Hey y'all...I have to be honest, you may not be able to follow me to Mount Chambers Gorge in real life; Not unless you have a four wheel drive anyway. However you're welcome to tag along by scrolling down and taking a look at a few snaps from one of the occasions I was there. It's a long way from anywhere, but offers great hiking, some ancient history and the ability to spend days without seeing another person. Well worth the effort just for that last benefit alone!
Here's a few snaps from the last time I went. We were blessed with awesome weather which is not surprising as winter tends to look like this around these parts. Yes folks, winter. We had days of about 20°C and nights of zero...Perfect for day time activities and for sitting around the camp fire at night.
Mount Chambers Gorge is in the Flinders Ranges, about 60 kilometres from a small town called Blinman (Population 35 people). Blinman is 510 kilometres north from Adelaide, South Australia so about 5-6 hours depending on how one drives. It is bitumen all the way however there are no other bitumen roads within many kilometres once in the Flinders Ranges so if one wants to explore one must hit the dirt.
This is why a four wheel drive vehicle is required. It's a remote area so not any old four wheel drive either, but one that has all the proper accessories and is piloted by an experienced driver. For this reason so many people will never make it out here unless possibly on a tour, or in convoy with someone like myself; A guy who has the required skills and vehicle.
The Flinders Ranges
The Flinders Ranges is a very ancient place, some 800 million years old in fact. It was a vast inland see for 300 million years and some of the oldest fossils in the world have been found here.
We do a lot of camping in and around the area, remote camping, and I have hunted in the area a lot also. It's sort of like my back yard I guess, only 510 kilometres away from home.
We also hike a lot which is what you can see my wife Faith doing above. Ok, she's actually posing here, but we were on a hike at the time. It's a great place to get lost for a while I think, and we go as often as possible.
The Flinders Ranges is a harsh environment, but has a beauty one can appreciate I think; The air is fresh, the sounds of nature abound and there's no people. A triple win!
This is one of our camping spots, some 60 kilometres south of Blinman. It's in the middle of nowhere, but is situated on a massive sheep station of some 70,000 acres (or 28,300 hectares or 283sq kilometres). It was created in 1924 and the same family still run it. They have some camp sites spread out around the huge property and we camp there from time to time. We've never seen anyone else in our time there, except for when we check in at the homestead on arrival. Perfect. Above you can see one of my favourite spots with my camper set up. There is a small creek that runs along the treeline there. It's nice.
Onward to Mount Chambers Gorge
Travelling in remote areas means preparation: Vehicle, equipment,food and water, maps and navigation, first aid and communications just to name a few. Out here services are very basic and few and far between. Help is often a long way away and that's if you even have the ability to contact them!
Above you can see one of the only service stations for many kilometres; It's at a place called the Angorichina Tourist Village about half way between Blinman and Parachilna. Don't let the word village fool you though as there isn't much there. They have some fuel pumps, a tyre repair/change bay, a small general store, a little camp ground and loads of flies. That's about it.
Here we fuelled up my truck with 140L of diesel and headed on to the access road to Mount Chambers Gorge.
Driving in remote areas is can always be dangerous. Lack of preparation and skills is often the catalyst for disaster. However even the roads themselves can catch you out.
Here's the sign board that must be heeded when remote travelling in these parts. You'll note the roads are open, but if closed...Well, closed means closed. These roads are usually closed in bad weather, after or during heavy rains and flooding. Getting bogged several hundred kilometres from help can be problematic and this is where preparation comes to the fore; And of course simple common sense in following the road restrictions.
Sometimes the roads are nicely graded and easily driven. This one was a nice road through a section of cliffs and hills. Going too fast around here is probably going to end in disaster though, despite the good road conditions; With common sense and some care anyone can drive these roads though.
The roads do get worse though, and fall into disrepair the further one gets. There's creek crossings, some dry and some with water, loads of rocks, fallen trees and a very loose-shale track which can offer very little traction. This is when experience starts to count however I've taken inexperienced four wheel drivers here and with some coaching over the two-way radio vehicle to vehicle they have all made it there and back.
This area has been farmed a little over the years beginning around 1870. It's tough land, brutal and unforgiving, and so wasn't very successfully farmed. Some tried sheep and others crops however the extremes of the Flinders Rangers brought them all to their knees anf they either moved on or perished.
Along the way there's often a reminder of those days, of the people who struck out to carve themselves a life here, and failed. Here above you see a small hut, what is left of it. I love ruins, but here I felt sad. It didn't feel like a happy place and I suspect that those folk who tried to settle here learned the hard way about life in the Australian outback. I hope they didn't suffer too badly.
Mount Chambers Gorge
This is the access track to get into the gorge itself. As I said earlier, all the roads out here are dirt however this one is a little rocky. I passed a two wheel drive vehicle out here once, a standard car; They rolled a tyre off the rim on this road and were in a spot of bother. I helped them out but really they should not have been here with that particular vehicle as it wasn't designed to do what they asked of it. Common sense, remember?
Here you see my truck. I'd stopped to see if I cold stalk some wild goats just for a bit of fun. I got pretty close. We headed into the gorge after this quick stop, parked and geared-up for a hike.
Mount Chambers Gorge creek usually contains water however I've only ever seen it running once. We generally hike in the creek bed only getting out when the water blocks our way which isn't that often. We like to hike into the gorge itself and to the chasm. It is only about three metres wide and two metres at the north western end; Pretty cool, although I have no good pictures of it.
One of the other cool features along the way is some rock carvings. These have been done by pounding small rocks on the gorge wall repeatedly to form the shapes. I'm not sure what they mean, but they are very old (ancient actually) which is pretty cool. Above you can see Faith posing against the rock offering some scale-perspective.
We often hike around for a few hours then stop for some lunch which I carry in with a backpack. It's nice to sit around and think, chat and to listen to natures sounds and it's almost a guarantee that we will not see or hear another human being. Perfect.
So, that's about it for this pictorial tour. It's been nice scrolling through some pictures to locate a few suitable ones for this post...Although it's also made me want to go camping!
I hope you've enjoyed the images and words, if you took the time to read them. Let me know what you think in the comments and feel free to ask any questions if you like.
Design and create your ideal life, don't live it by default - Tomorrow isn't promised.