be guided by such an enthusiastic person and such a good teacher.  The best way of learning.

We returned to camp mid-afternoon, cleaned ourselves up and rested before going out to dinner. A full moon greeted us as we made our way to dinner. 

The dinner was delicious!  We both thought that this is a restaurant we would go back to again and again.  Pity it is where it is!  It is so long since I have had such a lovely meal out. To cap the night off we learned that Pete's game plan for the Mariners must have worked!!  Grand final win (fist pump)!

What a way to end our stay at Arkaroola. I love this place despite its harsh environment,  despite its isolation.