The Flinders Ranges 14/2

We decided to take a drive into the Flinders Ranges to see Wilpena Pound, an apparently unmissable natural attraction that you must see when in the area.

We drove through Quorn and Hawker on the way, passing a number of ruins from early settlements. The best were at Kanyaka Homestead which was built in 1851 by Scottish settlers known as the Proby clan.



We stopped for lunch at this beautiful viewpoint and everything went pearshaped !

David spotted a rather large skin coloured spider climbing down the headrest of the car behind Jayne's head. We jumped out of the car in a panic as we do not know which spiders are dangerous and which are not.

Jayne then also noticed that we had a leak out of the back of the Ute. We had some spare petrol in the back after our trip into the outback, and this was leaking out after travelling down a dirt track. David sorted out this problem whilst Jayne continued looking for the spider. To our worry we lost sight of him again but knew that he was still somewhere in the car. Valentine's Day turned out to be three's a crowd !



We had no choice but to get back in the car and continue our journey onwards, in some trepedation. On entering the Wilpena Pound Resort area we spotted a number of Kangaroos. This one just wandered around in front of us and stopped for a quick scratch.



Unfortunately due to our unplanned antics we had just missed the shuttle bus into the Pound itself and the next one was not due for another 2 hours (they don't tell you that in the tourist information guides). We looked at walking into the Pound but it was at least a 2 hour walk and it was a very hot day. We had not come prepared with enough water supplies for the journey.



As so often seems to happen to us the weather decided to change and the sky turned very dark. It started to rain and thunder with lightening flashes. We decided not to wait around for the next bus after all so this was disappointing after the eventful journey we had trying to get there. However the drive itself was very scenic and we had still enjoyed the views.



There were heavy sheets of rain coming towards us as we began our drive back, and it was later reported on the News that there had been flash floods in Hawker, an area we had driven through.



On returning to the caravan David removed everything from the car (wearing a thick pair of gloves) and hoovered out every orifice he could to try and remove the spider. Unfortunately we think he is still in the car as David didn't actually see him come out, but the good news is Jayne looked up the dangerous spiders of Australia on the internet and he didn't appear there. We Think !!