SA - North
- Ken Fredric
- Feb 16
- 11 min read
Updated: 2 days ago
Day 7 - Hawker - Rawnsley Station, Flinders Ranges SA, 16 February, 2026
Today we set out to see as many of the sights as possible between Hawker and Wilpena Pound, and surrounding areas.
First up was a short drive out to the Jarvis Hill Lookout, which is part of the Jarvis Hill station, and provides some great views of the valley below. The day was already warming up, so we chose not to do the 500 metre return walk up rocky terrain to the top lookout.
Back in Hawker we went to the general store for a couple of things we'd missed the day before, then continued on out of town, heading north.
After a brief stop at the Arkaba Hill Lookout, our next destination, or experience, was the Moralana Scenic Drive. This was an unsealed road in fairly rough condition, so we had to take our time, but it would have been wrong to drive through quickly because there was so much to see.
There were beautiful River Red Gums lining the banks of all the creeks and other waterways for most of the drive, with their huge trunks and sprawling root systems visible as all the waterways were dry.
There were many other varieties of trees and bushes too, providing shelter for a large population of different breeds of Kangaroos, and also some emus in what was the Arkaba Conservancy park.
The scenic drive was 28 km long but, because the road was so rough, we decided to turn around after covering 11 km.
Back out on the main road our next stop was the Elder Range Lookout, for some impressive views of the Elder Range.
Not having had enough of spectacular views of the Flinders, we then drove to the Pugilist Hill Lookout (no I don't know why it is named that!), which provided a bit more of a challenge to get to. To get up to the lookout required driving up a very steep washed out dirt track in 4WD. The amazing view at the top made the effort worthwhile, with amazing 360° views of the ranges.
Then, driving towards Wilpena Pound, we saw a sign for an Aboriginal rock art site, so we pulled off the road and drove into the carpark. Reading the signage there, we discovered that it was a 3 km return walk up some steep hills. Considering the 30° temperature, and the flies that wanted to carry us away, we decided to give that a miss and instead had lunch in Mata in the car park.
After lunch, driving a little way past Wilpena Pound, we came to the Cazneaux Tree, which was a large River Red Gum tree photographed by a renowned Australian photographer, Harold Cazneaux, in the 1930s.
Back at Wilpena Pound we discovered that the information centre was closed, so had to console ourselves with an ice block from the shop, before driving back to our campsite for the night at Rawnsley Station.
We had a choice of campsites, some of which were closer to amenities, but we chose a bush camp that was too far away from the facilities to be able to use them.
As with the previous few days when we'd stopped for the day, the temperature was in the 30s, there was a strong wind blowing, and of course there were the ever-present flies.
Despite that we set up outside and braved the elements and flies.
Later on, after dark when the flies had gone to bed, we sat outside for a long time gazing at the stars in near perfect viewing conditions, with very little light pollution.
Day 8 - Rawnsley Station - Parachilna Gorge, 17 February, 2026
Our mission today was to explore some of the northern area of the Flinders Ranges.
Setting out from our campsite, we initially retraced our steps from the previous day to drive back past Wilpena Pound, before turning off on to Bunyeroo Gorge Road.
The unsealed road was in varying conditions, from pretty good to really bad. The initial part of the drive, before the gorge, was reasonable so we made good time for a while.
Our first stop was at the Bunyeroo Lookout, for some impressive views of the ranges and the valley between us and them.
Around a lot of winding bends we came to our second port of call, Razorback Lookout for more great views of the ranges and some interesting geology in nearby hills.
Carrying on we eventually drove into the actual gorge, which would be running with water in the wet season, so we were basically driving over river/creek beds for this part of the journey.
As was the case the day before, hundreds of magnificent River Red Gums lined all the dry waterways, with their huge trunks and sprawling root systems seemingly searching for water.
Coming out of the Bunyeroo Gorge, we then moved further along into the Brachina Gorge, which was similar to the Bunyeroo Gorge, but the actual gorge drive was a bit more challenging with the road being more deteriorated over many sections. The views of the surrounding ranges were spectacular, and the geology of the surrounding rocks was impressive.
