Clare to Rawnsley Park Flinders Ranges Day 11

Today was time to travel up into the Flinders Ranges for the final few days of the trip. Leaving Clare and heading north the weather improved with every kilometre until the sky was nearly cloudless. Georgetown, Gladstone, Laura and Stone Hut came and went before I arrived at Melrose which is nestled under the shadows of Mt Remarkable and is the oldest township in the Flinders Rangers. Travelling further north the landscape started to develop that 'outback' feel and the towns like Quorn and Hawker have that little bit of the wild west about them.

After Hawker it was around 40km to Rawnsley Park Station my stop for the next few nights. After following the straight highways across what seemed liked endless plains the ragged peaks of the Flinders Ranges came into view and the south western bluff of Wilpena Pound dominated the skyline. Rawnsley Park Station is perched under these bluffs and is still a working sheep station but essentially devotes itself to tourism in the form of a caravan park as well as other accommodation options. The station is vast and surrounded by the outback so it never felt like a conventional tourist park and the accommodation is well seperated. I was given a quiet spot to park my camper van, well away from other campers close to a small stream with Rawnsley Bluff towering above the site. Tomorrow I will be checking out Wilpena Pound as well as the surrounding Flinders Ranges.