Beyond the Heysen Trail: Parachilna Gorge to Mt Hopeless

A page on the Heysen Trail website has been made available collating some of the experiences of the walkers who have tackled the walk north of the Heysen Trail trailhead at Parachilna Gorge to Mt Hopeless or Mt Babbage.

Beyond the Heysen Trail: Parachilna Gorge to Mt Hopeless

The page can be viewed at https://www.heysentrail.asn.au/beyond_the_heysen/

We would be keen to hear from anyone has has tackled walking in this area, we'd love to be able to add some more details to the above page. Also if you see any information that is incorrect, or incomplete, do let me know.

Beyond the Heysen: Stage 3, Mt Hopeless to Arkaroola

Like last year, the La Nina weather effect transformed this hike - flowing creeks, full waterholes, green vegetation.

Mt Hopeless to Arkaroola, 7 days - 2/4/11 to 8/4/11

The average rainfall for Arkaroola for January through to March is 99mm, 375mm fell in that same period this year, and that on top of high rainfalls late last year, and a wet season the year before. Rain falls in this area during the summer months, the weather the left-overs of the wet season from the northern tropics of the continent.

This was a difficult walk, walking across gibber plain, along creeks, bush bashing along steep hills, hard to follow tracks and several summit climbs - difficult but all good.

The start point was Mt Hopeless, so named not due to it's diminitive size, but because the explorer Eyre declared it a hopeless situation. A giant horseshoe shaped lake surrounded the northern Flinders Ranges, blocking access to the north of the contintent. He was wrong, but it was a good while before anyone discovered that. It was not a continuous lake stretching for many hundreds of kilometres, but a series of lakes, which would have allowed Eyre to travel through them to the north of the continent. Alas, perhaps the mirage of a hot day tricked him. He had named Mt Hopeless before he even climbed it, it rises just 50 odd metres above the surrounding gibber plain, the last bastion of the Flinders Ranges. Arguably, it could be Mt Babbage to the south, I'm no geologist expert on these matters.

Access to Mt Hopeless was difficult, it is not that far off the Strzelecki Track, but due to the recent heavy rains it was only partially open. We had planned to charter a plane from Arkaroola to Moolawatana Station, just a day's hike south of Mt Hopeless, but their runway was rain damaged. A tourist helicopter service has just resumed it's season up at Arkaroola a couple of weeks ago, so we chartered that to fly us out to Mt Hopeless, which also saved a day, albeit at a greater cost - in part due to the two trips required, it was only a four seater, there were four of us and the pilot of course. We could have walked from Arkaroola north to Mt Hopeless, this finishing our six year adventure at the northernmost point of the Flinders Ranges, but it would be difficult for the helicopter to find us out there on the open gibber plain.

From 2006 through to 2008 I walked the entire Heysen Trail from Cape Jervis, south of Adelaide, to the start of the Flinders Ranges in Crystal Brook, through to the end of the trail at Parachilna Gorge. A week in 2009 we walked from Parachilna Gorge to Angepena Station, a week the following year we walked to Arkaroola, and now, we have completed that walk all the way to Mt Hopeless, a distance of some 1,500 kilometres.

The first three days walking was on a 1:250,000 scale map. It took some used to getting used the map reading, the map being five times smaller than the regular 1:50,000 most of the southern and more populated part of the state is mapped out in. The contours are only shown at 50 metre increments, I tell you, at that separation mountain peaks can hide in between those contours lines. The 1:50,000 map has 10 metre contour increments. It took us a day and a bit to reach the real mountains of the Flinders Ranges, those easily discernable from the gibber plains. Mt Babbbage, once suggested as the northern trailhead of the Heysen Trail - it was far too remote for that - was hidden between some of these contour lines. We realised this when we summited a false summit, which we knew to be a false summit, to see not one but two possibilities before us that might be the actual Mt Babbage summit, only one clearly shown on the map.

