Wayne,
I strongly recommend heading north towards the north Flinders Ranges and
Arkaroola. The trip there is very rugged, lots of cattle grates and dusty
roads. If you intend going, make sure you bone up on and take all the usual
precautions when travelling along tracks in isolated areas. There are no
fuel stops or water and very few homesteads (often 100kms apart), and no
mobile phone access if you break down. "Let someone know before you go."
Once at Arkaraoola, there's camping and water available, hell, there's even
a bar! Using Arkaroola as your base there are several walking or 4WD or
rough vehicle tracks available for travel inlcuding secluded waterholes in
the middle of the desert that attract much wildlife (including extremely
rare rock wallabies - quietness and patience is required). Geologically,
the area is of extreme interest. There is a lot of mineralisation (yep, you
can pick up tiny gemstones on the ground) and vast slabs of ripple rock from
the time when this area a thousand kilometres inland was a sea. Also,
because of the big wet in the north, you may see water in some of the salt
lakes on the trip up, a real rarity and flourishing vegetation and wildlife.
There are many other areas and features to recommend, but the list would go
on and on.
Take all safety precautions and enjoy your trip, it's an unforgettable
experience.
Mike Atkinson
----- Original Message -----
From: Ulf Westerberg <ulf.westerberg@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, 16 June 2000 4:50
Subject: RE: [OM] OT: Flinders Ranges (was how's the weather)
> G'day Wayne (and others)
>
> you wrote:
>
> >I'm heading up to the Flinders ranges in a week or so, not expecting too
> >much heat in June/July. Got any good tips for photographic subjects in
the
> >area ?
>
> Don't know if you do care of any more kangaroo shots, but on my visit last
August I photographed quite a few different ones, they're pretty abundant
even around the campsite in Wilpena Pound. Emus are common, birdlife in the
Pound is prolific and the stretch of road between Hawker and Quorn was one
of the best raptor areas I've ever encountered. Even if birds may not be
your passion, there's a lot of things in the landscape to interpret with an
OM (obligatory content!).
> One area you shouldn't miss and probably can't/won't is a woodland of
river red gums in a small valley on the walk from the campsite into the
Pound itself. I burned some Fuji Velvia here one morning with my OM-4 and
65-200 (more content!), those trees are sooo magnificent!. Some months
later, National Geographics "Australia" arrived on my doorstep (photographer
Sam Abell), in it is an image of the very same trees. I was pretty amazezd
as I had taken the almost exact approach. Same site, almost same image
(maybe same trees!). Anyway, don't miss it, there's an almost magical spell
here, occasionally a grey kangaroo may enter the scene (or wild goats, lots
of them, unfortunately!).
>
> I'm sure you'll find a lot to photograph in Flinders Ranges, I guess one
could spend a lifetime here (as one of the rangers had, he still hadn't seen
it all). Though we regretted that we didn't have a 4WD at this time, further
north from the Wilpenda Pound the real Flinders start, but you gotta have a
4WD or a scruffy ordinary car you don't care very much for, IOW NOT the
brand new one from Hertz...
>
> Hope this was of use,
> Cheers,
> Ulf Westerberg
> Nature- and Travel Photography at www.start.at/westerberg
>
>
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