We have just returned to Leigh Creek after spending two days at Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary in the Northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia. This is a very remote part of Australia that edges close to Lake Frome (the whitest salt lake in the southern hemisphere) and the Strezlecki Desert. Arkaroola is a 610 sq kilometre property that was purchased in 1968 by Reg Sprigg. He slowly converted it into a wildlife sanctuary and developed the lodges. Prior to this purchase the property was mined for copper and small deposits of uranium. Arkaroola also has a superb state of the art astronomical observatory that is well suited to the desert night skies. From the mining exploration days, many tracks criss cross Arkaroola. We are booked to go on a Ridge Top Tour that takes us deep into Arkaroola and culminates in our arrival at Sillers Lookout which provides some of the most spectacular and panoramic views anywhere in inland Australia. But I am getting ahead of myself. That is tomorrow.
The van stays in Leigh Creeks for the two days we are at Arkaroola so we lock it down before we depart around midday for Arkaroola. I make sandwiches for us to eat along the way and about the half way mark we stop at a beautiful place in a river bed for lunch break.
The gravel road is very good and it is easy driving. We pass quite a few sheep stations and comment on the number of dwellings in the homestead compounds. Many staff required to help run these large properties is what we guess. We drive through Nepabunya Indigenous community that looks like it is abandoned.
Our scenery is constantly changing from flat open saltbush flats to hills covered in the now familiar red rocky outcrops. We cross through dry creek beds with the huge river gums standing majestically either side of the dry creek. Our destination is not very far away when we follow the sign pointing to Arkaroola. The last 10km of gravel road into Arkaroola Lodge is very corrugated from overuse. We can tell there is a lot of traffic flowing in Arkaroola.
As we come around the last corner we dip into a valley where Arkaroola Lodge is located.
We park the car and make our way into the reception area of a low line log building. The friendly staff member (who is also the Astronomer) shows us where our room is located and hands us a brochure full of valuable information. It is less than 100 metres to our lodge room that we find easily.
I was slightly disappointed when we walked into the room. Yes, it looked like the brochure photo but it was a lot more “worn”. The carpets were fraying and looked like they needed a good clean, the wooden blinds that covered the full-length windows were broken and missing slats. The bedding also looked like it needed a good clean and there was a distinct “smell” that neither of us could locate. The bathroom, however, had been recently renovated with lovely grey tiles on the floor, clear glass shower recess and much to Philips joy, contained a rain shower (my pet hate).
We unpacked the car and decided to head off for a walk around the lodge area to get our bearings. The walk ended up being almost an hour and culminated in a hike to the top of one of the hills for a birds eye view.
A notice board outside the main building said that there would be a Rock Wallaby (Anu) feeding at 5.30 so we headed back to our room for showers and a change of clothes so that we could be there for the feeding and then head to the main building for our dinner reservation at 6.00.
You may recall that we sighted the Anu Rock Wallaby on one of drives in the Southern Flinders but this was so much better as we were very close to them and could clearly make out all the beautiful yellow/orange markings on these little wallabies with their big cat-like tails. At one stage we had five wallabies to watch.
We stayed until it was time for dinner. Being Sunday night it was roast night, a choice of either lamb or chicken. We both chose the lamb. It was a gigantic meal. Two big slabs of lamb (I could only get through one), mint sauce, gravy, roast potato, roast parsnip, roast carrot and cauli/broccoli cheesy bake. They obviously cater for big eaters which we are not!
Sweets were also included in our package and they were smaller portions – straight out of the Sara Lee Freezer. It was a little disappointing.
Dinner was no sooner finished when we were summoned to an adjacent building for our Astronomy lesson. I say lesson but our Astronomer was very animated and had us all participating in his astronomy talk so it never felt like a lesson at all! It is quite an amazing digital presentation as we are all seated in front of large television screens that are directly linked to the telescope that is located outside the building. The telescope is controlled by a computer operated by our Astronomer. We zoom in on a couple of beautifully coloured Nebulas – lots of pinks, blues and black; the moon that is just a sliver tonight; Saturn with its rings and a couple more constellations that I can’t name. It was great. Our Astronomer does take us outside to look at the telescope and to just stand and look at the milky way for a short while. It’s funny really that when we lived at “Caleewa” the Milky Way was just taken for granted. It is only now that I can really appreciate its beauty.
It was a long day and it was after 10 when we finally hit the sack. Tomorrow promises to be an even more exciting day with our Ridge Top Tour.
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