Mt Hopeless and Mt Babbage both had stone cairns on them, but both had collapsed. Photos from the 1960s showed the Mt Hopeless cairn as being taller than a man, now it was just a collapsed heap of loose stones. The logbooks for both, of which we know Mt Hopeless certainly had one, lay buried deep under the fallen stones. Dissapointing for us not to be able to write such an important entry into them. Later in the week we climbed the Armchair and Mt Painter, both had logbooks, although interestingly no-one had written in the Armchair logbook since 2006, indeed there were only three entries - all from 2005 or 2006, and no-one had written in the Mt Painter logbook at all last year, and we were the first for 2011. There were pens in the logbook box, so no excuse for someone who summited not to sign it.



The Armchair was a challenging hike, from the base it was difficult to establish how we would reach the summit at the top of the large bell-top that was the top of the mountain. Getting to the ridge a hundred metres from the summit seemed possible, if it were not for knowing that other people had climbed it I'm not sure I would have been keen to even try. When we reached the ridge, the base of the bell-top, we could zigzag up the bell-top, slowly spiralling around to the very top.

Hamilton Creek, which we walked along for three days, was flowing, a real treat that made our hike logistically easy. Not just that, but also very enjoyable, we swam in the cold, rock bounded waters of Terrapinna Springs, camping and swimming beside a waterhole. In Yudnamutana Gorge we camped beside a waterfall, the water flowing strong well above our heads. Each night, and often during the day's hike, we could easily find good water to refill our water stocks with. Others who have undertaken this hike before have had to rely on bores and either driven or flown in water drops.

We walked into Arkaroola after seven days, having seen no-one, not even footprints, no cars, just a single plane. The first person we saw, just as we walked in with our large packs, asked us if an old lady like herself could undertake a hike like we just did. I rather suspect she thought we had spent a couple of hours wandering out to the nearby Arkaroola waterhole, and not 130 kilometres from Mt Hopeless.

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Download our walking route drawn onto topographic maps.

Stats	Northern Flinders Ranges
	Sat	Sun	Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri
	2/4/11	3/4/11	4/4/11	5/4/11	6/4/11	7/4/11	8/4/11
	Mt Hopeless to Twelfth Station Creek	Twelfth Station Creek to Brindana Springs	Brindana Springs to Mt Shanahan	Mt Shanahan to Greenhill Well	Greenhill Well to Clean Chaps Waterfall	Clean Chaps Waterfall to Mt Gee/Mt Painter	Mt Gee/Mt Painter to Arkaroola
Distance	19.53km	20.19km	17.16km	21.94km	18.67km	12.42km	18.71km
Start Time	8.30am	7.19am	7.37am	8.01am	8.02am	7.43am	7.48am
End Time	5.02pm	4.10pm	3.15pm	4.47pm	3.46pm	4.41pm	3.37pm
Moving Duration	4h31m	4h51m	4h34m	5h33m	4h44m	4h45m	4h59m
Stationary Duration	2h25m	3h58m	3h03m	3h08m	2h56m	4h11m	2h59m
Moving Average	4.3km/h	4.2km/h	3.8km/h	3.9km/h	3.9km/h	2.6km/h	3.8km/h
Overall Average	2.8km/h	2.3km/h	2.2km/h	2.5km/h	2.4km/h	1.4km/h	2.4km/h
Oodometer	20.2km	40.4km	57.5km	79.5km	98.2km	110.6km	129.3km
Temperature	21.7	21.8	22.4	25.4	26.9	27.8	28.9

Beyond the Heysen: Stage 2, Arkaroola to Angepena

Water. It had transformed this hike. We slept beside creeks, we could hear the water trickling. It was the first signigicant season for rain in 10 years, the greenest the area had looked in 20 years.

Arkaroola to Angepena, 11/4/10 to 15/4/10

The water almost kept us out. We had been monitoring the rainfall, there had been good rain in November, December and February. But as we packed our things on Thursday night and drove up Friday morning more rain fell, 80mm in Arkaroola and 100mm in Leigh Creek. By the time we reached Hawker all the dirt roads north of Blinman had been closed, the bitumen road to Copley closed shortly after. Waiting between road status reports, we did a short hike up Illuka Hill in Wilpena Pound.

Saturday night at the Hawker pub we were despondant. The roads remained closed, the extent of road damage was becoming clear, the roads wouldn't be reopening anytime soon. We were locked out of the best walking season in 20 years in the Gammons. We had missed out by just half a day from being able to enter, closed roads wouldn't affect us when we were walking.

