Flinders Ranges Trip August 2010 - Day 7, 8 and 9.

After a very windy but warm night we packed up and headed into Blinman and booked into the Underground Mine Tour ($25) which started at 10 am. Then had a coffee and went to look at the above ground section of the mine and the ruins that were left over.

The underground tour took about an hour and was excellent, with lots of history of how the copper was mined here and they have done a good job of making the mine accessible for the public.

It was then back to cars as we were heading off to do the Heritage 4WD track at Merna Mora station and we had to start it by 12:30 pm to allow enough time to see everything. It cost $45. On the way to the station we stopped a couple of times for photos as the scenery on the west side of Wilpena Pound was just as good as we had seen on the east.

We got to the station with a couple of minutes to spare and paid for the track and our camping for the evening, then headed off to explore the station. There were old ruins as well as part of the old Ghan railway line (several culverts) and the cement making kilns they used for the railway line was  still in reasonable shape. Then off to the other side of the highway but still on the property and the 4WD'ing got a bit harder with several hill climbs up to lookouts, that required a slow but steady approach over the slippery shale and dirt track. The views were pretty good again and the following photos don't nearly do justice to it. We also got out and walked about 400-500 metres up a hill to a memorial site for one of the locals. The view was sensational, the gasping for breath not so.

Then it was back to the camping area beside a very dry creek where we set up camp for the evening, cooking dinner on the campfire. A few drinks and sleep seemed like a very good idea.

We were up relatively early and got packed up and under way by 8am. Back on the highway we headed south to Hawker were we needed to pick up some gear left by a friend of Brett's when he had collided with an emu while riding his motorbike a week or so ago. (I think this proves there is an emu conspiracy to take over the roads and eventually rule the world or it could be that they are just exceptionally stupid animals.) We refuelled, collected the gear and had a great bacon and egg sandwich at the general store before once again hitting the road south. We wanted to get over to at least Wentworth and the start of the Darling RIver run by the end of the day. This led to a relatively boring day of driving down through Peterborough, onto Morgan and then Renmark before we crossed into Victoria. We turned off for Wentworth just before Mildura. In Wentworth we checked with the Tourist info people that the Darling River run was open and found that you could go the whole distance by swapping from side to side on the river. Then a quick refuel and we were off north before turning off the main road to travel the west side of the river. Unfortunately for most of the trip we only saw glimpses of the river as we travelled. We found a great campsite just south of Pooncarie, down beside the river, so we set up camp for the evening and settled down around the campfire. There was very good 3G reception there, so we were both sitting around the campfire with our iPads checking email, Facebook, news of the outside world, etc.

Once again the next morning we were up relatively early, packed up and under way by around 8'ish. Pooncarie actually had some access points to the river but as we had been camping on the river the previous night we didn't go and explore. This time we were on the east side of the river and heading to Menindee. Once again a bit of a boring drive without seeing the river much. At Menindee we went to explore the national park a bit but most of the roads in it were closed due to water so we didn't get to see much. 

We left Menindee to the north and travelled up the west side of the river again to Wilcania, where we had a quick look and continued on, transferring to the eastern side of the river for the trip to Tilpa, Louth and Bourke. This section was good road but we hardly saw the river at all so ended up being bit of a boring drive. Stopped briefly in Bourke at the Tourist info place and found a niceish free camping spot out the north side of the town and right on the river. They were already a few grey nomad caravans there but we managed to get a good spot down close to the river. The only downside of this camping spot was the hum a generator in the background presumably pumping water for the orchids but it didn't really cause any worries with getting to sleep. All up the Darling River run was a bit of a disappointment as the river wasn't all that accessible.