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landy19840

Member Since: 13 Mar 2011
Location: Non
Posts: 1817

2007 Freelander 2 TD4 SE Manual Zermatt Silver

Awesome pics again! If your fuel gauge does that again, disconnect the battery live then wait 5 seconds and reconnect! This work for me the other week, had exactly the same embarrassing situation!

19th Jul 2012 12:28 pm

mikehzz

Member Since: 04 Sep 2009
Location: Springwood
Posts: 749

Leigh Creek has the best supermarket when you are leaving the Flinders so stock up there. Marree has a little one and William Creek has a pub with everything imaginable pinned to the walls and ceiling left as souveniers by overseas back packers. There is a good collection of girls underwear pinned up You can camp for free at the Marree pub in their side car park.
Also, a lot of the Flinders is national park so if you are going to camp in places like Brachina Gorge you will need to pay for a pass at the Wilpena ranger station which is at the Wilpena camp ground. You should at least do the walk to the first lookout at Wilpena.

Last edited by mikehzz on 19th Jul 2012 2:35 pm. Edited 1 time in total

19th Jul 2012 2:20 pm

duckworthparts
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Member Since: 02 Mar 2009
Location: Lincolnshire
Posts: 1131

great photos (i'm sure some wouldn't look out of place in a Land Rover Brochure) and a cracking write up Sophie Alltoft

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19th Jul 2012 2:34 pm

iain cooper

Member Since: 27 Aug 2007
Location: north of Glasgow
Posts: 1989

2009 Freelander 2 TD4_e HSE Manual Lago Grey

duckworthparts wrote:
great photos (i'm sure some wouldn't look out of place in a Land Rover Brochure) and a cracking write up

yes agreed, brilliant reading, much appreciated Vesko

Iain

19th Jul 2012 4:10 pm

J T

Member Since: 21 Mar 2006
Location: Don't tell em Pike
Posts: 207

2012 Freelander 2 SD4 Sport Auto Santorini Black

Love it. .What camera are you using? Photos look so sharp.

19th Jul 2012 5:28 pm

taztastic

Member Since: 03 Feb 2011
Location: North West
Posts: 8652

Excellent work, stay safe and enjoy the trip

19th Jul 2012 8:47 pm

djwhyte

Member Since: 24 Aug 2010
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 336

2007 Freelander 2 i6 SE Auto Tambora Flame

Yeah, lovely work with the camera. I normally can't seem much of a difference between good and bad shots, but your pics do look amazing! 1st time FL2 owner. 2007 SE i6 in Tambora Flame.

20th Jul 2012 10:10 am

SimonB

Member Since: 23 Feb 2011
Location: Berkshire
Posts: 202

2011 Freelander 2 SD4 HSE Auto Stornoway Grey

Great photos! Do you photoshop the skies in, they don't seem natural!?

20th Jul 2012 1:16 pm

Vesko

Member Since: 18 Jan 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 184

2011 Freelander 2 SD4 SE Auto Stornoway Grey

This week I am working hard like a dog! Dead tired, sorry guys I am not very clever to come up with smart replies (thank you all), but for SimonB - the skies are not photoshoped, that's why there are so many (seemingly the same) shots I included, because I like them so much. The skies in the Australian outback cannot be described, cannot be even shown with my poor effort. They can only be experienced. Vast spaces in contrast with the lonely microscopic self! That's one of the things that pull me in there...

20th Jul 2012 2:05 pm

Pegleg

Member Since: 15 Apr 2010
Location: Deep in mid Wales
Posts: 3114

2008 Freelander 2 TD4 GS Manual Santorini Black

SimonB wrote:
Great photos! Do you photoshop the skies in, they don't seem natural!?

I thought the same as you.
Obviously we were wrong

Another member of the failed FL2 clutch/DMF club, twice.

20th Jul 2012 6:34 pm

mikehzz

Member Since: 04 Sep 2009
Location: Springwood
Posts: 749

The first thing I noticed when driving around UK and Europe was that the light was totally different. Sort of dimmed down compared to here. There was also more haze in the air so the view into the distance was fuzzy. The colours in the Outback are very vivid and the light is very bright, enough to burn you very easily. We have the highest skin cancer rate in the world so it's not all good Older Australians can have very blotchy skin from the sun damage. I laughed when visiting someone in France where a lady looked at my hands and thought I had some sort of disease. Not to hijack Vesko's very interesting trip with glorious pictures...

20th Jul 2012 8:48 pm

Vesko

Member Since: 18 Jan 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 184

mikehzz wrote:
The first thing I noticed when driving around UK and Europe was that the light was totally different. Sort of dimmed down compared to here. There was also more haze in the air so the view into the distance was fuzzy. The colours in the Outback are very vivid and the light is very bright, enough to burn you very easily

How true! When it is so bright, I use a polarizer filter to kill the light a bit. It intensifies the colours and increases the contrast. This might explain the vivid skies.

Last edited by Vesko on 23rd Jul 2012 9:51 am. Edited 1 time in total

21st Jul 2012 12:08 pm

mikehzz

Member Since: 04 Sep 2009
Location: Springwood
Posts: 749

The other thing I noticed in Uk was how beautiful the English girls skin was due to the softer sun exposure. It does have some advantages.