A plan was hatched. Calls were made, deals done. We chartered a plane from Rawnsley Park to Arkaroola. We would hike in reverse, south-west back to Angepena instead of north-east to Arkaroola from Angepena. From Angepena we would get a 4WD tour operator to pick us up and drive us back to our cars at Rawnsley Park. After five days of walking the roads were sure to be open to allow the 4WD tour operator to access us. The flight and transfers came to just under $400 each. It was a unique time to walk in the Gammons, so we seized the opportunity.

Our plane trip took us over flooded creeks, a good sign as we were relying on creeks as our water source. From the Arkaroola airstrip we were driven to Arkaroola Village by Doug Sprigg and his son, an informative commentary along the way. It transpired he would have flown down and picked us up for a lot less than what we had paid as he is a smaller operator than the Rawnsley Park one.



After a last meal at Arkaroola, a pasty and chips, we set off on our five day trek into the Gammons and south to Angepena Station. We had quite some miles to cover on this first day as we had not departed until after lunch, as it was we raced the sun into camp. It was spectacular walking through the sunset. Yeah, it felt like we walked through it, we did not merely see it. It surrounded us, I spent quite some time walking looking at the clouds above me. There were three levels of clouds, each reflecting a different sunset colour. The higher wispy clouds shone orange, higher clouds shone bright yellow, the lower ones in shade. All this interspersed with patches of bright sky blue sky.

For five days we marvelled at how green everything was, months of good rainfall ensured the green extended everywhere. I hadn't been in the Gammons before, but it is similar to the Flinders, indeed, the rainfall is usually lower, and right now this land stood in stark contrast to the normal Flinders scene. The bright red rocky ground was covered in green vegetation.



With the recent rains creeks flowed, at our first campsite, Mainwater Well, the creek flowed past us as we slept. Surreal to hear trickling water. Walking along creeks we had to negotiate mud and debris, and something rarely required in South Austalia, we had to walk along some wet creeks in ankle deep water!

On our second day we made camp by midday, again by Mainwater Creek. Leaving our gear and heavy packs we climbed Benbonyathe Hill. The climb wasn't complex, but the vegetation, especially near and along the ridgetop, was dense. Lower down it was easy enough to walk through. Reaching the summit and the stone cairn, we found a primitive steel frame for setting up a telescope. In the 1960s the British and Americans sought out possible sites to set up a telescope, both Benbonyathe Hill and Mount Mackinlay were tried. A rough road was constructed up each. On our hike along the ridge we saw no sign of the road, fragments of it were allegedly still visible some years ago, although the road came from the south before travelling along the ridge, we had hiked up from the north before going along the ridge. The site chosen for the observatory was Siding Springs in NSW.

In the logbook at the summit we found a note left in 1986 by a school undertaking the Jubilee Trek. This was a trek undertaken from Mount Babbage, north of Arkaroola, to Cape Jervis. Each school did a section, this was done prior to the completion of the Heysen Trail. Just last week, upon returning from Kangaroo Island I had first heard of this walk, reading a plaque at Cape Jervis near the ferry terminal.

For the second and third day we followed Mainwater Creek through Mainwater Pound. After navigating through the pound using our map reading and dead reckoning skills using the GPS only as a double check, we made our way up a side creek to Yackie Waterhole to collect some water. From here we climbed out of the pound, camping up at Arcoona Saddle. We selected the best spot we could in the saddle to camp, clearing rocks and branches.



The following day we hiked along the ridgetops, seeing many campsites more suitable than the one we had camped at. A short distance from Gammon Hill we dropped our packs to reach the summit. Gammon Hill was an easy walk, the gradient is easy and the vegetation wasnt dense. Here we found the logbook canister, but it was empty for all but one note. It seemed the last people here had removed the contents in order to transcribe them, promising to return them soon.

From Gammon Hill we chased some goats along the ridgetops, passing by Arcoona Saddle before rapidly descending back to the plains and our campsite at Arcoona. Refreshed with tank water from the car accessible campsite, we made our plans for our final day.

Our last day we walked through Owieandana Station, recently purchased by Operation Flinders, sighting our first person in five days. We stopped by Painter's Baseline, a cairn erected by a surveyor in 1857 and used to undertake the first surveys on the area.

