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Morning in Adelaide<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Low cloud around<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Headland near Adelaide<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Kadina<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Wallaroo<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Coasting in<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nI landed first at the town of Kadina, to add another airport to my logbook. While on the ground I donned my life jacket for the next leg, over water across the Spencer Gulf. I coasted in a little to the south of Whyalla, which we’d visited the previous December; conditions were very different today, compared to the heatwave of last year which had seen temperatures in the high 40s!<\/p>\n\n\n
There was a light breeze blowing at Kimba, under a relatively low overcast. I touched down on the long paved runway and taxied in to parking, making sure to avoid the “Royal Australian Flying Doctor” parking area that was marked on the tarmac. I chocked the tires and headed over to the airport gate, entering the Big Galah into my GPS as I did. A problem reared its ugly head; it was a 90 minute walk, one-way, to the Galah. I had not built this into my schedule.<\/p>\n\n\n
Farming country<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Parked at Kimba<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The road to Kimba<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nI decided to set out anyway, and catch a lift from passing traffic. After a while it became clear that not a lot of traffic comes down the Kimba airport road, and that my plan might not be destined for success. It was time for plan B – I phoned the airport manager listed in the ERSA flight guide, and asked him for his advice. “No worries”, he told me, “I’ll come pick ya up!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just a few minutes later a dust plume was visible ahead, which soon resolved into an SUV driven by the town facilities manager. I hopped in, and we headed for town. Along the way he told me a bit about the town; not surprisingly, it was primarily a farming town, but also notable for being exactly half way across Australia (by some particular definition of half way), on highway 1. Looking at the map I would not have pegged it as being half way across, but who am I to argue? The other significant feature about the town is that it has been chosen as the site for a future National Radioactive Waste Management Facility for low level waste.<\/p>\n\n\n
The Big Galah<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The Big Galah<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Silo art<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Kimba<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Edward John Eyre Sculpture<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Departing from Kimba<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nHe dropped me off at the Galah, and told me to give him a call when I was done; he’d pick me up, and drop me back off at the airport. Very kind! He drove off, and I gazed at the Galah. It was indeed very big; 8 meters (26ft) tall in fact. I looked at it for a while. After a minute or two I had exhausted the excitement of the Galah and headed inside the service station\/gift shop to pick up a Galah shirt and have a bite to eat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This done, I walked up the road to check out the silo art which I’d spotted on the drive in. Some enterprising artist had noticed that the giant grain silos that dot the Australian landscape could be put to good use as an outdoor canvas and interesting art had started springing up on them. The silo art website<\/a><\/strong> describes the piece:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kimba is a pioneering town that was established in 1915. It\u2019s located at the hallway mark across Australia on the Eyre Highway right at the top of the Eyre Peninsula.\u00a0It’s surrounded by endless wheat farms growing golden in the sunlight; which was the inspiration behind the concept for the silo art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Viterra Silos at Kimba were painted by artist Cam Scale in September 2017. The mural stretches over five and a half silos, standing proudly at over 60m wide and 25m high and depicts a young girl standing in a wheat field. She is overlooking a magnificent purple sunset viewed through endless wheat fields which blend into the real thing behind the silos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It took the artist 26 days to complete using 200 litres of paint.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n My facilities manager hero picked me up from the silo, and before dropping me back at the airport he took me to check out a viewpoint and art installation just outside of town. These two statues commemorate Edward John Eyre, an English land explorer of the Australian continent, colonial administrator, and a controversial Governor of Jamaica. In 1839, Eyre went on two separate expeditions: north to the Flinders Ranges and west to beyond Ceduna. The northern-most point of the first expedition was Mount Eyre; it was named by Governor Gawler on 11 July 1839. In 1840, Eyre went on a third expedition, reaching a lake that was later named Lake Eyre, in his honor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Eyre, together with his Aboriginal companion Wylie (who are the two figures depicted by the statues), was the first European to traverse the coastline of the Great Australian Bight and the Nullarbor Plain by land in 1840 and 1841, on an almost 3218 kilometre