21st Jul 2012 2:31 pm

djwhyte

Member Since: 24 Aug 2010
Location: Brisbane
Posts: 336

mikehzz wrote:
The other thing I noticed in Uk was how beautiful the English girls skin was due to the softer sun exposure.

I put that down to a diet that was heavy on Fish n Chips. Moisturising the skin from the inside to out

Though maybe that was just what happens where I came from in Blackpool

1st time FL2 owner. 2007 SE i6 in Tambora Flame.

21st Jul 2012 2:59 pm

Vesko

Member Since: 18 Jan 2012
Location: Sydney
Posts: 184

Day 3 Flinders Ranges

Bright and shiny! What a morning. I am quick with the coffee and rush to put things away in the tent. There is so much to explore. First I drive 20km to Wilpena Pound. There is a resort and a very helpful information centre with maps and useful advice for the many walks in the area. Wilpena Pound is quite remarkable - a beautiful valley surrounded by mountain ridges and only one access road twisting along a narrow gorge. I am touched by the story of hardship the first settlers experienced here, poorly equipped to understand the local conditions of long droughts, bushfires and devastating floods. I climb a small peak to see the whole of Wilpena Pound. Wilpena is the aboriginal name for this place, but no one really knows what it means. I finish my walks with a nice cup of cappuccino at the resort’s café.

Click image to enlarge

After Wilpena Pound I drive to a massive, half dead, but still standing tree, which is very special. Those who love photography would recognise its distinctive silhouette with the mountainous background. This is the Cazneaux’s tree. It brought him international fame in 1937 for his photo “Spirit of Endurance”. Yes, I agree - the tree is impressive.

Click image to enlarge

A few hundred meters after the Cazneaux’s tree is the turn to the Sacred Canyon, where (the brochure promises), you can see real aboriginal rock art. It’s my first taste of a bush drive in the Flinders and I like it (with the gravel mode engaged). The canyon itself is interesting, but I am a bit disappointed with the aboriginal art there. I see some engravings on the rocks, but somehow I am not impressed. They look like graffiti done by a silly schoolboy. Maybe I am cynical or maybe they are real aboriginal graffiti. At least, I am grateful I can come to this place and wander about it.

I walk along the dry river above the canyon, hoping to get to another, more impressive aboriginal “sacred place”, but except dry, hostile bush and sharp rocks, there is nothing else. For a moment I wander what would I do, if I am stranded here without water and food. How would I survive? This thought brings me some kind of desperation, which floods my mind and I rush to get back to my beloved Landie as soon as possible. A strange thing happens exactly the moment I get to the car. The sole of my left hiking boot rips open. Stepping to the car I wander if this could be repaired, but then at the same time the other one also flaps loose. How bizarre – just at the end of my bushwalks. Obviously the sharp rocks of the Flinders were too much for my trusty old hiking boots. I start to pray for my Landie tyres, because I have a great plan for the afternoon.

Click image to enlarge

First I go to the office of the caravan park to pay $45 for the Arkapena scenic drive (following the good recommendations of Mikehzz) plus $10 deposit for the key. The receptionist says I don’t have enough time, because it is 2pm and I have to be out of the property by five and bring the key back by six. I insist a little and get the key. She might have a soft spot for me (or my money). I change shoes quickly and grab some leftovers from last night’s BBQ which I gulp down on the way to the entry gate of the drive - I am so excited, this is my first real off road experience.

The beginning of the track is quite innocent, flat and grassy with some close bushes and eroded turns, but then it starts to go sharply down and up. Some of the dry creeks are so narrow and steep - even if I crawl by millimetres I cannot avoid the front plastics landing on the rocks. And what rocks! They are really sharp. Some sections are covered with them, so narrow; you just continue slowly, praying your tyres will not burst. Just when I start to regret my eagerness to undertake this drive, I get out of the bush and immediately understand the meaning of this drive - the country is stunning! It deserves all the risks. My Landie works hard and earns its reputation. I use mostly the gravel mode, but there are sections, where mud and ruts are more suitable. Hill decent comes in very often for the steep hills.

Click image to enlarge

I finish the All-Wheel Drive section without much drama - my tyres are still holding. There is a public road that would take me back to Rawnsley Park Station and I decide against going into the 4WD section of the Arkapena scenic drive. It’s getting late now and I don’t want to push my luck too much. Better to get back on time for a celebration.

O, yes dear friends. Tonight I open a special bottle of Barossa Valley Shiraz (Chris Ringland CR Shiraz) and cook myself a feast on the charcoal BBQ: lamb cutlets, mushrooms, haloumi cheese. I am so happy with my achievement and with what I have seen so far. Very happy indeed!

Tomorrow I will drive some more around the mountains.

Admin note: this post has had its images recovered from a money grabbing photo hosting site and reinstated

Last edited by Vesko on 23rd Jul 2012 10:09 am. Edited 4 times in total

22nd Jul 2012 11:04 am

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