This is FREE? Flinders Ranges. Ep.46 - Free Camping Roadtrip Australia

We headed straight to the Flinders Ranges after our stay at The Grampians. It took us a good 3 days of driving to get to the start of the Flinders and that included a massive shop in Adelaide! We filled up with groceries🍏, fuel, gas, bits & bobs etc, because after the Flinders we were heading straight up the Oodnatta track - so Adelaide was our last major restock point before we reach Alice Springs! ⛽️

Our first official night in the Flinders we stayed at Quorn Caravan Park,. Since we had done a massive food shop our caravan fridge was struggling to get down to temperature🌡 (as it was pretty much empty when we crossed the SA/VIC border & Amz had left it low on Tassie settings - whoops). We also wanted power so we could charge up the bulk of our electronics (all our batteries etc).

We had visited the information centre before checking in, so we had a good handful of maps🗺, to start planning what we wanted to see! Having a low-key night getting ready to tackle the Flinders Ranges! The next morning we got up early and tackled the nearby Dutchmans Stern mountain hike. Was a great way to get the legs pumping 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻after sitting down for three days of driving. The walk was relative moderate and we were up and back within two and a bit hours. We spotted plenty of Kangaroos and the noticeable different fauna about. 🌵

We then hitched up and headed north! On the journey up we stopped into the Kanyaka Ruins. A cluster of crumbled stone buildings which was once a bustling homestead🏚. The single palm-tree at the entrance was quite odd to see all the way out here. Next stop was the small town of Hawker, where we topped up with more diesel and fresh milk. 🍶 hint compare the fuel prices! We found it 10cents cheaper a litre at the mechanics, compared to the fuel station - only 50m away from each other!

Now deciding on where to stay in 'Flinders' was a tough one. After lots of deliberation we decided to spend 3 nights at the Rawnsley Park Station. Obviously with Rusty🐶 we couldn't stay at Wilpena Pound and were tossing up between Rawnsley, Willow Springs and Merna Mora. It cost us $27 a night unpowered at Rawnsley. It had great facilities, plenty of dog friendly walks around the station and great views of the Ranges from our campsite! So we were happy with our choice here.🏕

During our time here we saw;
Arkaroo rock (aboriginal art)🎨
Sacred canyon & engravings
Wilpena Pound
Cazneaux Tree🌳
Bunyeroo/Brachina Road via Razorback lookout
Moralana Scenic drive
Hiked to Rawnsley Bluff and Wilpena pound lookout from Rawnsley Station👟

We then moved to a FREE camp North; to [Parachilna Gorge 1]. There is plenty of room, situated along a dried up river bed and bank. We had no problems finding a level spot for our van with only a few other campers scattered around each night.
From here we saw;
Glass gorge
Drove through Blinman🚙
Great wall of China

We also spent some much needed downtime at Parachilna. Relaxing and sorting out our gear before we tackle the Oodnatta track. 🚧 Kurt even found a mouse living in our car 😳 we know right! It picked the most expensive place to nestle its home - inside of our drone case😅. We can confirm the mouse was caught and is now calling Flinders Ranges home 😝

Things we had on our list but didn't see/do this round;
Skytrek 4x4 ($65 self drive adventure for 5-8hours)
'Feral platter' at the Prairie Hotel (emu, camel, kangaroo & goat)
Blinman mine tour
Trek up to Arkaroola Village

We were quite satisfied with the sights we saw and decided to save our $$$. 🤓

➡️To wrap it up Flinders Ranges as a whole was quite impressive. The ranges are spectacular up close and spread for kilometers on end. We saw plenty of wildlife driving around, an abundance of emu's, kangaroos, rabbits, goats, sheep, birds etc, the list goes on!
Personally we were a little underwhelmed😕 with Wilpena Pound. I guess after being on the road for 12months we have seen a lot of natural wonders and were a bit disappointed with the much hyped Wilpena Pound overall. If your on a time restriction we would suggest to give sacred canyon & the Moralana scenic drive a miss. After seeing Arkaroo Rock & Bunyeroo/Brachina drive, these seemed a bit of a waste.

Our ⭐️favourite things were the Bunyeroo/Brachina drive, Kanyaka Ruins, Arkaroo Rock & the great wall of China. This was purely our personal opinions, so always do your research & ask around!


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