When you touchdown on the scorched earth runway in a 6-seater Cessna, taxi the plane to the backdoor of the pub said to be the most isolated in the world and hop inside for a slap up breakfast – complete with cappuccino - you get where Tourism Australia is coming from with ‘there’s nothing like Australia’.
Pilot Paul Williamson of Opal Air has just flown Jewel, Matilda, Quentin and I to William Creek on the legendary Oodnadatta Track. We’re in Australia’s smallest town. Total population 3 – that’s Mim and Bruce, who run the pub, and Trevor who runs another air touring company from here. But thousands upon thousands have passed through – as evidenced by the numerous calling cards plastered over every available wall, ceiling, nook and cranny.
Air touring is doing a roaring trade as people flock to see an outback the locals are saying they’ve never seen so green and the stunning vast salt lake of Lake Eyre, which is filling with water to the highest level since 1974.
We took off from Coober Pedy, a quirkily endearing town where half the residents live in underground dugouts to escape the extreme summer heat. Rising over the red rocky plains pock marked by thousands of opal noodlers’ shafts, Paul points out the kooky golf course, where the ‘greens’ are actually ‘blacks’, a mix of oil and sand. We fly over the Prominent Hill gold and copper mine and onto to the multi-hued Painted Hills, which rise suddenly from the desert landscape stretching to the horizon all around. So fragile is this spectacular landscape, it can only be viewed from the air.
After brekky we head north to shimmering Lake Eyre, see the pelicans that curiously congregate at just the one island, Silcrete, in Belt Bay and see where the floodwaters from northern states drain into the lake at Warburton Groove.
Then we fly south for our next stop in the northern reaches of the Flinders Ranges at Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary. On Arkaroola’s 4WD Ridgetop Tour, Ben reveals the incredible natural wonders of this dramatic and ancient rocky landscape on the edge of the outback. He even finds some uranium for us.
As the sun sets, we fly south to the sensational red ramparts enclosing Wilpena Pound in the heart of the Flinders Ranges. A wonderful dinner with Julie and Tony Smith at Rawnsley Park Station’s stylish new Arkapena Homestead, concludes a magnificent day and we retire to our eco-villas to sleepily star watch through skylights above our beds.
Over the next couple of days we explore the Flinders at ground level, walking in to the impressive natural amphitheatre that is Wilpena Pound and along the gum lined creeks, grassy plateau and rugged hills of Arkaba Station. We also take the classic Flinders day trip on unsealed roads from the Pound through the impressive Brachina and Bunyeroo Gorges; out into the plains and the highway to Parachilna’s Prairie Hotel, where we tuck into the world famous feral food: emu pate, camel sausages and kangaroo are a big hit; before winding back through low hills to the quaint town of Blinman for pies made of quandong (which taste a little like rhubarb) and on to the country style luxury and Jo Cross’s fabulous food at Arkaba Station, near Hawker, with our genial hosts Pat and Sally Kent.
All too soon, our Flinders adventure is at an end and we are once more about to board a small plane back to Adelaide from Port Augusta. You’ve gotta love an airport so personal, the Sharp Airlines staff serve bread and dips while you’re waiting to depart. Perhaps that’s only in South Australia.
Gaynor
www.arkaroola.com.au/ridgetop.php
MATILDA ABEY... 28/06/2010 Lake Eyre, SA Silcrete Island. The only spot the pelicans were nesting this year.
MATILDA ABEY... 28/06/2010 Lake Eyre, SA Birdsville Track
Here we all are atop Arkaba hill after a great guided walk around the station with Cat
View of Painted Hills from Opal Air scenic flight ex Coober Pedy
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