May 8 - 10
Approaching the Flinders Ranges is an amazing change in
scenery. Big in that the eye can stretch for many miles. The mountains loam in the
distance. A long day of driving from Adelaide to end destination of Hawker. Many
stops along the way in scenic towns. Changes in scenery from prairie, vineyards
(reisling) still loaded with grapes and of course - sheep.
The look of country towns.
Almost hit two kangaroos on the highways leaving Clare. One
slipped on the pavement, and bounced in to his buddy and both were able to
escape unscathed. Melrose the start of the hills.
Arrived in Hawker just before dark. Nate was thrilled with
the play structure.
Wanted to stay at a sheep station – that true outback
experience. Had not planned on going so far north in to the Flinders area but
the early in the morning I was able to find a cottage on a sheep station where
they were on their seventh and final day of sheering sheep. We needed to be
there before noon so we did a quick pack up and headed north. The emus were out
and about! Some kangaroos on this very
scenic highway drive. More dead than alive. At least 20 dead – some just
skeletons now.
The sheep station was down a 3-km dry, dusty driveway lined
with gum and eucalyptus trees and lots of red dirt off the highway. Just what
you would picture a sheep station to be. No wifi or any cell service for the
next 2 days.
Definitely a working, functional farm yard as there is nothing picturesque about the grounds. The wool shed was 500 meters behind our cottage. The shearers stay in quarters close to the wool shed. Of 4 shearers, one would sheer 200 sheep/day and the others averaged 150/day. Being paid $3.00 sheep, the more that one sheers the better the pay day. From this farm, the shearers will move on to the next station, and so it goes.
One of the shearers said he had recently been in Canada and
was wanting to make sure the boys saw all they could about sheering. Jack tried
to grab a sheep from the pen to hand to him, but found out there is technique
involved.
The wool is Meirno – it is packed tightly into 200KG bales
and bring a price of $2000 – 3000/ bale. This is considered a small station as
it has only 4000 sheep on 70,000 acres. Other stations run 20000 sheep. They
get shorn every 8 months since wool is the main product of these sheep.
After the sheering was finished, we had lunch and headed out
on a hike to view the amazing hills. Boys were nervous of walking along trials
into the outback as they had seen a youtube where a man was attacked by a
kangaroo. There are plenty of kangaroos, but very few attack. They were definitely not interested in us. They hopped away before we got too close.
We could sometimes hear the kangaroos before we saw them –
thump…thump…thump…
We took a few wrong turns, hiked up the wrong hill, looking
for one scenic hill I had seen in a magazine. Finally found it – Yacca outlook.
It was a great view, but the camera that took the picture for the magazine must
have had a few filters on it to get the colours.
A drive in the area had many mobs of kangaroos. In fact,
kangaroos were littered along the road. We saw hundreds of wallabys, western
grey kangaroos, and red kangaroos. The Stokes Lookout was a popular place for
people and roos that evening.
The cottage we stayed in used to be the station hands quarters. Stone floors that were stone cold! Complete with mice. Yuck. A few sticky paper mouse traps caught two.
Wed. -A drive through Flinders National Park. Dry, rough
river beds allow for 10 km speed only. Plenty of emus, kangaroos, Took about 6
hours to complete the 150 km loop. Stopped in Blinman for lunch. Saw at least
30 emu today. The cook had lived in the Yukon for 30 years and now came back to
Australia to retire. She was running a small shop and baked bread daily. Her
sandwiches were definitely fresh.
Didn’t quite bring the variety of food to this outback post.
Supper was interesting – macaroni with brown beans. No one complained.
