The full moon rising over Lake Frome from my camp on Mt John Roberts.
After finishing a walk in the Flinders Ranges I decided to head a bit further north into the ruggedly beautiful country of Vulkathuntha-Gammon Ranges National Park. I had previously visited the Gammons on a couple of occasions but had only done daywalks although I knew that the ranges and gorges held a myriad of attractions, I just had to put in the effort to penetrate into the trackless country. One of the main inspirations for visiting this area was reading the late C. Warren Bonython's book Walking the Flinders Ranges, where he describes exploring the area in the 1940's. On this visit I was planning on a 4 to 5 day walk, climbing Mt John Roberts and Cleft Peak and exploring some of the gorges, while using the creeks and spurs as my route through the hills. My exact itinerary on this walk would depend on my ability to find water... and my comfort level on exposed rock.
As I left the Wilpena Resort for the drive up to Loch Ness Well in the Vulkatunha~Gammon Ranges National Park the forecast wasn't inspiring a great deal of confidence, the weather bureau was predicting rain periods for the afternoon and showers for the next couple of days. The clouds were hanging low over the ramparts of Wilpena Pound as I left, the road to Blinman was misty and wet, with the native pines the scene looked like it belonged in Canada and not the arid centre of Australia. Arriving at the national park headquarters at Balcanoona I grabbed my camping permit, checked in with David the local ranger and was soon on my way into Grindell Hut and Loch Ness Well. The last 25 kilometres into Loch Ness Well can be a bit rough with lots of creek bed driving and some steep jump ups to negotiate, however the beautiful scenery pretty well makes up for the rough going I think. I had never seen this country so green and with so much water around, this made me a little more confident that I would be able to find water on the walk and not have to cut the walk short.
There was a little low cloud hanging around the Flinders Ranges as I headed off from Wilpena Resort this morning.
Early morning in the Flinders Ranges.
Heading up towards the Balcanoona Homestead I had some wildlife to keep me company - that's the Gammon Ranges rising in the distance.
It always pays to be careful after rain in the arid regions of Australia as the wildlife tend to come out to drink from puddles on the roads... or enjoy the greener grasses on the verge.
After enjoying a late lunch at the ute, it was time for the before photo and then I was on my way. I was following Balcanoona Creek up stream initially this afternoon and as I progressed the cloud began to close in and a light rain began to fall. The initial section basically involved rock hopping up the creek bed and the further into the hills I got the rougher the creek bed walking became. I was happy to come across short sections of trickling water as I got closer to Bunyip Chasm. By now the cliffs had closed in and I was pretty well walking up a gorge and just over an hour after leaving the ute I was at the junction of Bunyip Chasm and Balcanoona Creek.
Loch Ness Well was just a pretty rough and ready clearing back in the day.
Start photo done... time to go!
Balcanoona Creek made for pretty good walking this afternoon.
The further up Balcanoona Creek I went the more gorge like the country became.
Balcanoona Creek
Dropping my pack at the entrance to Bunyip Chasm I surveyed the scene around me. I was surrounded by high red cliffs, I could see two waterfalls that I would have to climb and by now the rock was getting wet and slick as the light rain was still falling fairly steadily. Taking all that into account I decided to head up Bunyip Chasm with just my camera and go as far as my comfort level would allow. Relieved of the burden of the big pack I was soon at the bottom of the first waterfall, to climb this I had to ascend a dead tree that was wedged at a 45 degree angle. Initially I could hold the cliff to my right, but about half way up I had to swing across to the cliff on my left, all the while standing on a wet tree on a 45 degree angle, 2 to 3 metres above a small rocky pool. Needless to say it was with some relief that I got over the first waterfall and saw that the next one wasn't as hard. Scrambling past the second waterfall I soon found myself in an amphitheatre surrounded by cliffs, I could see a terraced waterfall to my right that would be the obvious route but I had my doubts. I sidled up to the wall with some trepidation, it definitely appeared doable but I was concerned about the wet sloping rock, the waterfall was about 10 metres high which meant any mistake would be serious. Starting to sidle up the sloping rock I got around 3 metres up however I just wasn't comfortable on the wet rock in my boots. Easing my way back down I decided that it would be a more sensible option to come back another day. Once that decision was made it was a quick scramble back to where I'd left my pack, the only real obstacle being the white knuckle descent down the sloping tree at the first waterfall.
