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March - July 2001

Australia

Brett Voegele
2005-11-14 17:31:04

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I was hoping to see camels, but never did see any in the wild. The 'towns' along the Nullarbor are typically just a gas station/caravan park/backpacker hotel/cafe/store. For instance - Balladonia...population 10. There were a few significant towns along the way, as we stayed in Eucla and Ceduna, but for two days our main focus was to simply get across the Nullarbor.

Port Augusta Area

We next visited Port Augusta, and it ended up becoming our 'base' in the area as we returned several times from various side trips. One of the side trips was a hike in the Remarkable National Park, which was basically a warmup for a subsequent hike. We next spent a few nights in Wilpena Pound in Flinders National Park. There were several hikes in the region, but we decided to tackle the highest point - St. Mary's Peak. The hike was great, with some scrambling near the summit to a nice view. The hike took about 7 1/2 hours. While hiking I was intrigued by the large spider webs spanning the trails. Some webs were 15-20' across - presumably for capturing low-flying aircraft or kangaroos! I could only picture the Far Side cartoon where the spiders are spinning a web across a child's slide, with the caption, "If we pull this off, we'll eat like kings".

Unfortunately, the day of the hike preceded the evening where we encountered a kangaroo with suicidal tendencies. We were driving back to another little town when he decided he wanted to become our hood ornament.....we obliged. There was minimal damage to the car - a broken headlight, leak in the air conditioner, and structural damage to the bumper and front end which had to be bent back into shape before a new headlight would fit. The 'roo wasn't quite as lucky. Seems several people followed our lead that night, as there were more carcasses on the road when we returned to camp.

While in the Flinders ...