Wilpena Pound Circuit, Flinders Ranges National Park - August 1999

Wilpena Pound.

Spring 1999 and Sam and I took off to South Australia on a bit of a bushwalking  holiday. We decided to head first to the Flinders Ranges and then head down Mount Remarkable National Park, this post is my somewhat hazy recollections of our two day walk in and around Wilpena Pound. At the time we owned our 'troopie' so we had a cheap place to sleep on the road trip over, I remember pulling up somewhere between Orroroo and Hawker in the early hours of the morning. After a few hours sleep we awoke to be greeted by the vast open country of the southern Flinders Ranges.

Sam, climbing the outside of Wilpena Pound towards Tanderra Saddle.

The view on the climb to St Mary's Peak.

Day 1.  22 kilometres.
A quick trip to the visitor centre at Wilpena to get our camping permit and we were on our way, We were using some notes from Lonely Planets Bushwalking in Australia, 3rd edition, so we walked the circuit in anti clockwise direction as it was described in the book. This meant that after a short undulating section the walk started to climb. First up we headed through the dry sandstone country towards Tanderra Saddle, this meant we were climbing slabs of rock on the outside wall of the pound. it reminded me of the cartoon 'the Flintsone's' with all the rocks around. Stashing our packs in the saddle we then headed for the top of St Mary Peak, the track in those days had a lot more scrambling than the current route that reaches the top from the south. There was one section were we traversed a narrow ledge and I seem to remember another section that was quite exposed that had a bit of fencing wire for protection.

Sam on the old track up St Mary Peak.

Anyway we made it to the top safely and enjoyed an extended break before retracing our steps back to Tanderra Saddle. Retrieving our packs we now headed down into Wilpena Pound towards Cooinda Camp. The route now contours the slopes of Mount Boorong providing a well graded route into and out of the pound, back in 1999 the track dropped straight off the saddle into a dry creek that provided a quick but rough route down to Cooinda Camp. Arriving at camp in the early afternoon we soon had the tent up and, after stashing all our gear in the tent we set off for a side trip out to Edeowie Gorge. After scrambling past the first falls Sam decided that she would rather stay put and wait while I explored downstream. So I took off down Edeowie Gorge as far as Glenora Falls, the gorge getting wilder the further down I went, there is no track in the gorge but it would be very hard to get lost with red rocky cliffs hemming you in. Eventually I started back, meeting Sam near the Malloga Falls, we then enjoyed a relaxing walk across the western part of the pound in the late afternoon sun back to Cooinda Camp, crawling into our tent just after dark after a fairly big day.

Now, where are we?

Looking down into Wilpena Pound from St Mary Peak.

The old track up St Mary peak was a little more exposed than the current one.

Day 2.  9 kilometres.    31 kilometres total.
During the night we had a bit of rain so we were happy to hear that it had stopped by the time we we climbed out of our tiny tent, Sitting on a couple of handy rocks we enjoyed our breakfast with one eye on the sky, it looked like the clouds might still have a bit left in them for us, oh well at least it wasn't cold. Sure enough after packing up and heading off we copped a few showers, the low cloud and the native pines giving the place an alpine feel, not what you normally expect in the Australian outback.

Walking through the native pines.

Our trip out of the pound back to Wilpena was a slippery affair, the clay surface becoming extremely slippery with the passing showers, the walk punctuated by the need to stop frequently to scrape the accumulated mud of our boots. It was a privilege to experience the normally arid landscape like this. After slipping and sliding for a couple hours we made our way through the gap created by Wilpena Creek and completed the last section back to the resort on a gravelled management road, arriving back in time for lunch at the cafe. All that was left to do now was to get a room and clean up a bit before heading down to Mount Remarkable for our next walk, but that's another post for another day.

That's the long distance Heyson Trail heading off to the left.

The Dirt.
We used the notes from the 3rd edition of Lonely Planets Bushwalking in Australia written by John and Monica Chapman. The book is long since out of print and the Chapman's now write their own books. The walk is in the Flinders Ranges National Park, its a good, easy walk that I'd recommend. We carried all our water on this walk but you can sometimes find water in a rock hole beside the Edeowie Gorge track, you also need a permit to camp at Cooinda Camp from the visitor centre. I did the walk again a couple of years ago, here's the link if you want to check it out.

The outside walls of the pound.