Reaching Angepena Station we found that the road out to Copley remained closed, but 4WD vehicles were using the road. We arranged our pick-up for first thing the next morning, and made ourselves comfortable in the newly restored Shearer's Quarters of the station, enjoying another spectacular sunset and star filled sky.

More photos to come from Nick and Graham

Download Google Earth KML file

Download kml file to view in Google Earth or adapt to use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit

Download our walking route drawn onto topographic maps.

Stats	Beyond the Heysen: Stage 2 - Arkaroola to Angepena
	Sunday	Monday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday
	11/4/2010	12/4/2010	12/4/2010	13/4/2010	14/4/2010	15/4/2010
	Arkaroola Village to Mainwater Well	Mainwater Well to Mainwater Creek	Mainwater Creek to Benbonyathe Hill & return	Mainwater Creek to Arcoona Saddle	Arcoona Saddle to Arcoona campsite	Arcoona campsite to Angepena
Distance	20.5km	7.4km	9.4km	14.6km	16.3km	22.9km
Start Time	12:56pm	8:17am	12:22pm	8:19am	8:23am	8:25am
End Time	6:29pm	11:46am	5:12pm	4:29pm	5:15pm	3:17pm
Moving Duration	4h39m	2h18m	3h09m	(5h11m)	6h04m	5h00m
Stationary Duration	58m	55m	1h18m	(50m)	2h45m	1h51m
Moving Average	4.4km/h	3.2km/h	3.0km/h	3.1km/h	2.7km/h	4.6km/h
Overall Average	3.6km/h	2.3km/h	2.1km/h	1.8km/h	1.8km/h	3.3km/h
Oodometer	20.5km	27.9km	37.3km	51.9km	68.2km	91.1km

Can't help but be excited about water

Another blog entry about water near Arkaroola to add to the one from last week.

It really is very encouraging to see good rains after so long without. Exciting personally because we will be walking through here in April, so we'll be able to drink, and the land will look fantastic after six months of rain, but excited too for the land itself.

This guy's blog @ www.thesentimentalbloke.com really is a good read, fab photos.

There's been a bit of scattered rain around lately that has brought mixed fortunes over a lot of South Australia's Outback. Some were good falls - other places almost missed out.

This section of the Arkaroola Creek down from Barrarina Gorge is accessible by foot but like many other places, vehicle access is not an option.
... all the waterholes of the creek are full once again - well worth visiting in the coming months.

Photo of Arkaroola Creek down from Barrarina Gorge. Taken by Peter MacDonald, 18 February 2010 (Source: www.thesentimentalbloke.com -- an excellent blog about the Flinders Ranges)

Another 24mm of Rain

We've been monitoring the rainfall in the northern Flinders Ranges since mid November. Our plans for the next instalment of our Beyond the Heysen trek from Angepenna Station to Arkaroola in April depends on good summer rains. Without the rains, we have no water as water drops will be too difficult.

Another 24mm of rain fell yesterday at Arkaroola, in addition to the good rains in late November, Christmas Day and a considerable fall in early February.


Photo of Boolcunda Creek, between Hawker and Quorn on the Wilochra Plain. Taken by Peter MacDonald, 12 February 2010 (Source: www.thesentimentalbloke.com -- an excellent blog about the Flinders Ranges)

Date	Rainfall
Nov 19, 2009	1mm
Nov 21, 2009	16mm
Nov 22, 2009	12mm
Nov 25, 2009	32mm
Nov 26, 2009	8mm
Dec 18, 2010	3mm
Dec 25, 2009	22mm
Jan 2, 2010	2mm
Feb 2, 2010	1.8mm
Feb 3, 2010	44.1mm
Feb 3, 2010	34.9mm
Feb 9, 2010	1.0mm
Feb 12, 2010	23.8mm
Feb 13, 2010	4.6mm

Beyond the Heysen

It took two attempts to summit the optimistically named Patawarta Hill, two nearby mountains of similar height had achieved mountain status. And amongst them Patawarta was the most prominent. When we reached the cairn at the top we sought out the log book, stored in a steel container donated by ABW. "Sophie and Kelly were the only girls who didn’t cry, " a recent entry left by a school group of year sevens said. Oh ok, crying or not, there must have been an easier way up here then the way we came, so we sought it out descending by a different route.

