After several last-minute cancellations 11 walkers and non-walkers meet up at the Fullers Park accommodation in Stirling North. Over a pleasant pub dinner, we identified our preferred options for the week.
The first two days were spent walking and sightseeing round the towns of Port Augusta, Quorn and the Mount Remarkable Nation Park. The highlight of this area was the Alligator Gorge walk through a narrow deep canyon. The historic village of Quorn and its vintage steam train was also interesting.
We then moved on to Rawnsley Park Station on the South side of Wilpena Pound. 3 days were spent walking in this area, including one day driving the short distance and walking within the Wilpena Pound. Three of our intrepid walkers traversed the 20k return walk across the width of the Pound.
Overall, it was an enjoyable week, the weather was fine and sunny but cool and the accommodation that Ros Steele had arranged was good. The scenery was spectacular and thanks to a brief presentation by Richard, our in-house geologist, we came away with a better understanding of the complex geology and importance of the fossils that have been found in this area. The tracks were well marked but the walking was relatively difficult. The tracks were stony and loose underfoot and steep in places. The difficulty was reflected in average walking speeds of about 21/2 km/hour.
