The walking across Wortupa Pound was easier than the creek beds in the ranges had been, although the Three Cornered Jacks were giving us a bit of a hard time.
The sun hadn't quite reached us when we set off down the South Branch of Italowie Creek this morning.... actually the low cloud would keep the sun away for awhile yet.
I'm not sure how long this water will last? Having it a few minutes from our camp made things easy for us on this walk though.
Our day started off with a fairly long walk down the South Branch of Italowie Creek as we headed for Wortupa Pound. Initially the walking was of the rock hoping variety as we headed south towards Junction Creek although soon after passing by Junction Creek we found our creek swinging around to east and the country started to open up a bit.
South Branch of Italowie Creek.
Morning smoko - I topped up my water from this waterhole which didn't do a lot for the flow rate on my filter!
We were now making our way downstream towards the junction with the North Branch of Italowie Creek and the walking was getting progressively easier as we went. We were able to utilise the creek side flats more and more and even though they were sometimes a bit scrubby it was still generally easier and quicker than rock hopping along the creek bed. After avoiding the north branch we continued downstream for another 15 minutes before leaving Italowie Creek and climbing up onto the open country of Wortupa Pound.
South Branch of Italowie Creek.
Once we'd passed by Junction Creek the country started to open up a bit.
This is one of Joanne's shots... she has a better eye for detail than me!
By the time the South and North Branches of Italowie Creek had merged the country had really flattened out.
In theory all the hard work was over now, all we had to do was meander our way across the pound. Yeah...nah, while Wortupa Pound looked fairly flat from our lofty camp up on Mt John Roberts, down here at ground level there was a bit more to it. While the numerous dry gullies that we were crossing were a little annoying it was the Three Cornered Jacks that were starting to get our attention, these prickly little bastards were getting into out shoes and socks and giving his a bit of a hard time.
We were out of the creek beds now.
Mt John Roberts was over our left shoulder as we walked the pound.
That's Red Hill behind the trees.
Thankfully the walk across Wortupa Pound was a relatively short one so we were able to persevere with the prickles knowing that we'd soon be back at the ute. After cresting one last hill we could see the ute down at Loch Ness Well below us and in even better news there was a reasonable spur that basically dropped us all the way down.
We really just walked on a compass bearing across this rolling country.
Wortupa Pound has numerous shallow creeks crossing it - so it's not always as fast as might be imagined.
Ghost Gum on Wortupa Pound.
When we were getting close to Lochness Well we passed by some old mine shafts.
After cresting one last hill we could see Lochness Well (and the ute) down below us.
Jo is dropping down the last descent.
The after shot - we're still smiling so that's a good thing!
It was just before lunchtime when we finished walking today however our day was far from over. After putting our gear away we jumped in to first head to the rangers station at Balcanoona Homestead where I grabbed a great hot shower, we then headed off on the long drive down to Hawker only to arrive and find our accommodation was double booked! After a nice pub meal in Hawker we then continued on all the way down to Port Augusta where we finally called it a day!
It's a fairly long drive in here along dusty (and sometimes muddy) roads.
Sturt's Desert Pea.
Sturt's Desert Pea.
Heading for hot shower.
The Dirt.
We walked around 10.4 kilometres and climbed around 150 metres on what I'd call a medium grade days walking. As for the rest of this walk the whole day today was off piste however it was only really crossing Wortupa Pound that required a bit of attention. We used notes and maps out of both Chapmans Bushwalking in Australia book as well as Adrian Heard's A Walking Guide to the Northern Flinders Ranges. We also used our GPS tops, an Alltrails map that I knocked up and the third edition of the Illinawortina 1:50,000 topo.
Relevant Posts.
We arrived in Hawker in the late afternoon looking forward to a bit of a clean up to find that we'd been bumped from our accommodation - so after grabbing dinner at the Hawker pub we motored on down to Port Augusta - checking in around 8:30pm after what had been a fairly big day!
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