Our original intention had been to drive into the gorge, and stop where all the interesting places were, but a couple of vehicles were ahead of us stopped at the first point of interest, so we decided to carry on into the gorge, then visit these places on the way back out.
However, we got to a point where we thought that we didn't want to drive all that way back, so we continued out to the highway, stopping at the first town we came to, Parachilna, where we stopped for lunch.
During our lunch break Meg called a scenic flight operator in Maree to see if they were doing flights over Kati Thanda (Lake Eyre), which was something we really wanted to do because there was water in the lake, and that is not always the case. Unfortunately the flights wouldn't be running until mid-March, so put a spanner in our plans to visit the area.
Another part of our plan was to visit Coober Pedy however, after recent rains, some of the roads were closed that we would take to get there from our current location. We didn't think it was sensible to drive all the way down to Port Augusta, then all the way up to Coober Pedy on other roads, so we shelved that plan also.
After lunch we carried with our exploring of the area, driving into Parachilna Gorge, where we would spend the night in a free camp. As we were leaving Parachilna a motorcyclist travelling in the other direction flagged us down. It was an older Swiss gentleman who wanted to know where the nearest fuel was located, as he only had enough for another 30 km. We checked our apps and found the nearest fuel was 67 km away, so suggested he asked around in Parachilna to see if anybody could help him.
The roads to Parachilna Gorge were a bit mixed, with the start of the drive being good, but then when we turned off to the actual gorge, the condition deteriorated slowing us down to walking pace at times.
There were a number of free camps along, so we kept going until we found on that looked promising, under the shade of a River Red Gum tree. The temperature was 38° when we parked up, and the flies were particularly bad, so we setup and stayed inside for the afternoon, suffering the heat as best we could.
Day 9 - Parachilna Gorge - Chambers Gorge, 18 February, 2026
We left Parachilna Gorge this morning headed for Arkaroola.
Driving out of the Gorge to Blinman was a bit slow until we got out of the Gorge then sped up.
On a sealed road for a while until we turned off to Arkaroola. That road was mostly good with only a few rough patches.
About 50 km along we decided to turn off to Chambers Gorge to see the Aboriginal rock art there. The unsealed road was slow going, mostly driving through dry river beds, but it was only 9 km to the gorge.
A couple of kilometers in we stopped to admire a cast sculpture of 2 Aboriginal men.
At the gorge we donned shoes and hats and walked 500 meters through another dry river bed to the art site.
There were dozens of etched and painted artworks over a compact area, some very clear and some quite faded.
Back at Mata, we had lunch then decided to stay in this remote location for the night, partly because there was nobody else there.
I spent the afternoon trying to power up the laptop, sitting outside battling the flies and reacquainting ourselves with how to fly the drone.
After dinner, when the sun had gone down and the flies had gone away, we sat outside stargazing for ages, both completely naked, making the most of being alone in a beautiful spot.
Day 10 - Chambers Gorge - Arkaroola, 19 February, 2026
Leaving camp this morning we drove the 9 km back out to the North Flinders Road, then continued north towards Arkaroola.
The first 30 km was over a badly corrugated road that had us moving along at walking pace at times, and a maximum of 40 km at other times.
Once we came to a T-intersection and turned left the road improved dramatically allowing us to travel at up to 80 km/h, but with rough floodwater dips every few hundred meters, the going was still a bit slow.
We stopped for smoko beside an old grave from the 1870s before carrying on to Arkaroola, stopping only at the ranger station for information on the way.
At the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary we checked in for two nights and filled up with diesel before setting up on a powered site.
There was only one other campsite occupied in the whole campground.
After lunch I spent some time trying to get the laptop to power up, to no avail. It looked like it was really dead this time.
We relaxed for the remainder of the day.
Day 11 - Arkaroola, 20 February, 2026
Our activity for today was the 4-hour Arkaroola Ridgetop 4-WD Tour.
We walked up to reception a bit before the appointed time of 8 a.m. and had to wait until 8:15 a.m. before our guide appeared with the 10-seat Landcruiser, which had a narrow roof above the rear seating area, but was otherwise open to the elements. We were the only ones on the tour.
