We headed for Morgan from Wyerfeld, a 467 Km trip, but we left by 8 am so arrived at Morgan at about 3 pm. On setting up I found the caravan 240V charger had blown up, so Deen did some googling and found a place in Wakerie that had a suitable replacement. So off on a 100 Km round trip which involved 2 ferry crossings of the Murray, a first for Deen in her mini.
Once back at camp I had to work quickly to unwire and remove the old charger and fit the new one before it got dark, but a friendly neighbour helped by holding a torch. We chatted while I worked, he had a Kimberley Karavan like the one we sold in 2013. All good so we are back in business.
From Morgan it was off to the Flinders Ranges for 5 days, but we just extended for another two. It is a great campground with power sites, tap water at each site, a fireplace and stoney gravel on the sites so when it rained, and it did, the first in 19 months, the sites were not muddy. It is still very windy but I put the drone up to take photos of our camp and the campground.
As you can see it is a beautiful campground with lots of trees. In the distance we have the backdrop of the ranges.
Today we walked around Wilpena Pound Station a working sheep station for 135 years starting in 1851. The area was “Waste Land” and 2 English doctors financed Wilpena and two other runs, but the managers had to generate big returns so the stocking rates were the highest ever seen in Australia, and of course the country suffered.
The first building was the Bookkeepers Hut and Buggy shed made from pine logs and pug. The builders had to gather limestone and roast in a red gum fire to make it into lime suitable for pugging between the logs. The is the oldest remaining building on site and dates from 1853.
The next building was the blacksmiths with a reasonable sized forge, massive anvil and lots of other tools.
The blacksmith was obviously an important person – shoeing horses, repairing wagons, making gates, making tools, etc. so he had his own cottage, which is more substantial than the bookkeepers.
Then we walked to the store house, another stone construction with a galvanised iron covered portico.
Next on our tour were the stables, again a stone construction. When all these buildings were first built they had native grass thatched roofs but this was replaced with galvanised iron in the 1880s. The stables seem very small for such a large station.
Now off to the homestead which was built in 1859-1860, a stone building with a surrounding verandah, it is now used as park headquarters. There was a massive rud gum behind the homestead which was close to the biggest I have seen.
Now we will head for sacred canyon, the site of some rock engravings and for a picnic lunch.