SA outback wilderness: Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park day 3-5

“Eddie, get up!!!!” said Alex.


Immediately, I got out of my sleeping bag and the next thing i saw was this SPECTACULAR SUNRISE!!!!!!

It’s one of the BEST SUNRISE i have ever seen!!!!
 
        
 
Unfortunately, good things don’t last, it’s time for breakfast and to move on for we had a quite a long day to get to our next camp site, rover rockhole.
As soon the sun got higher, the effect of the scorching sun with its heat combined with the dryness of the gammons, it really took a BIG TOLL on me!!!


We were lost for a bit, but luckily Alex sensed something was wrong to avoid us from wasting our energy going further away from the correct trek under the heat.


The following pictures tells it all!!! You probably can count the number of trees that can provide proper shade to walk under and have a feel of how the terrain is!!!!

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Going down the ANNOYING porcupine grass caused all the “beautiful” scratches and cuts on our legs!!!!
 

Went through gorges again…


Climbing up hills with our backpacks on…and FINALLY WATER!!!! Yes, we were near rover rockhole, I WAS SO HAPPY to see water as if i found heaven!!!! You just can’t imagine how “precious” water was back then!!!! It felt like an oasis in the desert!!!!
  


Set up our tents+bug bivy…

ALex & Jono continued to cleft peak which Chung and I didn’t follow as both of us were exhausted and it’s getting quite late too, thought i should conserve my energy, lol. While waiting for them to come back, it’s time for photography :)
 

This place is A HEAVENLY OASIS!!!!
 

   

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The following day, Alex, Jono & me went on to tackle bath tub, ferm chasm, prow point & the terrace which involved a full day side trip. The bath tub does really look like a natural bath tub though no water in it, lol (bottom left pic)

While to get to ferm chasm, the height to get up to was even worse than going to bunyip chasm!!! One have to get up 2 logs!!!


Despite the big effort to get to ferm chasm, all was there was a pool of algae!!!! We could only see a few ferms scattered around. The ferns must have died out on one of the droughts!!!
 

On the way up another hill, we saw a narrow gorge that looked like might be fern chasm, but the plants ain’t ferns, lol.


To get to prow point, we have to scrub bashing through thich dense mallee scrubs as shown in bottom left pic as there are not tracks up to the point!!!


Another spectacular view from prow point!!!!

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I love this photo of the walking in the gammons reflected on a pool of water infested with heaps of sand flies!!!!


Going down the terrace!!! The terrace is like going stairs but in A BIG STEP each time!!!!


Finally we got back to our nice serene rover rockhole to enjoy our hot drink and dinner!!!!
 

The last day was spent getting down to the gorges again and trek to lord ness well via Wortupa pound. It was an exhausting day for me, with dryness!!!!! It was a long long long walk through the never ending gorge which i can’t remember what name it was.
 

These feral “mountain” goats nearly got us kill!!!! it was trying to get higher up the cliffs but while doing so sent rocks coming down which if hit anyone can send someone to hospital if not death!!!! (the geral goats are the black & white colours in the bottom pic). Few weeks after, this national park was closed due to these feral goats which they have to get rid off for safety purposes!!!)


Walking through Wortupa pound…
 

A very nice place though still far far away from lord ness well, uphill & downhill and full of plants as irritating as the porcupine grass with thorny pollens!!!

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Jono seems to be to look like a typical Caucasian bushwalker captured in the bottom 2 photos which fits very well the wortupa pound landscape, haha. Anyway, after we got to the car, it was really A LONG SERIOUS DRIVE back to Adelaide which we reached by midnight, but all thanks to Alex for organizing this trip and being the navigator in this park that have no tracks!!!! Not sure if i would like to come back to this place or not, hahahaha. Though i love rover rockhole very much just like Jono and Alex!!!!


Click for enlarge size!!!