CLIENT: Birdsville Adventure Tours

Birdsville Adventure Tours runs private tours or group bookings - getting you about to see the best of Birdsville and the Outback. Think Harley Davidson motorbike rids, Big Red 4WDing and sunset tour, swagging under the stars, pub crawls, sunrise expeditions...

www.birdsvilleadventuretours.com.au

www.birdsvillehotel.com.au

ARID AIR: South Australia (and Queensland) from above

I was not expecting it to get greener as we went further into the Outback. But it did.

Seeing the Outback from the air is a unique experience that leaves me speechless for most of the trip. The beauty of nature, her patterns and the varying colours. There's a lot to love.

The contrast. The graphic lines. The sand-dunes all lined up. The bareness. The hills. But the vibrant green was surreal.

And let's not forget Big Red. The subject of many stories - a place I've wanted to see for myself for years. It was even stuck on one of my journals as a 'vision board'.

Birdsville is over 20 hours from Port Augusta by 4WD or under 3 hours by plane. Perhaps I'll have to do the Birdsville Track next - to experience this amazing landscape 'from a different angle'.

https://aridair.com.au/

Flinders Ranges

Who's been to the Flinders? I used to go as a child. Camping, hiking, Grandpa catching rabbits for tea that night, my cousins and I making graves, complete with named headstones, for the baby ones caught.

I've taken my kids camping up there too.

But recently I've been working around the Flinders - and discovering how much there is. Station stays, food, helicopter flights, beautiful accommodation. It's not all camping and hiking. The landscape, the feeling, the weathered peaks and rocky gorges... they are a given. It really is one of the most dramatic and beautiful landscapes I've seen.

The Flinders Ranges is the largest mountain range in South Australia, which starts about 200 km north of Adelaide and stretch for over 400km. I follow the main highways, back roads to stations and even some scenic off-road tracks (in my little VW Golf) when I take the wrong way. It's all quite an entertaining adventure.

Pics below:

https://www.facebook.com/flindersfoodco/ - delicious food in Hawker

https://southaustralia.com/products/flinders-ranges/attraction/kanyaka-ruins-station - some history

https://www.barossahelicopters.com.au/parachilna/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4MmwlZvo5AIVjYRwCh2PWAA4EAAYASAAEgJaMPD_BwE - fly over the Flinders

http://www.stationstayssa.com.au/station/mt-little-station/ - farm stay

https://www.jeffmorgangallery.com.au/ - art gallery in Hawker

https://southaustralia.com/products/flinders-ranges/attraction/old-wilpena-station - some history at Wilpena

Prairie Hotel, Parachilna

When I first started doing vision boards, a photo of the Prairie Hotel was on one. It was actually a journal I had covered with photos of what I want to do, where I want to go, and who I want to be.

I didn't know much about the hotel, but I knew it looked awesome, was in the middle of nowhere and you could stand outside have a drink looking out over vast empty land. And it was in northern South Australia, in the Flinders Ranges. All very doable.

I 'ticked' it off my list a few years ago, visiting for lunch while camping at Wilpena Pound. I love how we can 'pop over' to Parachilna, two hours from Wilpena, for lunch, but yet in Adelaide a 45 minute drive is a consideration for lunch.

A couple of months ago, I stayed at Prairie Hotel en route to Innamincka. I sat by the outside fire, glass of wine in hand, chatting to people. I watched people come and go in the front bar while sipping my (err, third) coffee next morning. I even 'oohed' and 'ahhed' over the inspiring views I had with a chopper flight over the Flinders Ranges early morning.

Why go to the Prairie Hotel? The yummy food, the comfy bed, and the quiet vastness that envelopes the hotel are my fave reasons. It's also a great place to refresh on your drive.

Coober Pedy and The Breakaways

Coober Pedy is a town in northern South Australia, 846 km north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway. It's in the desert - the South Australia outback. It can get hot here, but not when I visit in June. In June, the sun is out, but the wind that whips along the open vastness can be chilling.