7 days hiking, Parachilna Gorge to Angepena Station

Our first attempt the previous day had a few lessons contained within. We had made camp about 3.30 in the afternoon, set up our tents, and set out to walk along the flat pound floor, following the edge of the range until we reached a pre-determined spur, from where we would start climbing. Patawarta Hill would be ours within an easy hour. After climbing the spur for some time, we headed to the saddle that would get us to the summit, only to find ourselves looking at the cairn atop the peak from across a valley. Opps. We should been walking and comparing with the map, we ascended one spur too early. Map reading without a marked trail requires an altogether new skillset, one which none of us had except Simon.

Patawarta Hill was painted by Hans Heysen in 1932 in a painting titled The Land of the Oratunga, and the painting which supposedly* inspired Warren Bonython to walk the Flinders Ranges, which later led to the creation of the Heysen Trail. * Supposedly just means I haven’t researched this to verify it.

We were hiking for seven days beyond the Heysen Trail. The trail ends at Parachilna Gorge, 1200 kilometres from Cape Jervis where it started. Most of us had already finished the trail, and this mission was about walking beyond the marked trail. Warren Bonython inspired the Heysen Trail, the original concept being that the trail would follow the entire Flinders Ranges, from it’s southern point near Crystal Brook to it’s northern end at Mt Hopeless. The walk from Parachilna Gorge to Mt Hopeless would take about three weeks, this was our first week, the following two be tackled next year. There is no trail to follow, so some very careful planning is needed, especially in respect to water supplies. We camped along the way, carrying our packs, just leaving a car at each end of the week’s walk. We gained permission from station owners to walk across their land. We had carefully read Warren Bonython’s book, Walking the Flinders Ranges (published 1971, reprinted 2000) for potential route details.

We climbed a further two peaks, Mt Tilley and Mt Hack, which it must be said involved more map planning and map to real world comparisons. From the summit of each, clear sunny days allowed us to see the 100 kilometres to Wilpena Pound in the distance, the distinct twin peaks of St Mary Peak and Mt Boorong** clearly visible on the horizon. Every other direction other than south though, pretty clueless really as to what we were looking at, this was new territory for most of us. We were the first people to reach the peak of Mt Tilley in 2 years, although that was difficult to verify with certainty. Perhaps the truer statement would be that we were the first people to reach the peak of Mt Tilley carrying a pen, as the logbook box contained no pens. Again we descended by a different route, eager as always to explore this great land.

On our ascent we had stumbled across an emu, who only took it’s so called flight moments before reached it. It had been guarding it’s eggs, a half dozen or so large black eggs.

Our third peak, Mt Hack, reminded me of climbing Mt Ossa in Tasmania in that our final ascent was to a large gently sloping plateau that we wandered up to reach the stone cairn and the highest point. From here we marvelled at the distant Wilpena Pound, and looking north took guesses at peak names. Again we discussed our Peak Bagging Plan. I don’t want to go into too much detail yet, but Nick had the idea several weeks earlier that we should climb all of South Australia’s peaks over 1000 metres in height. A good idea, I thought, as we researched mountain heights on Wikipedia. Ten or so of them, seemed pretty easy. The only one I had already climbed was St Mary Peak, in Wilpena Pound. We have had year-long plans to climb Mt Aleck in Elder Range, and we had just climbed three peaks on this walk - all over 1000 metres. Simon, delighted with our idea, was kind enough to add half a dozen or so other peaks, also mentioning the dozens of unnamed peaks in the Musgrave Ranges. Back in Adelaide doing some more research, we have now compiled a list of 36 peaks over 1000 metres, confined to three locations – Wilpena Pound (and Elder Range just south of it), the Gammons (and the three peaks we just climbed to the south of them) and the Musgrave Range in the far north of the state which holds no less than 19 of the peaks. This has turned into an ambitious goal, one which will require great planning. Meanwhile we enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the views from Mt Hack. Scouring the logbook Steve was keen to get a glance of Warren Bonython’s entry from 1969. From an earlier logbook, now in small pieces, we found an entry from 1967, but finding Warren Bonython’s entry would require the careful skill of a fine art or antiquity restorer.