trip to Albany, Western Australia. He had originally led the expedition with John Baxter and three aborigines. However, on 29 April 1841 two of the aborigines killed Baxter and left with most of the supplies. Eyre and Wylie were only able to survive because they chanced to encounter a French whaling ship Mississippi, under the command of an Englishman (Captain Thomas Rossiter) for whom Eyre named the location Rossiter Bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Back at the airport, I carried out my pre-flight checks and departed to the northeast into the interior of South Australia. It didn’t take long before I was out over the desolate outback. The most notable features on this leg were the salt lakes, particularly the enormous dry lake bed of Lake Torrens. This lake is 250km (155 miles) long, making it the second largest lake in Australia when full. At this time it was dry.<\/p>\n\n\n I descended into the circuit at Leigh Creek, stopping here for a few minutes to refuel from the credit-card bowser, and then took off again for the final hop over the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges, part of the northern Flinders mountain range. The hills reared dramatically out of the flat landscape, and the clear views of tilted geological strata made it very clear why so many geologists and other natural scientists had been attracted to this area over the years. It was only a short hop, and soon I was approaching the private gravel strip at Arkaroola. I circled a couple of times to try and get a handle on the shifting winds before choosing a landing direction and touching down smoothly on the gravel, watched by Mark Sprigg and his friend who had come to meet me. They helped me push the aircraft into a hangar next to their Cessna 172, before giving me a lift to the main settlement area of the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary.<\/p>\n\n\n Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary is a 610 square kilometer preserve in the Northern Flinders Ranges. It was founded by Mark’s grandfather, Reg Sprigg, who was actually introduced to the area by Sir Douglas Mawson (whose replica hut I had seen in Hobart) in the late 1930s. The family continue to manage it to this day. The sanctuary boasts “unique geological monuments, rugged mountains, towering granite peaks, magnificent gorges and mysterious waterholes” – after touring the property, I can agree with this! It is also home to a huge range of species of birds, reptiles and mammals including the shy and endangered Yellow-Footed Rock-Wallaby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We ate lunch at the main building before Mark brought the 4×4 around for the afternoon ridgetop tour. Originally no tour had been scheduled, but after I asked about a visit Mark had been kind enough to organise to fly up and drive it himself, with his dad Doug narrating! A couple of other guests at the sanctuary took the opportunity to sign up, and after we all gathered and received a briefing from the Spriggs we set off down the dirt road towards the back country.<\/p>\n\n\n The Ridgetop Tour is one of the flagship tours offered by the sanctuary, and Mark had told me it was by far the best one to take. It takes guests through the oldest part of the Flinders Ranges, a mixture of granite and ancient sedimentary rock laid down up to 1.6 billion years ago. An interesting feature of this area, found nowhere else in the world, is how the granites were fractured and impregnated with uranium and thorium around 440 million years ago. These radioactive elements heated the overlying 12km rock blanket until some of it melted to form another granite body, the Mawson Plateau. The heat also caused an enormous geyser explosion about 299 million years ago during an Ice Age, forming hot pools in the ice and quartz crystals at Mount Gee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Much of the uranium that once was in Arkaroola has since been dissolved from the rocks and dumped on the eastern plains where it is recovered at the Beverley uranium mine a few kilometres out on the plains below Sillers Lookout; the rock promontory that marks the end of the ridgetop track, and where we stopped for tea and cake. A stiff wind was blowing up off the plain below, but was still not enough to keep the tenacious Australian flies away.<\/p>\n\n\n With the cake all finished, we mounted the 4×4 once again and reversed our route back to the Arkaroola village.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That evening I was invited to join the night sky viewing tour. Arkaroola skies boast a world class atmospheric transparency index and sharpness, thanks to the dry air and relatively high elevation. The remoteness also means that light pollution is not a problem. I had expected us to met in a group outside and gaze at the stars, maybe with the guide using a laser pointer to point out various constellations; this was only partially correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We did indeed start off outside, gazing upward while our guide talked through a little of the background about Arkaroola’s role in astronomy. Arkaroola has three professional-grade observatories, two of them quite far from the buildings but one of them located right outside the main buildings. This dual telescope is hooked up to a high quality digital camera; before long, we headed inside to some comfortable seating facing several giant screens where the live images could be displayed. This was much more comfortable than standing around in the cold! We were shown a variety of different nebula, planets including Jupiter and Saturn, and some of our closest stars among many other celestial sights.