SA outback wilderness: Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park day 2

 
All geared up and ready to start our hike!!!!


One of the irritating thing here besides the scotching sun and dryness are the sand flies!!! The sand flies here were really really irritating!!! It’s just follow you everywhere by using anything on you as mean of easy transport!!! It just try to go in any holes!!! your nostrils, your mouth, your eyes…etc!!! It’s a bit hard not be bother by their presence but once you reached a stage where you have no more energy to shoo them away and just try to ignore them as much as possible (they just too many and they never leave u). 

Amazing view at the start!!!


The walk started with an easier pace with flatter path, but as we entered the gorge, the path turns into a bed of stones that were creeks when there’s water before. The stony path was SUPER GOD DAMN hard to walk on, especially for Chung because he wored a pair of normal running sport shoes, his shoes proved unsuitable for this kind of trek. It thinner than hiking boots and it’s hard to balance. Luckily his shoes still held up.


Rock glass trees (bottom left)
 

The trees and rocks here just looked so colourful, the eucalyptus tree bark are everywhere and their colour blend in so well with the surroundings, and the rocks here are deep red in colour.  And trust me it’s MUCH MUCH harder to walk on the bed of different shape and size of stones (bottom right pic)!!!!!!!
 

SA outback wilderness: Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park day1-2

Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park lies approximately 750 km to the north of Adelaide and 110 km from Leigh Creek.

Deep red rocks, ancient hills and vast rugged landscapes make up this remote Outback wilderness. Part of the northern Flinders Ranges, the Gammon Ranges include spectacular scenery, a wealth of Adnyamathanha Aboriginal culture and the remnants of early European settlements (http://www.about-australia.com/travel-guides/south-australia/flinders-ranges-outback/attractions/natural/vulkathunha-gammon-ranges-national-park/).

This trip was right after the Grampians, something like 2-3 weeks after. It was a long weekend because of Good Friday and Easter Monday. Initially there ain’t any plan or the plan didn’t really work out, no trip from AUMC too (Alex wana have some break, haha). Suddenly got an email from Alex asking me and Jono are we interested to go to the Gammons with him??? Alex initially wanted to head to somewhere over the eastern end of victoria but changed his mind to the Gammons due to closure of the certain trek he wanted to do.

It was great for me as i was really hoping to do something over the long weekend, moreover it’s to the heart of South Australia’s outback!!!! Where the real wilderness begins!!!! I haven’t seen much of the South Australia outback since the Flinders trip. Just PERFECT for me, haha. I invited a newly known Malaysian friend to join along too.

It’s a long longggggggggggggggggggggg drive all the way up north.

As it was long holidays, the lion’s club or SA forestry ….etc will setup stops for people to get sthg to eat or drink for FREE!!!! And it’s 24hrs!!! How good is that??? It’s meant to provide those drivers on long journeys to have a bit rest and coffee/food to replenish their energy.

Also that was the first night i learned how to shoot the stars in the sky with my camera, haha. Kind of got very excited with it and kept on shooting a couple included the place we camped for the night which was somewhere beside the main road as we could not find the dedicated campground and the driver is getting tired.

Luckily the road was not a busy one because there really ain’t many people that travel up north this far.