Section 1: The Wild West

The first 130kms or so from Parachilna Trailhead to Hawker immediately dropped us into another world. The scenery felt like a Western, dry and dusty surrounded by ancient rock in red hues.

The good

The location is too good to do justice with words. 600 million year old rock, enough said.

I'm really happy with my gear, everything just works. I'm using most of it daily.

The bad

Trail diet, ugh. I feel overloaded on salt and dense food, I miss fresh fruit and vegetables terribly.

Camp jobs. There are just so many of them, all necessary. If you love doing jobs then this might just be the hobby for you.

The ugly

I'm turning dry and hard, gradually matching the landscape.

Day 1

I woke feeling pretty good. I did a vinyasa yoga routine as a body check, carefully testing for pain in my chest and spine with some deep twisting postures. My core strength and control wasn't compromised, giving me confidence I was up for making a start on the trail. Dave had made up his mind to start with me despite still experiencing significant fatigue from COVID for which I was grateful.

We enjoyed a lovely breakfast at the Wilpena Resort, checked in with Dave Senior and Ruth to confirm they were ok and drove the windy dirt roads past past Blinman to the trailhead.

The dropoff was surreal.

A tender moment between Dave and Ali, climbing over a sty, a wave and the car was gone. After everything we were finally alone in the wilderness.

It didn't take long to start to find the trail rhythm. Blazes are frequent, especially in sections of ambiguity, and this day mainly had us weaving in and out of a wide dry creek bed, giving an easy natural reference point.

The mountain ranges as a backdrop are incredible. There is nothing like this scale closer to Adelaide and I can see why this place is such an inspiration for artists. It has a rugged beauty with such a range of subtle colours.

It's my first time in the Flinders and the landscape feels quite alien. There is evidence of huge volumes of water - the creek is wide and well formed, and even in forest sections we regularly cross deep channels that look to be cut by major water flows.

However right now it's bone dry. I saw only a handful of ants and birds in the whole day. We did see several herds of goats who look like they are thriving, and there are kangaroo tracks everywhere.

Much of the landscape is rolling hills made of a red shale. Dave describes it as a moonscape and that they look like enormous interconnected termite mounds. This type of ground doesn't support any kind of undergrowth or grass, only larger pine trees.

Late in the day we see a group of 4 walkers prompting Dave to ask incredulously 'are those.. people?' which really tickled me. We passed with brief greeting, eager to get in to camp.

Are those... people?

Dave, with incredulity

We made decent time to Aroona Ruins, Dave battling his COVID fatigue heroically. The campsite had excellent services and we found a low site to pitch trying to stay below the wind.

We got through our camp jobs and crashed hard and early, getting an excellent sleep in the end.

Day 2

I woke at 6 sharp and got up and about despite the cold. It was nice to move and the sunrise slowly crept across the face of the Western range providing a stunning sunrise.

Dave roused and we ate. We took our time, wanting to be fresh for a bigger day. We met a lovely couple named Dave and Anna who were 4x4 touring, their setup looked fantastic with a popout A frame tent mounted on the roof. They kindly gave us a pot of fresh coffee for the road.

The day started with a long climb through pine forest, much denser than the previous day. We were in great spirits and happily chatted the ascent away, probably aided by so much coffee.

Close to the peak the mountain changed to cracked square stones creating lovely patterns in the ground. We met a couple Dave and Tracey resting at the top of the mountain. Fourth Dave on the trip! They were walking a similar route, being dropped off and collected each day by a group called Oztrail.

We descended into a large and pretty meadow. It held many flowers, the odd wild melon and for the first time we saw bees.

In the afternoon we saw 2 yellow tailed rock wallabies, what a treat! There was a ravine between us giving them the courage to hang around for a photo. Late day we moved through harsh and dry lands getting quite hot. We were very tired and glad to arrive at Yanyanna Hut.

Our first hut stay provided simple but solid shelter. The platform was great and multi purpose, we washed, cooked, ate and later star gazed on it. The location was spectacular, the rise giving us a huge vista to take the sunset on both sides of the range.

Later we lay back on the platform huddled in our sleeping bags against an already bitterly cold night to watch the stars. I'd read about a large meteor shower and hoped to catch the tail of it. We saw several meteors and many satellites in the perfectly clear sky.

It only got colder. I was toasty in my thermals and sleeping bag but getting up for a wee led to instant full body shivers. We were regularly disturbed by the sounds of mice chewing despite stowing our food in a metal box, which had me worrying about my gear. My neck ached terribly and I had a bad headache.

Day 3

In the end we both slept terribly and woke feeling wretched. I suspect it was a combination of whiplash, mice paranoia plus the challenges of adaptation to the exertion and trail diet.

Breakfast and general existence was a struggle. I could see Dave working hard to try and lift my spirits, he's a good sort like that.

I discovered that mice had gotten in my bag! They chewed through nested Ziploc bags holding a used wilderness wipe, hunting a residue of milk powder. I was saving it for one extra toilet hygiene use so probably the mice had the worse deal. Luckily there was no consequential damage.