Our guide was Doug Spriggs, the owner of the wilderness sanctuary, who had taken over from his father and mother, who established the sanctuary in 1968.
After loading up we set out on the tour and it wasn't long before we got a taste of what was to come over the next what turned out to be 5 hours.
A short distance into the tour we drove over a rough creek bed that had us grabbing for handholds and hanging on for dear life.
It turned out that piece of track wasn't too bad in hindsight. The whole tour was a bone rattling, tooth shaking experience that completely exhausted us by the time it was over.
This is no reflection on Doug's driving, just the state of the extremely rough, rocky, hilly, narrow track that took us through many creek beds and washouts. On some of the particularly narrow and very steep sections with dramatic sheer drops that were hundreds of meters deep, we were comforted to know that Doug had done the drive around 40,000 times.
Doug is extremely knowledgeable on many topics, and particularly knowledgeable on the history, geology, flora and fauna of the area, which was formed up to 1.5 billion years ago. He kept us well informed on everything we passed for the whole tour.
The scenery was dramatic, with steep hills and deep valleys punctuating the landscape for the whole tour. We also saw Yellow-Footed Wallabies and Euros, that are somewhere between a Kangaroo and a Wallaby.
We stopped at a couple of lookouts leading up to the halfway point of the tour, and we also took an unscheduled detour that took us past Douglas Mawson's camp that he used when prospecting for radium/uranium in the 1920s.
To get to the lookout at the halfway point required driving up a hill so impossibly steep that we thought the vehicle wouldn't make it.
At the top we had great views out to Lake Frome, a huge, mostly dry salt lake, while we had morning tea.
Then it was time to retrace our steps for the return journey that was just as bone-shaking as the outward journey.
It was after 1 p.m. by the time we arrived back at the sanctuary, where we headed straight to the bar for a nice cold drink.
It was time then to chill for the afternoon before going back to the restaurant for dinner at 6 p.m.
The afternoon was hot enough for us to resort to turning the air con on.
We wandered over to reception about 5:30 p.m. and had a drink at the bar while perusing the menu and chatting to the very gay young man behind the bar.
Our meals were very good considering where we were in the world.
After dinner we walked over to the education center to watch the nightly feeding of a few Yellow-Footed Wallabies, before heading back to Mata for the night.
Day 12 - Arkaroola - Quorn, 21 February, 2026
Our aim today was to drive to Copley, if the roads would allow us to do that, about 130 km away.
Our backup plan was to free camp somewhere along the way if necessary, but considering that our water was getting low, and the toilet cassette needed emptying this wasn't our preferred option.
We set out at 8:00 a.m. and covered the first 30 km to the Gammon Ranges Road turnoff in good time.
Apart from a small number of corrugated sections, that road was in good condition, allowing us to travel at 80 km/h for much of it up to the Outback Highway.
In Copley we didn't find the fresh water supply that was supposed to be there, so we carried on to Leigh Creek where we filled up with water and visited the dump point.
With making such good time we revised our plan to include lunch at the Parachilna pub, which we'd missed out on the previous Monday because the pub was closed on Mondays.
About 35 km from Parachilna we turned off the highway to visit the old mining town of Beltana, which was still sparsely populated but mostly ruined buildings. It was too hot to walk, so we drove around looking at the buildings and reading the information boards.
In Parachilna we pulled up opposite the pub only to find that it's actually closed from sometime in December to March 2nd. Plan B was a sandwich, sitting in Mata in 40 degree heat.
The heat put paid to our plans to free camp for the night and we decided to make a run for Quorn, another 150 km south, and pay for a powered site so we could run the air con.
A little before Quorn we turned off the highway to take a look at the ruins of Kanyaka homestead, the hub of what was a large sheep station in the 1880s.
In Quorn we set up, cranked up the air con and stayed inside in the cool for the remainder of the afternoon.
At 8:30 p.m. we walked a short distance to the nearby silos for a silo art laser lightshow.
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