Our party numbered 5 – Simon, Graham, Nick, Steve and myself. Saturday we drove up, Nick and Steve leaving Graham and myself to set up the tents and chat amongst ourselves. We compared pack weights to confirm my suspicion that my pack was heavy. Much to my relief Nick’s proved to be heavier. After their three hour car shuffle, to ensure one car was left at the end of the week’s walk, and one here at the start, we drove down to Parachilna to have tea at the famous Prairie Hotel.

I think it wasn’t so much a week of walking but a week of comparing food. Nick had the yummiest and by far the most food, but also the heaviest pack. Steve on the other hand had next to no food (and somehow not the lightest pack either).

Graham bought a new super-lightweight air mattress, and every time he turned or moved on it as he slept everyone within 500metres could swear they were in a coffee shop listening to a coffee grinder if it were not for the lack of the fresh coffee smell. It took us the full seven nights to find a solution which didn’t involve banishing him to the far side of the valley.

For two of the days Graham strode out far ahead of us, somewhat courageous you would think given we were free-walking cross country without a track, trail or markers. On his second stride-out day we reached our determined point to drop our packs to ascend Mt Tilley, and Graham was nowhere to be seen. After scrutinising our maps to plan our ascent of Tilley and several name-shouts, he returned. The rest of the week he never strayed from the walking group.

Enjoyed some good campsites with pretty good water, perhaps they only bad one was Claypan Dam which even when filtered wasn't a great colour, but still tasted kinda ok. We filtered and treated all dubious water. Had lots of nice campfires, making a regular routine of wood collection. Collecting wood though was surprisingly easy, I think mainly because I am so used to camping in areas where people always camp, where they collect every last scrap of firewood within 500 metres. We had a full moon early in the week so star gazing was limited to the couple of hours after sunset and before the moon rose. Nothing like a starlit night camping to remind you of just how many stars there are to be seen.

Saw next to no-one if you choose to ignore the cavalcade of six 4WDs that passed us near Artimore Station. Geez these guys have never heard of car pooling? In Hannigans Pass that same day we watched a 4WD pass us, evidently neither the driver nor the passenger saw us all lined up against a nearby rock eating lunch. He stopped at the top of a hill and sauntered back down to have a closer inspection of an old rusty car nearby, still showing no signs of having seen us. Sweet moment. We saw no-one again until the Alan, the local farmer at Narinna Pound, sought us out by following our footsteps one night for a hello.

**Is it really Mt Boorong? I don’t think so, I will check that out.

Download Google Earth KML file

Download kml file to view in Google Earth or adapt to use as a navigational aid in a GPS unit

Download our walking route drawn onto topographic maps.

Stats	Beyond the Heysen
	Sun	Mon	Tues	Wed	Thurs	Fri	Sat
	5/7/09	6/7/09	8/7/09	9/7/09	10/7/09	11/7/09	12/7/09
	Parachilna Gorge to Oratunga 1st Spring	Oratunga 1st Spring to Patawarta Gap	Patawarta Gap to Narrina Spring via Patawarta Hill	Narrina Spring to Clayplan Dam via Mt Tilley	Clayplan Dam to Christmas Goldfield via Mt Hack	Christmas Goldfield to Muglapena Gap	Muglapena Gap to Angepena
Distance	17.7km	25.0km	15.0km	17.6km	19.5km	19.5km	7.4km
Start Time	12.25pm	8.21am	8.40am	8.42am	8.25am	8.39am	8.12am
End Time	5.17pm	4.45pm	4.05pm	4.12pm	4.50pm	3.03pm	10.00am
Moving Duration	3h46m	5h54m	4h40m	4h58m	5h14m	4h9m	1h35m
Stationary Duration	1h4m	2h12m	2h36m	2h19m	2h53m	1h46m	4m
Moving Average	4.7km/h	4.2km/h	3.2km/h	3.5km/h	3.7km/h	4.7km/h	4.8km/h
Overall Average	3.6km/h	3.1km/h	2.1km/h	2.4km/h	2.4km/h	3.3km/h	4.5km/h
Oodometer	17.7km	42.7km	57.7km	75.3km	94.8km	114.5km	121.8km