We pulled into Mount Remarkable National Park in late morning. The park and campground is very nice although a bit expensive at $9/car and $17/night. It does have flush toilets and hot showers but still a bit much relative to a full serviced caravan park. We did get nice large sites surrounded by the trees and wildlife.
We set up camp before heading out on an 8KM return walk to Sugar Gum Lookout. Walk was nice but lookout was a major disappointment as trees blocked the views in all directions. One of our least rewarding walks because of the lack of lookout. We did see Scarfes Hut which was a Sheppard hut near the top and we certainly got our exercise as quite steep near where the lookout was. We were lucky enough to see a number of Kangaroos, Wallabies, and even the rare Yellow Footed Wallaby on our return trip.
Monday morning saw us jump in the Ransley's car and take a tour around the park. We headed North then East through the Horrocks Pass. The Flinders are a truly beautiful mountain range and we loved driving through them again. We wound through Horrocks Pass before detouring to Hancocks Lookout 7KM from near the summit of the pass. What a view! You could see straight out across the ranges and Spencers Gulf to Whyalla and Port Augusta. Turns out this is in the camps book and will be a definite stay should we ever venture through again. No facilities but close enough to Port Augusta for supplies if you decided to stay for more than a few days.
We continued East to Wilmington through the windy hills. Had a nice park here with a dump point and drinking water connection to top up caravans. Worth noting for future travellers.
We then turned South towards Melrose. We ventured into Alligator Gorge which is the other side of the Mount Remarkable National Park on our way. We did two short walks here that gave us different views of the Gorge. Thankfully you could actually see the Gorge from both lookouts unlike our walk yesterday. We enjoyed our morning tea there before heading south towards Melrose.
Next stop was Melrose of course which turned out to be a beautiful little town with lots of places to stay. Showground was reasonably priced ($10/night) and spread out over several acres. Caravan Park looked alright as well and again was spread out. There was also a free camp area called Goyder's Line as you came into town from the North that looked very good. We would definitely stay here if we pass through this way again. The town was very old but had many unique businesses set up in the historical buildings. We toured a coffee shop in an old blacksmith shop, an antique dealer, and some hotel rooms that were set up in the back of old trucks. Very quaint village and well worth a visit. We had lunch in a central town park where they had lovely gardens planted.
After lunch we headed South then West towards Port Germein. This pass was much more windy and narrow than the Horrocks pass and definitely not recommended for caravans. Enjoyed the drive nonetheless and arrived in Port Germain about 2:30PM. We walked to the end of the 1.7KM Jetty (longest wooden Jetty in Australia) and back. Probably not the smartest thing to do as was 36 degrees at the time. This is certainly the farthest we have seen the tide go out since Broome. We enjoyed the walk anyways and we ran into Di & Terry Butler when we returned to the car park. Had a short visit with them before stopping at the Pub for a very cold afternoon refreshment before heading back to our campground.
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