MTBing
Flinders Ranges, SA
October 2008
Heidi MTB's in the Lofty Ranges
Our journey started in the lovely quiet village of Crystal Brook, at the base of the southern Flinders Ranges. With hot weather expected, Heidi's MTB received a hot workout as we travelled north towards Melrose at the base of Mt Remarkable.
Bindi was playing havoc with Heidi's tyres, as it managed to pierce her tubeless tyres in many places. Lucky she was carrying a few spare tubes.
Laurie was enjoying the freedom of 4WDing, but at Melrose, he donned his walking boots, and climbed the scenic Mt Remarkable (a 12km round trip).
Heidi's MTBing took her through some interesting countryside before reaching Port Augusta & Quorn. With heaps of flies & very hot weather, plus many tracks closing at the end of the month as the fire season approaches. So we decided to head south and travel through the cooler Lofty Ranges.
As we retraced our steps to the base of the Flinders Ranges, thunderstorms greeted us. Flash flooding marooned many sheep as well as flooding a camper in the Burra Gorge.
Heidi saw the electrical storm approaching and quickly packed up the MTB and took the safer journey to the Gorge in the 4WD.
We were very lucky to be on the road at the time, and took in the devastation from a high vantage point from our 4WD, before camping in the gorge with sunny skies appearing after the storm.
Our journey wound up by crossing back into Victoria and checking out Lindsay Island. This is a little visited area up in the NW corner of Victoria, where the Vic, NSW & SA's borders all meet. We tried to drive to the intersection of the borders, but unfortunately it was private land. It looks like a boat is the only way to explore the meeting of the state borders.
Lindsay Island is a fascinating area with abundant vegetation along the river corridor, but desert conditions soon prevail once you head away from the river banks.