Unfortunately the VIC is run by the Wilpena Pound Resort and the young girl behind the counter knew almost nothing. A big change from the usually very informative staff at the information centres. The recent rain had closed the majority of the park but fortunately we could get through to our intended campground and set off straight for Dingly Dell.
What a magnificent spot to camp. It was just off the road and had a pit toilet and some tank water. There was one other van in the small camp area that had just seven sites. They were a couple from Newcastle who were just waiting for the roads to open and were very friendly.
We decided to take it easy that first afternoon and dry out a bit and catch up on ourselves after the previous couple of days.
The kids had a ball walking through the dry creek bed right behind our site and climbing the rock walls. We all went for a big walk across the ranges behind us then sat around a fire, had dinner and cooked some marsh mellows.
TJ did some knitting and Milly even practice some of her choir songs.
Monday morning we headed off early for Wilpena Pound, but didn't know it was such a long walk. We waited around and caught the shuttle bus which meant we only had to do a 3.5 km walk. We stopped in at the "Hills Homestead" which had some nice history on the area before climbing up to the top look outs.
Very steep climb but well worth the effort.
TJ and I were both a bit disappointed with the Pound. Although the view was spectacular we thought we would have gotten more out of it and a better feel for the whole place if we could have walked the extra 4 kms round trip into the base of the Pound. We didn't think that all of the kids would have made it.
Then we headed off to look at a local indigenous site with rock engravings. It was a fair drive in on a dirt road with lots of puddles to play in. Then we walked up a creek bed and into the canyon. There were a few images on the walls but the highlight of the walk for the kids was the partly decomposed headless body of an unrecognisable animal. They are still telling anyone they meet about it.
We then drove up to Blinman and old settlement at the top of the park about 60 kms north, straight past our campsite. On the way we came across what was called "The Great Wall" which was a rock formation along the top of this hill which looked like the Great Wall of China. Not sure if the pictures do it true justice but it was really cool.
We found out that they were reopening most of the roads to 4 WD's so decided that we would do a self guided drive up through the Brachina Gorge the next morning before heading out.
I had a ball. I expected it to have various slow flowing creeks but was surprised to find it a full on 4WD drive up river beds with slow flowing water, up and down steep hills, through heavy mud etc. I think everyone enjoyed it or at least they said they did. There were quite a few times we were unsure where to go but managed to see tyre marks of a couple of cars that had been through before us.
We saw a few emus feeding as we drove and I told the kids about an incident when I was young and went with the family to Evans Head and as we had driven along two emus had come out of the bush, run along beside us and then for some unknown reason had taken a sharp turn straight in front of our car. Within 15 minutes of the story we saw a couple of emus close to the road, I slowed down as one of them ran beside us and then cut straight in front of the car, but we were ready and managed to miss him.
Then we hooked up and headed to Whyalla about 290 kms away.
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