<\/p>\n\n\n The next morning I was up early. It was to be yet another long day. Doug had arranged a scenic flight for a couple of Arkaroola guests in the morning over the Flinders ranges, so I caught a lift with them out to the air strip. Doug invited me to fly along with them as he gave the scenic tour, and he’d give me the commentary over the radio! I quickly accepted, and after pre-flighting both Planey and Doug’s C172 we set off; he took off first, and I followed, quickly catching up and positioning myself a little behind and off to his starboard side. This position gave me a perfect view of his aircraft making it easy for me to keep clear, not that I was intending on flying very close!<\/p>\n\n\n Doug led me up the Flinders Range towards Sillers lookout, giving a running commentary about the geology and history of the land below and pointing out notable features. It was a pleasure to receive the tour from such a local expert, and all the more so to be doing it inter-plane! We reached the northern limit of the tour and peeled off in different directions, him turning right to head out to the east, and my turning the other way to head northwest. I was bound for the town of Marree. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I crossed back over the northern end of the Flinders Ranges, from east to west, and soon passed over the foothills and onto the plain beyond. I was really into the proper outback now; miles and miles of almost featureless dirt, broken by the occasional dirt track.<\/p>\n\n\n Before long I began my descent towards the town of Marree. This town has a population of a little over 600, and is a service centre for the large sheep and cattle stations in northeast South Australia as well as a stopover destination for tourists traveling along the Birdsville or Oodnadatta Tracks. It is also home to the clubhouse of the “Lake Eyre Yacht Club” (motto: “Ya gotta be jokin’ – No we’re not!”<\/em>) Apparently there are significant challenges associated with sailing on a vast, shallow seasonal lake; such as the fact that wind can cause “tides” of up to 60cm by moving water from one part of the basin to another, dramatically altering the navigable areas. Their website tells of this effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We arrived late afternoon and were pleased to find the Lake lapping within 20m of the “edge” in a light northerly breeze. It appeared fuller than expected and tomorrows launch looked like an easy task compared to other trips. We retired thinking we will be sailing the next day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the night one of those southerly changes blew up and by morning it was a constant stiff breeze. A walk from the camp to the Lake edge dune revealed – shock horror – no water at all. The southerly had blown the water out about 2 kilometres over night! It could barely be seen on the horizon.<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/lakeeyreyc.com\/<\/a><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n When conditions allow, the club holds an annual regatta. After a short ground stop, I continued past the town itself, headed for Muloorina station.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lake Gilles<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Lake Torrens<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Lake Torrens<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Approaching Leigh Creek<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nRefueling at Leigh Creek<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>South Australia desert<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Flinders Ranges<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Tilted strata<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Arkaroola strip<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Parked at Arkaroola<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nA local lizard<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Our tour guide<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The ridgetop track<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Arkaroola sanctuary<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nFly protection<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>On the ridgetop tour<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>On the ridgetop tour<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The road up to Sillers Lookout<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>The view from Sillers Lookout<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Our 4x4<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nHistoric Arkaroola cabin<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Digital astronomy<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Digital astronomy<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\nArkaroola morning<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Heading to the airstrip<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Pre-flighting<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Doug and I with our aircraft<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Flying with Doug<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Northern Flinders ranges<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\nGoodbye, Doug!<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Leaving the ranges<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Geological strata<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Desert airstrip<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Outback water hole<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div>Outback highway<\/span><\/span><\/a><\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n\n\n\n\n