Chasing Flinders #1

We’ve done lots of driving on the island so far, but today’s destination will be the biggest drive yet! We were heading to Flinders Chase National Park – the less touristy northern section. There was another light house to see, Cape Borda and then a 7 km walk I’ve been wanting to do since first looking into what we might do on KI. Google maps told us it was 120 km each way, but it would take over two hours. The last 30 km’s I knew was dirt road – I guess if it is in bad condition that could account for it taking so long.

So, with lunch and snacks and plenty of water packed we set off on the Playford Hwy, travelling back and then past the Stokes Bay turnoff. When we got to the dirt road, it was wide and well graded so we were able to get there a lot quicker than Google thought we would. It was very dry and dusty and we left plumes of orange dust in our wake.

We parked at the light house, then walked over to a small fence to take a photo of it. It’s a squat, square light house and dates from 1858. 

While at the fence an abrupt guide yelled out ‘where are you going’ and took exception to the fact that we were not paying for one of his tours. I don’t know if he thought we were trying to sneak in over the fence, but really, there was no need for that attitude. Any thought we had of a guided tour vanished at that point, so we took our photo and left!

A few km’s back up the dirt road – about 3 I think it was, we took the turn off onto Ravine Rd. This was a little track, narrower and rougher than the main one in. After another seven km’s it came to an end, and a car park. This was the starting point of our anticipated walk – the Ravine des Casoars hike.

Ravine des Casoars was named by Captain Baudin in 1802. Baudin saw the kangaroo island emu here – which was a unique dwarf emu, which he mistook for a cassowary. Casoars being the French word for cassowary. Rookie mistake perhaps. 

Unfortunately, by the time KI was settled in 1836, the dwarf emu had become extinct. So we had no hope of seeing either emus or cassowaries on our walk today, but we had heard that there were plenty of goannas and echidnas in the area.

We ate lunch in the car park before embarking on the trip which is around 3.5 km each way.

The walk follows the valley and the gradient is not very steep at all. We did see about three goannas but no echidnas on our expedition.

There were again plenty of colourful wild flowers. It seems this is the time of year to see the native plants at their colourful best.  

We had to step over – climb over in some cases a number of fallen logs. I set Gemma the challenge of counting them on the return trip – she did, keeping tally marks on a piece of paper the whole way. There were 44 of them!

There were some interesting lichen looking things too:

The second half of the walk in had us scouting along the edge of a coke coloured river. Tannin in the water stained it, but it was very clean and clear looking. Rocks created little cascades. Further down stream it was still and reflected the colourful banks on the opposite side.

We came out of the bushy area and found a bridge across the river. It had a greater lean than that famous tower over in Pisa. It appears it has sunk on one side. We bravely crossed it and found ourselves on the sand, following the river to the dramatic beach.

A magnificent place – steep capes either side, a narrow opening out to sea, wide sandy stretches. Cliffs and caves high up in the rugged limestone.

We spent a couple of hours exploring, climbing and the kids also got creative with some rocks and in the sand.

Not sure why Ethan decided to face plant into the sand though.

This little spider was about 3 cm in length – I’ve never seen a spider living on a beach, but he seems to camouflage well with the sand and limestone!

The walk back to the start was an easy climb and other than a couple more goannas, quite uneventful. 

Driving out of the area we stopped briefly at a pioneer cemetery where many of the original light house keepers and their families now find themselves. We are always in awe of the isolation places like this must have been for families. We thought it was a big drive in our comfortable air conditioned car… but in reality that was nothing!

Not long after that we came upon some locals who had hit a roo. They warned us there were lots about, so we slowed right down, eyes vigilant. We did see a few over the next few km’s. Then we came upon a wedge tailed eagle with some road kill of its own. We slowed down, then with the cloud of dust that we were leaving behind starting to envelope over us, we accelerated again when suddenly another wedge tail appeared out of the dust and nearly flew into the driver’s side of the car. I thought it would hit the windscreen at one stage. Not wanting to swerve on the dirt road, or even brake quickly, it was up to the skill of the eagle to avoid a collision. Fortunately it did, but it gave us a fright!

The drive home did take longer – we were on wildlife alert all the way. It was nearly 6pm by the time we got back. Exhausted, but what another great day out.