as part of our tour through the outback, we took our trusty land cruiser up into the flinders ranges to do some camping. (and took photos of quorn along the way) we arrived at wilpena pound in the late afternoon to check out the info from the visitor's center and drove out to check out a couple of campsites, before we settled on our camp at the "koolaman" campsite, where we happily found a spot in the 4wd section of the camp.
we setup camp easily thanks to the rooftent (which has been serving us well... i don't know why we haven't seen this handy invention before in the states), and Jean cooked up her usual camp delicacies for dinner (that night's dinner: lamb sausage with curry powder). my ipod provided some background downtempo music for us from the land cruiser's stereo, and we watched the night stars and made up constellations. while we slept at night, our camp was tromped through by what could only have been many kangaroos and/or emus.
we also did some great hiking here, where also witnessed the beginning of the "cloud of flies" feature that seems to increase in intensity the further north we travel (so far, at least). in addition, there were a decent number of large spiders in the trees every few feet, but they seemed content to stay in their webs and feast upon the flies that were pursuing us on the trail. but no kiler snakes, which was a good thing.
we regretted leaving the flinders after only one night there... i've got to return there again sometime in the future. it reminds me of arches and canyonlands national parks in utah, but without the massive crowds. a very well-maintained, well-preserved, and attractive park, with excellent facilities. if you're thinking about camping in australia, consider visiting the flinders ranges.
