I wanted to use this trip to challenge myself and I decided to learn how to drive again and drive from Adelaide to Flinders Ranges, a distance of 480km one way. Before I went on my trip, I drove 4 times on the streets in my area and decided that I was reasonably okay to drive the 480km by myself. Not only was I going to drive that distance, but I was also going to sleep in my car for three nights and complete a 22km hike. Ambitious. It was a little stressful in the beginning of the drive since I had never driven on a highway/motorway before and driving at 100km/h was a little scary. However, I got into the groove of it and the highways were really easy since there was no one on the road. I admit, it was a little lonely driving for super long straight stretches of road with maybe one other car on the road every 30-40 minutes. South Australia is so beautiful and it was quite cool seeing the landscape change. To keep myself entertained, I had a lot of sing-a-long sessions with my country music station on Pandora. I love Pandora.
There were lots of abandoned farmhouse ruins. It's actually incredibly amazing that a family lived in such a desolate landscape. The drive just made me reflect on the difficulties of the first explorers or farmers who lived there once upon a time. I already found it so isolating and I was driving in my car at 110km/h, let alone people on horses back in the day.
I drove through many country towns that looked like this. Absolutely deserted and quite eerie.
The funniest part of the very very long 7 hr drive was frantically messaging my mate about fuelling my car (since I had never done it before) #prepared.
Now the question, why did I sleep in my car? Short answer: to save some money. To stay at the resort in the national park would have cost me $250 pn. To stay in the nearest town 60km away would have cost me $100pn. Or, I could sleep in my car at the campground and only pay $15pn. I had brought with me my Black Wolf sleeping bag and thought I was reasonably prepared. I was expecting 6 degree nights, but in reality they were 0/1 degree nights. The first night, I woke at 4am (I also had no phone service and had nothing to do so I went to bed at 8pm) because I was freezing! Luckily, I learnt from my mistake and slept slightly better for the next two nights but it was still really really cold. Every night I would wake up around 4-5am and end up burrowing my face into my mummy sleeping bag so I was literally in a coccoon. I don't think I would have surived another night since I was so frustrated with sleeping in the car. Granted, aside from the temperature, it wasn't too uncomfortable. But it was a little annoying being restricted physically due to the mummy sleeping bag. It is times like that where I am grateful for being short. I had only rented a Ford Focus hatchback and folded down the back seats so I could lie down (when I picked up the car, I didn't know how to fold down the seats so I had to YouTube it in the carpark #prepared). In fact, sleeping in the car like that was more comfortable (for my body) than the times I went camping on the ground.
I was a little worried about the 22km hike at Wilpena Pound to St Mary Peak since I was hiking by myself. But it was a really nice, reasonably easy and an amazing hike!
Part of the hike. See the blue arrow? That points to the path. The hardest part of the hike was climbing up to Tanderra Saddle. I am short and consequently my legs aren't exactly the longest. At one point I had to slowly shuffle myself up by using my legs and butt (since my legs weren't long enough to allow me to easily get up onto the rock ledge).
Flinders Ranges. Absolutely breathtaking.
The photo doesn't show how massive Wilpena Pound is. I guess you might see if you compare the trees to the rock formation.
Flinders Ranges is not a massive national park by any means. The images don't really do it justice, but I felt so isolated, insignificant and also quite liberated at times too. I wanted to be immersed in nature on this trip since my new job is located in the CBD and I'm really not much of a city person (too busy for me) but I don't think I've ever felt so isolated physically in my life. A weird but very cool experience.
And now for a quick hike review! The hike for St Mary Peak can be completed in two ways: the outer or inner trail. The recommended route is the 22km which involves taking the outer route (so climbing outside Wilpena Pound) and then taking the inside route back to the campsite. The much shorter route is around 15km where you take the outside track on the ascent and descent but it is challenging as you need to climb back down Tanderra Saddle (see the rocky picture above). I was a little worried initially since quiet a lot of people said that it was challenging. A little information about me. I enjoy hiking (nothing hardcore) but I am also not the fittest and I basically don't exercise. The climb up Tanderra Saddle was definitely a little challenging (perhaps more intimidating than anything) however do-able. From Tanderra Saddle to St Mary Peak was pretty easy except for the last 10 minutes where it was a lesser version of the 'Tanderra-Saddle-rock-scramble-up'. I could have completed the walk in around 6 hours but near the end, I took longer breaks and finished the entire hike in 7ish hours. In fact the hardest part of the entire hike was the last 5km where it was completely flat and just felt never-ending.
As an aside, I read this horrifying blogpost where the girl was unprepared and completed the outer trail (the 15km) hike in 13 hours and finished at 1am and she didn't make it to the peak, so just up and down Tanderra Saddle, so in fact less than 15km. Okay, that just makes me so angry. Why would you even start the most challenging hike in the national park at 12pm (when everyone recommends 8-9am in winter months since the sun sets at 4pm). It could easily have been one of those stories on the front page about a tourist dying due to their own stupidity.
All in all, I would recommend the hike. It's not overly challenging in my opinion, but the key point is to be smart. But truth be told, that's a given and really doesn't need to be said. Like most things in life, just don't be an idiot.
