7 November 2024
Nicole and I have just spent 8 nights in the Flinders Ranges. It is an absolutely stunning place to visit, and we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. While I’ve provided some details of our day-to-day activities in the Map section (also at the bottom of this post), I’ll cover some summary insights and tips here.
Highlights
Rawnsley Park Station
Rawnsley Park Station, where we stayed for the first 6 nights, was great. It had wonderful views, fire pits on every site, and plenty of room for everyone.
It had the very nice Woolshed Restaurant, where we enjoyed a fabulous Lamb Platter (sourced from sheep raised on the property) on our first night. Then, on the last night of our stay, we enjoyed awesome takeaway pizzas — mine, “The Vader” and Nicole’s, “The Rawnsley” featuring local lamb.
We had some great walks we could do with stunning views. First, the Clem’s Corner Walk …
Then for our second walk, part of the Pines Cave Walk then back home via Alison’s Saddle Walk.
Half day drive via Brachina Gorge and Razorback Lookout
On the recommendation of the staff at Rawnsley Park, we undertook this fantastic drive. There were some magnificent lookouts and views — a standout being the Razorback Lookout — some old ruins, and lots of different geological formations. A drive everyone visiting should do, but most of it is rough, dirt road.
Moralana Scenic Drive
We both really enjoyed this drive, just south of Rawnsley Park Station. We saw so much wildlife, including the usual (emus, kangaroos, sheep) and the unusual (a tree climbing lizard just hanging out). The scenery was great and the views, as typical in the Flinders Ranges, were stunning.
Wilpena Pound
While we did enjoy our two-night stay in Wilpena Pound campground to be closer to the trailhead, it was a little underwhelming as an experience. Most of the walks are 5 hours long and above and quite strenuous. So, we really only had the one walk that suited us — the 2.5 hours return Wangarra Lookout Walk — which, while still very pleasant, wasn’t as good as those at Rawnsley Park Station in our opinions.
Challenges
Time of year
Travelling around Australia in one hit means that you can’t get the timing right for all areas of the country — far from it. And so, we’d recommend not visiting the Flinders Ranges in late October / early November for two reasons:
- It’s very hot, dry and dusty this time of year.
- The days are getting very long at this time of year and so, with daylight saving in place, you need to get up very early or be out quite late to get the beautiful colours on the ranges in the golden hour.
Rough roads
While you can get to Wilpena Pound and Blinman on sealed roads, everything else is on dirt roads that can be pretty rough (depending upon how recently they were graded) and always dusty. Knight Riders is a Toyota Hilux and built for offroad, but you do pretty quickly get tired of having your fillings shaken out and all the cupboard contents getting shifted around. But that is the price of admission to access these stunning landscapes and experiences.
Knight Riders top tips for the Flinders Ranges
To finish up, here are our top tips for visiting …
- Get up early — as hard as that may be.
- Visit in the cooler months — to avoid the heat and have easier access to the golden hour times where the ranges are at their most stunning.
- Have a 4WD if you can — because you need to get on to the bumpy roads to see the scenic stuff.
- If you see nothing else, make sure you get to the Razorback Lookout and do the Moralana Scenic Drive.
- Absolutely have a feed at the Flinders Food Co (Hawker) on your way into, or out of the Flinders ranges — or in our case, both heading in and out. We highly recommend the sausage roll (rated by me as equal best in Australia thus far), the vegetable pastie, and the scrambled eggs on toast.
- Stay at Rawnsley Park Station, rather than Wilpena Pound Campground, although the resort at Wilpena Pound does have great hot chips and a reasonable IGA for supplies.
- Make sure you check that the Prairie Hotel will be open before you drive all that way to see it, as when we got there it was closed for a 4-day private function.
- If you’re driving in the early hours, watch out for kangaroos, emus and sheep, as they’re everywhere.
- Enjoy the Lamb Platter at the Woolshed Restaurant at Rawnsley Park Station.
- Talk to your neighbours — because we always try to and had some great chats with our neighbours at Rawnsley Park Station.
- Bring a good camera, because some stunning views await you.
Everyone should see this special place at some stage, so start planning your trip now!
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