Day 6: Alligator Gorge and Mt. Remarkable National Park

I was invited by my old friend Bek (who also lives in SA) to go on a drive today.  Our destination was Mr. Remarkable National Park, in the Southern Flinders Range.  Bek and her husband Adrian came and picked me up and we set off for the three hour drive.  On our way north we took smaller roads that snaked through grape producing areas with vineyards lining the roads and farmland where we could see sheep and cows or rows of crops from the windows of the car.  We passed the Golden North factory, birthplace of ice cream treats like the Giant Twin (vanilla ice cream covered in a chocolate coating on a stick) in the town of Laura.  We then stopped for lunch at a pub in Melrose.  Apparently every town in the countryside has a pub, which consists of a bar and sometimes also a dining room.  Pub food is things like burgers, seafood and chicken schnitzel.  This is a piece of tenderized chicken, breaded and fried.  The food at the Melrose pub was priced quite reasonably and was also rather delicious.  From Melrose it was only about twenty more minutes drive to the National Park.  We found the car park and embarked on a circuit hike of Alligator Gorge.

The hike led down a set of stairs to a lookout, and then continued to the gorge floor.  It was rather hot out, and the trek down the stairs left us all with shaky feeling legs.  After viewing a rather large spider hanging on a web just off the trail, we turned right and walked a short way to an area called The Terraces.  The entire base of the gorge used to be a river, and the water carved the rock into a series of flat sections, which resemble terraces.  The photo at left shows ripples in the rock, left there by the water when the surface was once sand.

We continued hiking, retracing our steps back past where we'd entered the gorge and continuing through an area known as The Narrows.  It was quite hot and dry, but a steady breeze blowing helped it not to feel unbearable.  The ground was rocky or dusty, and as we moved along we saw a cool lizard sunning himself on a rock.  In The Narrows the rocky walls of the canyon rose up on either side of us.  It reminded me a bit of hiking in "The Box" in the Grand Canyon.  Not quite as tall, but still rather stunning. 

We completed our trip through the gorge, and the trail climbed slightly as it headed back toward the road.  Suddenly, we startled a pair of kangaroos - a mom and a joey - from their hiding place behind some trees.  They hopped slowly away but not until we were able to get some good photos.  A bit more climbing and some switchbacks brought us back to the car park and relief from the heat in the air conditioning.

Now headed for home, we made a detour at Hancock's Lookout, a fabulous view down into the valley below and the town of Port Augusta, at the end of Spencer Gulf.  It was quite a contrast to be high in the dry, hot hills, but see the Pacific Ocean sparkling far away below. 

We made our way through a pass between impressively high, domed hills, until we found the junction with the main highway, which we took south back toward Adelaide.  Along the way we stopped at a petrol station for a Giant Twin (yummy!) and to refuel.  We also made a brief stop in Snowtown, which is gruesomely known as the storage location of bodies in a serial murder case about 10 years ago.  I am pointing to the Snowtown sign in this picture, to show that I was there.  No worries, we made it out okay.