Willow Springs & Skytrek – The Adventures of Nick and Pam

After Bendleby Ranges we set north to hit another recommendation from our friends at Dobinson’s Adelaide, namely the Skytrek drive at Willow Springs station. While Bendleby Ranges had a huge selection of 4wd tracks, Willow Springs offers one track with extensive points of interest and documentation about the history, geology, and plant life along the way.

The entrance to Willow Springs station with the first of many amazing art pieces designed by local artist George Aldridge.

Once again, we were in a remote campsite, closer to the shower block this time (at Bendleby Ranges we were a 10 minute drive away; at Willow Springs a 10 minute walk) but still with our own drop toilet on site, fire pit, and near-complete isolation.

Our Valley View campsite at Willow Springs.

Willow Springs has been an operating cattle and sheep station since the 1860’s. The 70,000 acre property (!) can accommodate up to 4,500 sheep and 40 breeding cows. The owners generate power through a combination of mainly solar, plus two diesel generators, and attempt to maintain the natural landscape as much as possible.

In the Outback, there are many, many ruins of old homesteads, sheep shearing huts, paddocks, and even entire villages, with tons of history associated. On the Skytrek drive, there is this old sheep moxan’s hut, imagine living in all sorts of weather conditions in a shack like this…. or wait, is this something like living out of a Jeep and rooftop tent for a year??

This hut was built in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s and was occupied by a station employee until 1960!

The inside of the hut. Simple living to the extreme

The hut was restored by the Nissan Patrol Club of South Australia, which I thought was absolutely awesome. We will also be visiting Farina on this trip, the ruins of an entire village, and much of the restoration work there has been done by a local 4WD club as well. I just think it’s super cool for 4wd clubs to take on these projects – it adds value to the community, preserves history, provides the club an opportunity for trips to interesting destinations for restoration purposes, and provides other tourists points of interest on 4wd tracks. We belong to the Sydney Jeep Club and once we’re back from this year long trip it would be great to organise something similar for a NSW point of interest.

The first restoration took place in 1993, and ongoing restoration work continues even to this day.

The plant and animal life was pretty cool too, with of course the usual kangaroos and emus, an entire hillside full of Yacca trees (ancient, very hardy grasstrees in the same family as tulips, containing a resin used in the manufacture of gunpowder, varnishes, lacquers, and wood stains – extremely slow-growing, about 1.5cm per year), and a couple friendly Euros (a type of kangaroo we hadn’t seen before).

Yacca (the plants with the long stem out the top) flowering is stimulated by fire, and they cannot be transplanted – they must be grown from seed.

We also saw numerous majestic wedge-tailed eagles swooping around in the sky above, who sadly weren’t interested in posing for photos.

The rest of Skytrek was chock-full of beautiful sweeping views and fun four-wheel driving with a couple exciting steep climbs and some interesting sections of bull dust (a type of dust that settles heavily and can mask holes and ruts in the road – it’s sort of like driving over flour and can be a bit dangerous if it catches you by surprise).

More gorgeous scenery and dirt tracks in the Flinders…

One of the coolest things about Willow Springs was the relative abundance of water – probably why the station has been successful for so long in such a parched area of the country.

At the top of the lookouts on the final portion of the Skytrek drive we could see all the way to Wilpena Pound, the next destination on our itinerary. “Pound” is an English word meaning “enclosure with one opening” (think “dog pound” – if you’re like Pam, you never made the connection before – if you’re like Nick, you knew this all along).

Red rocks, blue sky, and Wilpena Pound far off in the distance.

The traditional name of Wilpena Pound is “Ikara”, and the Adnyamathanha people who originally inhabited and still inhabit the area tell that the formation of the Pound was created by two powerful serpents who were so full after eating all of the attendees of an important ceremony, that they laid down and willed themselves to death.

The traditional owners history of Ikara.

Nick and I had been to Wilpena Pound before, on our trip in 2017, and we really loved it – the campground is peaceful with lots of camping space and decent amenities, including a resort on-site with a pretty good pub + roaring fireplace for rainy or cold afternoons (ok, or for any afternoon). There are heaps of beautiful walking tracks and scenic drives. And when we were there in April 2017, it rained for the entire five days, so we were looking forward to actually being able to enjoy the lookouts and views! (The rain hadn’t kept us from the bush walks or scenic drives, but there wasn’t much visible…a whole lot of fog, mainly).

Glamour shot (as glamorous as you can get while camping, anyway)

This next stop is also where we meet up with lucky 13 Jeeps that are on the Sydney Jeep Club Simpson Desert Crossing Trip! They’re travelling 5100km in 15 days, and we’ll join them for about 1200km and 5 days before we turn north at Birdsville and they turn south back to Sydney. We’re super excited to hang out with some of our friends again, and of course to be a part of a 13-Jeep convoy, in a land of Hiluxes and Land Cruisers.

MVP Awards:

For Passing Time By The Campfire: In A Sunburned Country, by Bill Bryson (an account of the history of Australia mixed with the author’s personal experiences). Nick and I have been reading this to each other. I read it originally on the plane over here from San Francisco, and it’s amazing revisiting all the places that Bryson highlights, having been to nearly all of them now (we haven’t gotten to the Western Australia chapter yet).
For Eliminating After-Dinner Dishes: new favourite camp dinner is roasting sausages over the fire – no prep – no cleanup – it’s the best!!

So, Where Exactly Is This?
Here’s a screenshot of this leg of the journey from WikiCamps! The red is what we’ve already covered, and the green is what was featured in the post you just read. You can also follow us live at this link – our satellite device pings our shared map frequently.