The Flinders Ranges in South Australia are a large set of mountains that looked like something huge has dragged itself across the baron landscape ending in a kind of round volcano-like basin called Wilpena Pound, where we camped for a couple of nights.
On the way we stopped over at Port Augusta, the self-proclaimed cross roads of Australia. From this town you can go north to Darwin, west to Perth, south to Adelaide and east to Sydney. Either way it's a bit grim. The drive to it was better though, huge expanses of not much and the odd purple lake, yes purple lake. It's a chemical reaction we've been told.
Once into the national park, like most in Australia, you have to pay. This is fair enough as it must take a lot to maintain the huge areas involved. It's a trust based scheme though, which is fairly nifty, meaning you leave money in an envelope in the middle of no-where but it can be traced back to your vehicle by park rangers.
It felt like a proper bush campground setting with trees all around and kangaroos hopping about. The sun beating down and outstanding scenery made for great days but drops in night temperatures meant freezing times in the van.
Walks around showed some amazing views and Wilpena Pound itself really look like a massive volcano, no wonder scenic flights are taking off almost constantly. We even scaled a mountain! Albeit not a massive one but it did involve a bit of rock climbing. Mount Ohlssen Bagge. An odd name but there you go. Ace views from the summit, which I think now are lost as we've managed to misplace a memory card with photos on it! Found 'em!
Heading back south again and a couple of things get on my wick. Little gripes of course but these things bug me for some reason. Rounding. No-one has ever told me about rounding. I don't like it. In Australia they don't have 1 or 2 cent coins so they round prices up to either 5 or down to 0. Thing is prices in shops, when they actually have any, are advertised as say, $2.98. Which actually means $3. Overtime, a long time admittedly you lose out when paying with cash as the rounding is 60/40 in the sellers favor. This meant that from that moment forth during the trip I filled up the van with petrol always totalling 2 cents in my favor so they have to round it down. $50.02, $55.42, $65.62 and so on. I win again. Although over 50 days that's nothing I bet in a few years it all adds up.
Gripe number 2. Everything here is 'Historic'. There are loads of signs at the side of the road trying to get you to drive to 'Historic Ruins' or the 'Historic Bakery' or the 'Historic Toilet'. All these things are barely older than the van we're driving, or thereabouts. It's all about drawing you in to spend money at the awful little hicks-ville towns you pass through that normally you wouldn't stop at unless you'd just driven into the local 'Historic' lamppost.
On the way we stopped over at Port Augusta, the self-proclaimed cross roads of Australia. From this town you can go north to Darwin, west to Perth, south to Adelaide and east to Sydney. Either way it's a bit grim. The drive to it was better though, huge expanses of not much and the odd purple lake, yes purple lake. It's a chemical reaction we've been told.
Once into the national park, like most in Australia, you have to pay. This is fair enough as it must take a lot to maintain the huge areas involved. It's a trust based scheme though, which is fairly nifty, meaning you leave money in an envelope in the middle of no-where but it can be traced back to your vehicle by park rangers.
It felt like a proper bush campground setting with trees all around and kangaroos hopping about. The sun beating down and outstanding scenery made for great days but drops in night temperatures meant freezing times in the van.
Walks around showed some amazing views and Wilpena Pound itself really look like a massive volcano, no wonder scenic flights are taking off almost constantly. We even scaled a mountain! Albeit not a massive one but it did involve a bit of rock climbing. Mount Ohlssen Bagge. An odd name but there you go. Ace views from the summit, which I think now are lost as we've managed to misplace a memory card with photos on it! Found 'em!
Heading back south again and a couple of things get on my wick. Little gripes of course but these things bug me for some reason. Rounding. No-one has ever told me about rounding. I don't like it. In Australia they don't have 1 or 2 cent coins so they round prices up to either 5 or down to 0. Thing is prices in shops, when they actually have any, are advertised as say, $2.98. Which actually means $3. Overtime, a long time admittedly you lose out when paying with cash as the rounding is 60/40 in the sellers favor. This meant that from that moment forth during the trip I filled up the van with petrol always totalling 2 cents in my favor so they have to round it down. $50.02, $55.42, $65.62 and so on. I win again. Although over 50 days that's nothing I bet in a few years it all adds up.
Gripe number 2. Everything here is 'Historic'. There are loads of signs at the side of the road trying to get you to drive to 'Historic Ruins' or the 'Historic Bakery' or the 'Historic Toilet'. All these things are barely older than the van we're driving, or thereabouts. It's all about drawing you in to spend money at the awful little hicks-ville towns you pass through that normally you wouldn't stop at unless you'd just driven into the local 'Historic' lamppost.
1 comment:
Trust you Gav to suss out the money!!
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