Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Wilpena Pound

is a vast 80 square kilometre natural amphitheatre ringed by the mountains of the Flinders Range of South Australia. It was used by early settlers to hold thousands of sheep and cattle [hence 'Pound'] but after a few droughts and severe land degradation from grazing it was abandoned.

This is dramatic country, a few hundred kilometres from somewhere and a couple thousand from nowhere. Despite the heat in the frying pan of the Pound the clouds rolled in and by the time we summitted St. Marys Peak, the highest mountain, it was decidedly Scottish on the top.

Twenty-three kilometres under the boots and a few dozen wallaby encounters later the sky was cloudless again and it being a rare night with ice at our campsite, we sat by a large stone slab under a graceful eucalyptus with its smooth white skin, drank cold gin and tonics and, as you might expect, listened to the Hair musical soundtrack while watching the waxing moon cut a swathe up through the Milky Way.

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