Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
An Outback Travel Warning
If you intend to drive through the Outback, take care. Distances between
points of interest can be vast; water, gas, food, and accommodations are
far apart. Always travel with a good map and plenty of advice. If you plan
to travel off-road, a four-wheel-drive vehicle is a must.
Tips
Both of these tracks cut through the “dog fence”—a 5,600km (3,472-mile) long
barrier designed to keep dingoes out of the pastoral lands to the south.
If you follow the
Stuart Highway,
or the
Oodnadatta Track,
you'll pass the
mining towns of Coober Pedy, Andamooka, and Mintabie, where people from
all over the world have been turned loose in the maddening search for opal. Out
here, too, are national parks, such as the daunting Simpson Desert Conservation
Park, with its seemingly endless blood-red sand dunes and spinifex plains; and
Lake Eyre National Park, with its dried-up salt pan that, during the rare event
of a flood, is a temporary home to thousands of water birds.
THE FLINDERS RANGES NATIONAL PARK
460km (285 miles) N of Adelaide
The dramatic craggy peaks and ridges that make up the Flinders Ranges rise
out of the South Australian desert. The colors of the rock vary from deep red
to orange, with sedimentary lines visible as they run down the sides of cliffs.
Much of the greenery around here is stunted arid land vegetation. Ever since the
introduction of a devastating rabbit virus in 1996, and with the continued
culling of hundreds of thousands of wild goats, growing shoots and saplings,
which for decades were nibbled away before they grew up, have started to
turn what was once bare land back into bush. The most remarkable attraction is
Wilpena Pound,
a natural circle of cliff faces that form a gigantic depression on
top of a mountainous ledge. The wind whipping over the cliff edges can produce
some exhilarating white-knuckle turbulence if you fly over it in a light aircraft.
Kangaroos and emus can sometimes be seen wandering around the park, but
outside the park kangaroos are heavily culled.
ESSENTIALS
GETTING THERE
By car, you can take Highway 1 out of Adelaide to Port
Augusta (3
1
⁄
2
hr.), then head east on Route 47 via Quorn and Hawker (another
45 min.). It's another hour to Wilpena Pound. Alternatively, take the scenic
route (it doesn't have a specific name) through the Clare Valley (around 5 hr.):
From Adelaide head to Gawler and then through the Clare Valley; follow signs
to Gladstone, Melrose, Wilmington, and Quorn.
Premier Stateliner
(
&
08/8415 5555;
www.premierstateliner.com.au) runs
five buses every day from Adelaide to Port Augusta for A$35 (US$23) one-way.
The company also runs buses to Wilpena Pound via Hawker and Quorn, leaving
Adelaide at 8:30am on Wednesday and 11am on Friday. Fares each way are A$44
(US$29) to Quorn, A$58 (US$38) to Hawker, and A$63 (US$41) to Wilpena
Pound. Buses return to Adelaide from Wilpena Pound at 11am on Thursday,
7:15pm on Friday (arriving in Adelaide at 5am), and 3:05pm on Sunday.
Heading Bush Adventures
(www.headingbush.com) has great trips, includ-
ing a 10-day tour to the Flinders Ranges, the Oodnatta Track, Coober Pedy,
the Simpson Desert, Ayres Rock, the Olgas, Kings Canyon, and Aboriginal
