Wilpena Pound

Arid, dry and barren - three words that seem to characterize this place and have done so since settlers tried to make a living off its lands back in the 1800's. On the drive in a few remnants of their stone houses still sit empty and crumpling to the side of the road. We woke reasonably early to take in a day of exploration of the area. We were greeted at the information hut with " Mr Parker and family I presume" - as the kids' schoolwork bag had preceded our arrival and Jen's name is on the tag. The kids were a bit excited with the new environment and all the pamphlets at their disposal so I had to mind them while Jen collected the info on what we could do and when. Given the low wind we decided to do the flight over the Pound to start then zip around to the Old Settlers Village and Solar Energy power plant on our bikes. We were beginning to wonder whether it was worth carting all these two wheelers around as we hadn't used them much - today made the carting around all worth while. Piper managed to fall on her chin while traipsing around a monument recognizing the adversity suffered by the aborigines in the area and gave herself a nice purple goose-egg. You keep wanting to wipe it off but it just won't come. In the afternoon we enjoyed the pool at the resort and then did a short drive to the Sacred Canyon to see some ancient aboriginal rock carvings. The 500m trail took us into a small gorge weathered from previous floods and water flow with smooth rocks and narrow gulleys. The carvings were simple symbols like stick men, squares and circles depicting areas of old camps and the people who inhabited the area at times. The kids had a great time scrambling over the rocks and into little cave-like areas like novice explorers on their first trek. Night fell and the sky lit up with a blanket of stars. Aidan looked up and pointed out the constellation Orion and his belt like it was second nature (Can't you see it Dad - just there). We finished the night off with a short game of Scrabble - won't be long before Aidan will prevail methinks!