Much of the town has been built underground in a bid to get away from the summer heat. It's what makes this town quirky and interesting. Visitors can stay in underground houses and hotels, visit cafes, shops, galleries and churches and of course, go down the mines.

Coober Pedy is also known as the Opal Capital of the World. You can find your own or purchase from the many stores.

Just north of Coober Pedy is The Kanku-Breakaways Conservation Park. It is a protected aboriginal heritage site and one of South Australia's Outback 'sights to be seen'.

An inland sea once covered the Breakaways. Today it is a rocky and colourful landscape that looks like it's from another world.

The dog fence is also here - a 2m high wire barrier that stretches for over 5,300km across three States. It protects the Southern farming country from the Dingo.

The best time to see the awesome Breakaways is sunrise or sunset, when the colours intensify and the shadows that fill the land add drama. It's no secret - everyone comes at this time.

CLIENT SHOWCASE: Flinders Bush Retreats

Billy tea and scones by the campfire in the Gorge

How old are the Flinders Ranges? I don't know, but apparently, some of the worlds oldest fossils have been found here.

View from the property

I used to camp up at the Flinders Ranges with my grandparents and family as a child. We’d set up camp by a creek, sit around campfires at night, hike during the day and construct gravestones for the baby rabbits accidentally caught in my Grandpa’s traps that day. We’d name them, bury them, have a ceremony and put a headstone on top. 

Mt Scott Homestead kitchen

Twenty years later, and a few visits in between, I’m back. But this time I’m not camping, I'm staying in a three bedroom home complete with indoor fire, fire pit outside and bath overlooking the gorge hills. There is even a coffee machine. Luxurious. There is a water trough out the back which emus come and drink. Each day I take a bath mid-afternoon, so I can laze back and watch the sun play hide and seek with the stormy clouds while the emus slurp away. I laugh as sheep come running to the trough and scatter the emus one afternoon. I wonder who rules the roost?

Mt Scott Homestead

The Quarters

Eco tent

Eco tent

Flinders Bush Retreats is a working station about 10 minutes out of Hawker. There is a range of accommodation. Bush campsites, Eco tent, The Quarters (which are quite luxe shearers quarters) and where I’m staying, Mount Scott Homestead. Something for everyone, I’d like to think. 

Getting hands on and learning in the shearing shed

I love the isolation of Mount Scott Homestead. Five minutes drive from the nearest house through paddocks. I hear nothing but the wind, birds and occasional creak from the trees. I sit at the breakfast bar and see the outback farm for as far as my short sighted eyes can see. Adventuring up into the hills of the Willow Waters Gorge, I am comfortable knowing if I get lost I only need to head west, and I’ll see ‘home’. 

Walking through the Gorge

I am alone, but I can imagine having a few nights away with friends or family. Willow Waters Gorge, the gorge on the property is old. Very old. Boringly old apparently. So the scientific folk said when they came to survey the area. But it is perfect for wandering. It’s small enough not to get lost but big enough to walk for a few hours each day. I climb up to a peak one chilly morning and get a 360-degree view of the gorge. It’s a little utopia amongst the barren farmland over the other side of the hills. 

One of the campsites

Another day I climb up the hills, losing the track I'm meant to walk up, but find my way around on the goat and kangaroo tracks. I get over to the gorge side of the hills, but rain and wind lash in. I retreat, slipping down the hill on the scree. Just as I get back to Mount Scott Homestead, the sky opens and a storm rolls in. The wind makes a song as it hurtles across the farmland and through the gum trees lining the front of the house. I’m glad I turned back when I did. The hills were steep, and I can imagine the wind picking me up and throwing me somewhere further down if I’d been up on top still. 

Meet and greet with the farm animals

Sharon and Allen McInnes are working farmers. They live nearby with their children and have a farm of animals for guests to meet. Mini ponies, geese, chooks, sheep, pigs, cat, dogs… City kids (big and small) will be amazed. Unfortunately, due to weather, I missed out on shearing, but at the right time of year, guests can get involved with farm chores too. 

The Eco tent view