Alligator Gorge - Mount Remarkable National Park

We've made it to our 4th Australian state; very aptly named South Australia. At the border we chucked al our fresh produce (4 carrots and an avocado) into the quarantine bin, and, as we found out that evening, crossed over to a new time zone. That day had 30 minutes extra. 

Our first stop was Victor Harbor, an uneventful, but cheerful little place. We walked over the Esplanade to town, circled Granite Island, did our laundry, and Rodie caught some Pokemon. We had planned to go to Kangaroo Island next, but we opted out in the end. With our campervan (that is over 2.5m high) we could only book a 6am ferry, which meant we had to drive there before sunrise. Or book an expensive tour and leave the campervan on the main land. After some contemplating, we decided to drive to Adelaide instead. Unfortunately we can't do everything in our limited time here. 

On our way to the Flinders

After Adelaide we headed to the Flinders Ranges. We started at the South Flinders, Mount Remarkable National Park. Alligator Gorge to be exact. We found a campsite in Wilmington, just at the entrance of the acces road to the gorge. We were kindly invited by the owner join him for his sunset possum feeding. And even though we are wel aware that he totally corrupts the possums, it was lovely to see them up close.

Wilmington is one of those tiny towns in this area of the world. They'll have general store / petrol station / information booth combined and maybe a post office. Wilmington tops all that with a café (where they 'do all types of coffee!'), a toy museum, and... yes really... a puppet museum! We managed to skip those last three, but bought our park permit at the petrol station. 

Gently sloping track

We read warning at a few places that the road to Alligator Gorge is very steep, and not to be done with caravans or busses. We asked locals, and they said we'd be fine, so we went. And yes it was steep, but very feasible, we've done much worse. And it's full of wildlife. So many emus and euros (a type of kangaroo) that we had to brake a few times, in order to not hit them. Which usually doesn't happy that much in broad daylight.

And we decided that an emu does not run very graciously, in case you were wondering.

Scattered trees

Once arrived at the car park we had to pick our walking route. Most hikes in Australia are one way, and then you retrace your steps to return. We prefer to do circuit hikes, and that usually significantly lowers our options. In this case we had 2: the Alligator Gorge Ring Route Hike (4-5 hours) or the Gorge Circuit Hike (2 hours). We chose the latter. 

We decided to walk against the described direction, because you should start with descending about 250 steps. And I rather walk up than down. Or more accurately, my knees hate walking down steps. The first 20 minutes were slightly downhill, and then we hiked over some rocks to Alligator Creek. This next stretch is called the Narrows. Well named, since it is a narrow gorge. You can see how the water must whirl through it when there has been serious rainfall. The evidence of scattered  trees is abundant. But luckily no rain fell during our walk.

We just walk-step-jumped this bit 

We did have to cross the creek every few meters. There were stepping stones to do that. Sometimes we had some trouble identifying the correct stones to step on, but that was part of the fun. And the water was just 30cm deep at most places, so had we misstepped, and we didn't, it wouldn't exactly have been life threatening. But after 40 minutes or so the stepping stones didn't cross the creek, but kept to the middle! 

This was the narrowest part of the gorge, and the only way through was where the creek was. We had some near-misses, but made it through with only wet shoes. A good thing we wore waterproof shoes. The water level was really at its maximum height to be able to walk this bit.

Spot the euro!

We walked another 15 minutes in a beautiful valley, and almost bumped into one of those euros! After another creek crossing we reached the bottom of the stairs, and could start our final ascent. Is was really a wonderful hike, and we regret not doing the longer ring route. But hey... If you'd know everything in advance life would be pretty boring right? 

The final stretch...