We headed off a sorry pair, straight into solid climb and descent on technical goat tracks. The views continued to deliver.

The trail developed into a complex creek bed with high stone walls, colours and shapes layered through years of high water flow. The walking was technical and slow, leaving us well behind our aspirational schedule.

This was the hardest day so far for both us, bodies fatigued, struggling to adjust to the diet and running on little sleep. Fortunately the afternoon had us on a simple 4x4 path through rolling hills. We bumped into Dave and Tracey again for pleasant conversation which made the section pass quickly.

As we approached Wilpena the landscape grew continuously more lush, more resembling the forests closer to Adelaide. We arrived exhausted and thrilled to have completed our first stint away from civilisation.

I bought a pear as soon as we arrived, craving something fresh. We met up with Guy who had successfully hitched from Hawker, his lust for life and positivity an instant morale boost. Dinner was a veg soup and grilled kangaroo, delicious. It was great to have connectivity and chat with Marlene and the girls.

Day 4

Dave woke with some troubles, he'd started developing serious blisters and was struggling with COVID fatigue. He made the call to meet us at Hawker and get some rest. I felt sad for him but thought it wise. It was a huge day ahead which could result in breakdown.

I thought I had my bearings relative to the IGA and confidently headed off in the wrong direction. I'd added 2 extra KMs to the longest day yet by the time I realised.

Finch loves the hard way sometimes.

Someone who was probably unhappy with Finch

We followed a creek, the first real body of water, and the land was lush. We saw many walkers, bird and animal life.

We met a kindred spirit named John. He was a hardened walker who had done the Australian Alps solo, and the morning passed easily with great conversation.

If you're reading this John, it really was a pleasure meeting you out there.

We climbed steadily passing through evidence of very recent fire. We crossed through the mountain range at Bridle Gap which provided a stunning view, followed by a tough and technical descent.

In the end it was a truly long day. We got a bit lost in the afternoon, parts of the trail were difficult to follow. It was rocky and hard ground with very faint tracks and we were tired. Our water was uncomfortably low and we resorted to half hourly rationing to see us in to camp.

We arrived tired to the bone, but Red Range is a wonderful campsite. Sheltered pine forest with soft red earth and full services. Some kind folks had left toilet paper and even cut wood, although we were too tired to make a fire.

It rained overnight and there was some tremendous lightning and thunder rolling across the range. Hearing the howling winds high overhead and steady rain, I decided that I already love my tent.

Day 5

We had a great sleep and didn't need to rush out of camp with a smaller day ahead.

This day had us mostly following creek bed which made for easy pathfinding, although the soft ground did wear at my feet.

This section had many amazing rock formations and colours.

I had been fighting a niggly cold and the damage from that turned into a blood nose, it was a shame to lose those calories.

Guy and I were comparing notes on bush hygiene and he shared something which cracked me up - he has developed a system of wiping using different sized rocks, finishing with a wilderness wipe. There's always something new to try if you're brave!

You should try wiping with a rock!

Guy, a whole different level of hardcore hygiene

Today out in the dusty heat I had the strongest feelings of having been removed from the world so far.

Towards the end we came across another good body of water at the intersection of several creeks. The water was laden with frog eggs which is a great sign for the ecosystem. As a result of the water we saw many animals in the final stretch - emus, kangaroos and bird life, as well as some pepper trees.

Mayo Hut was incredible. A kind soul had left part of a bottle of wine which we made short work of. We made a fire, sat at a bench and chatted and I had plenty of time to catch up my writing.

Another wild night of wind, it was great to be sleeping within stone walls.

Day 6

We both had a great sleep and took in a slow start which included a bit of yoga and stretching. What a luxury to have the spare time and energy!

We farewelled Mayo Hut, heading back into the creek superhighway for most of the day.

At one point Guy became quite reflective and sad that this was his last day on trail.

Today felt closer to civilisation with more cattle and a few distant houses. My favourite section had us navigate a series of ledges and rock pools made from slate.

Some sections were very technical and strewn with perfect flat sheets of slate, this would be a great place to do some stone construction.

Today introduced our first road walking, 6kms in to Hawker. We had no luck hitchhiking so it was just a case of head down and getting it done.

Shoutout to the Mildura boys for being so entertaining at the pub, and for the spare change for the washing machine. They were a group of friends who do an annual trip to keep connected and were staying at the Windee Hill Homestead. They described a grisly history where some women were murdered nearby, and one of the group found a lone old fashioned white wedding dress in a closet. They proceeded to use it to scare one of their party in every conceivable way over the week trip. Larrikins doing their best work!

I'm signing off from Hawker now with clothes washed and drying, my gear airing. I'll grab and pack my resupply shortly, eat a vegetable heavy dinner and get a good sleep ready for section 2. The distances look good and low, the elevation looks decent, and it's 5 days with no civilisation this time!

Next entry - Section 2: Becoming Wilderpeople