The Gawler Ranges

The next morning we headed off to visit the Gawler Ranges. These were formed 1.5 billion years ago by large volcanic activity. The amount of lava expelled was some 30000 times that emitted by Mt Saint Helens. Over the years, the valleys have been filled in with silt.

To get into the park, we had to drive about 60km, mostly on dirt roads. The roads were scenic and not bad to drive on. Being his company vehicle, Duncan had to (got to) do all the driving.

Once we got into the park, we found slightly more exciting roads and were glad for the high clearance of our "ute". (Australian for pickup truck/utility vehicle.) We met a couple that were attempting to do the 4wd drive loop in the equivalent of a VW van.

The vegetation was a bit different. We saw a lot of spinifex (a type of grass), which we don't have much of in Woomera. This variety I believe is porcupine grass, named because its stems are sharp and quite stiff. Generally, spinifex grows in areas that are dry and often lacking nutritional content. Unlike the chenopods which favor dry but nutritionally rich soil.
Spinifex:

A mix of acacia, saltbush and spinifex: (the colors are a bit garish, but that is what I was seeing all day with my polarized sun glasses.)

Some startled kangaroos look back at us after fleeing. I have determined that Red Kangaroos may or may not be red and Grey Kangaroos may or may not be grey. These may or may not be Red or Grey Kangaroos...

We stopped at several places that would have waterfalls during the rainy season. They all had a trickle of water seeping down them, and some had small pools of algae filled water and even tadpoles. We weren't completely sure where all the water for the waterfall would come from as the fall's catchment area did not seem to extend beyond a single hill or two.

The second falls we stopped at had a very nice formation of rhyolites which are formed as large volumes of lava cool. As it is cooling, cracks develop perpendicular to the surface that is being cooled by the air (the cracks are generally vertical). The rock becomes an assembly of vertical columns. As they wear away and crumble, they break along the crack lines and take on a form that causes causes them to also be nicknamed "pipe organs".

Duncan on top of the pipe organs.

We stopped at one of the falls to eat our lunch out of the back of the ute before it rotted in the hot sun.

In one region of the park we saw areas in the distance that looked a bit blackened and that were full of dead trees. It appeared there had been fires across a number of the hills to the south of us. Eventually, we came to a region where the fire had burned across the road. Much of the brush was gone and all the leaves on the trees were dead. The fires are not supposed to be real intense in this type of terrain. The vegetation is not that dense and the salt content of plants like the saltbush acts as a fire retardant.

Once section of road we drove on had a line of dirt down the middle. It looked like one half the road had been grated and they had left a ridge right smack in the center of the road. Sure enough, several minutes later a grater passed us coming in the opposite direction. He was regrading the dirt road to keep it smooth.