Well after we left the Grampians we headed to Flinders Ranges, which are mountains about 400km north of Adelaide. We went from freezing our butts off at night in the Grampians to being incredibly hot and sticky in the Flinders Ranges! Quite the change! The landscape was absolutely amazing. It was probably the driest, hotest part of the year that we were there so we really experienced a temerature extreme. The rivers and streams were literally dry, not a drop of water in sight. Even the bottom of the streams were dry. Over the few days that we were exploring the park we only saw a few small bodies of water (always to our great surprise!) There was also hardly anybody there, because apparantly nobody wants to hike in that kind of heat...not surprising as we found it a little challenging! We stayed at pretty much the only place to stay there - it was called Wilpena Pound Resort. They had accomodation ranging from camping to private chalets. We chose the camping of course, but it was great and the facilities were fantastic. We had there nice big covered picnic benches right near our site that were supposed to be for tour but groups but it was so quiet that nobody was around so we could use them for eating and playing cards. We also had access to the pool, which was a great place to cool off and we got into the habit of visiting daily. The hike on our first day was definitely the most intense! The big draw of the park is a rock formation called Wilpena Pound. It is this huge circular crater like structure formed by erosion. To get a picture of the whole thing you would have to be in an aeroplane, and of course you could go for a scenic flight but that wasn't in the budget. Dan decided that we would hike to St. Mary's peak, which is the highest point on the edge of the pound. It was so so hot and the air was just stagnant and the sun was beating down on us so it was a pretty hard climb. I actually didn't made it to the very top but I waited for Dan and was soooo worried because we didn't have enough water but he was adament that he wanted to get to the top. He said it was pretty sketchy near the top and easy to lost the path as you're scrambling up big boulders...I still can't believe he made it! When we got back we consumed so much water and did pretty much nothing for the rest of the day. We went on smaller hikes the following days to see some aboriginal rock paintings and to get nice views of the pound that were easier :>) And to my delight, we saw tonnes of wild kangaroos. We both agreed that the landscape and scenery was so so beautiful and we really felt like we got to see the real Australia. So it was really a great end to the trip.
Our last day of driving back was pretty intense. Dan insisted on driving back to Melbourne all in one day so we left at about 8am and didn't get to our hotel until 2am! We did have to make a few stops to mail our camping stuff home and get some passport photos for Asia so that slowed us down too. We didn't get a lot of sleep before we had to head to the airport the next morning for our flight to Singapore. It was a bit hectic getting there because all our good maps were in the travel book on route to Canada but we found our way, returned the rental car and got in line to check in.....only to find out we needed proof we were leaving Singapore to get in! So we had to rush accross the street to the Hilton and book a bus ticket quickly to somewhere in Malaysia! We made it all in the nick of time and were exhausted once we got on the plane! Our booking for our accomodation in Singapore somehow also got messed up but we found a room in the city centre in the end and got a good night's rest....ahhhhh.
Will write more on our first day in Singapore later as Dan is after me to head out for breakfast here! So far we have nothing but good things to say about Singapore!
Bye for now!
Hanna and Dan xoxo
Beautiful scenery in the Flinders Ranges
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