The entrance to Bunyip Chasm - I can already see the sloping dead tree that I'd need to climb to get around the first waterfall.
Well I've made it up the first waterfall.
After scrambling up another waterfall I arrived at this amphitheatre where an even bigger waterfall stopped me this afternoon.
The lower section of Bunyip Chasm.
Bunyip Chasm
Once reunited with my pack I filled all my water bottles from the creek and looked for a route out of the gorge on Balcanoona Creek up onto Mt John Roberts where I planned to camp that night. Everything looked insanely steep, however after reading my notes I knew that I could access a spur leading in the right direction from the top of the waterfall in front of me. So once again I found myself climbing a waterfall in the rain only this time I had 20 kilograms hanging off my back. This climb wasn't as exposed as the earlier one in Bunyip Chasm although there was one ledge that I had to throw my gear up and then scramble up behind, from there I had a fairly airy traverse across a ledge to the top of the falls. Once on the top of the falls I could see the obvious route leading steeply up the spur... I could also see that it didn't look like the light rain was going to stop any time soon.
The route up the spur headed south east and then curved around to the south west although it was all fairly obvious, if I started to head down hill I was going the wrong way! The open spur made for good walking and as I gained height the views opened up, behind me was slot of Bunyip Chasm while in front of me was the looming bulk of Mt John Roberts, the good news being that the cloud cover hadn't lowered to the tops of the mountains yet. As I got higher I could see down towards the northern Flinders Ranges and it looked like the weather was going to deteriorate some more so it was with a little bit more urgency that I pushed on along Steadman Ridge towards Mt John Roberts. It was along here whilst looking ahead to negotiate the best way through the bands of scrub that I managed to trip over and gouged my knee... I'd managed to climb waterfalls and trees and now I hurt myself on the easiest terrain!
Once on the spur I needed to climb Mt John Roberts I gained height fairly quickly.
I was now getting some views back towards the slot of Bunyip Chasm.
I'm about to reach Steadman Ridge... which I then followed all the way to the summit of Mt John Roberts.
That's Steadman Ridge in the background.
The weather was a little grey however the views were still pretty sweet.
Once I arrived on the summit of Mt John Roberts I found myself a slightly sheltered camp site behind a native pine and quickly got my tent up, throwing in all my gear and diving in behind just as the rain got a little more serious. I spent the next hour organising myself inside the tent while the rain came down outside, although the rain wasn't overly concerning me as it was the wind was more of a problem as I was surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs, and being on rock it was next to impossible to get the pegs in for the guy ropes. After listening the rain and wind hammer on the fly for an hour the weather improved a bit and I was able to go out and properly secure the guy ropes with rocks.
My slightly exposed camp on Mt John Roberts.
I managed to do this almost within sight of the summit.
As luck would have it I had probably pitched my tent in the most sheltered spot on the top of My John Roberts. Once out of the tent I wandered around the summit area a little bit, checking out the log book buried in the summit cairn and reading of others adventures getting up here. After taking in the views in every direction my thoughts turned to food, something that isn't highly unusual if you know me! I found a nice ledge and set up my kitchen, tonight was home made spag bol washed down with a couple of hot chocolates. While I was eating dinner I had a view of a fullish moon rising in the east over Lake Frome, the light reflecting off the expanse of salt. Any warmth had disappeared with the light though so after a quick walk around the small summit plateau after dinner to check out the view by moonlight, it was into the sleeping bag for a cosy night reading and listening to the passing showers on the tent fly.
The view from the summit of Mt John Roberts is fairly extensive.
I'd be dropping down here tomorrow.
Looking south from my camp on Mt John Roberts towards the Northern Flinders Ranges.
The Dirt.
I walked around 6.5 kilometres and climbed around 500 metres on what I'd call a hard days walking. Whilst the distance today was reasonably short the fact that there is no track, no sign posts, no track markers along with some very pretty dodgy scrambling meant that it was pretty hard going. All of the creeks up here are ephemeral, although I was fairly lucky in that I found good water in both Balcanoona Creek and Bunyip Chasm today. Apart from my camp on the summit of Mt John Roberts there was also camp spots down on Balcanoona Creek, although they were a little too close to the start of the walk for me to use today. I used notes from the House of Chapmans book Bushwalking in Australia along with the Landsmap 1:50,000 Illinawortina map.
Relevant Posts.
My evenings view as I cooked dinner.
It's tent o'clock!
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