Are We There Yet?

Arrived Wilpena Pound Visitor Information Centre which is housed in Wilpena Pound Resort early on Tuesday afternoon.

I did feel very excited to be here but my expectations of the place were soon to be dashed.

Firstly...it turned out be more civilised than I expected.

The car park is large and well set out, with fuel bowsers just outside the entrance to the Info Centre.

Loved the buildings, all made of rammed earth so that they matched the colour of the landscape.

Inside we made enquiries regarding camping. We knew that we could do some camping in the national park. We'd bought a South Australian National Parks holiday pass but camping at the resort was not included in the pass. We were to find out that the closest camp ground included in the pass was well over twenty kilometres away! We'd also intended to stay at least two nights at Wilpena but this would not eventuate.

An unpowered site at Wilpena cost us twenty one dollars, this included showers, toilets and a very small laundry. Although there were lots of camp kitchens we could not use these as they were there for the bus tours. Not happy. But, you could have a camp fire if you brought along your own fire wood or bought it at the general store for fifteen dollars a bag which we reluctantly did that night because we didn't bring enough to have a decent fire.

Not sure what to do we booked in for one night to see how things panned out. If we decided to stay another night...we could pay fees the next day.

Although there is a general store available, items can be quite expensive. But I refused to buy carrots at fifty cents each when they obviously had been in the fridge for well over a week. A fellow camper said to me: they'd have to give me fifty cents to take it away!

The most heard comment would now become 'the best way to see (it) is to fly'. Some times one would even dare to say 'the ONLY way to see (it) is...'

These comments mostly came from 'customer service' providers.

'It' can be read as either Wilpena Pound or Lake Eyre.

By the time we arrived at Wilpena we must have been told at least a dozen times that there is no water in Lake Eyre, and even if there was water in it, that doesn't mean you will see it, and if you do see it, all you will see is MUD. One woman even told us that we should save ourselves the trouble and expense of driving all the way to Marree and just take a flight because it would be cheaper and less time consuming in the end.

Oh dear.

That night we booked ourselves onto the shuttle bus for a small fee that would take us to the start of the Wangarra Lookout walk. Catching the bus meant two kilometres less to walk (one way). Not much information was forthcoming about these walks or the surrounding area. We were given a map of the the Flinders Ranges which made an area of 2500 kilometres squared look the size of 2500 metres squared.

The weather was brilliant and we made the most of it, as did this little chuff bird. S/he was extremely friendly. It turned out the bird had a mis-shapen leg and learned that it could gain sympathy from humans in the park and not have to battle with the other chuffs in the flock. It got lots of attention from me...I just love chuffs. Watching them in a flock is quite interesting and they do seem to use the 'poor me' tactic even as a flock when feeding.

Wallabies were plentiful at the camp site. Feeding and approaching is not allowed yet that night I was hassled by a wallaby! I swear he just came up to me in the dark as we were relaxing after dinner and started frisking me for food. As much as I tried, he wouldn't leave me alone until he'd cleaned the ground around me of any tiny crumbs which we might have dropped. The wallaby even ate a piece of plastic he found on the ground, what could I do to stop him?

Eventually, when he realised I wasn't going to feed him he moved on to the next unsuspecting group of campers about sixty metres away.

The next day he turned up again, for lunch with a group on a bus tour!

Above you can see how nicely the buildings blend into the landscape. It's amazing too how the walls radiate warmth back into the space inside the building. I noticed this especially, the next morning when using the ablution block.

Despite the name of park, that is Wilpena Pound Resort, we actually stayed in the Caravan Park & Camping Ground. The resort section was neatly packed away out of sight...maybe next time?