Easter at Rawnsley Park

Entrance to Rawnsley Park Station

 

Sunset from Pugilist Lookout near Rawnsley Park

Rawnsley Park Station

Rawnsley Park Station is a 29,000 acre property and has been owned by various families since 1851.  Today it is still a sheep property but also a tourist attraction and has accommodation including eco cabins, caravan sites both powered and unpowered as well as basic cabins and more luxury cabins and campsites.  It is about a 5 hour drive from Adelaide and is in the southern Flinders Ranges.  The nearest town is Hawker, about 30 km south of Rawnsley Park.  

The Cazneaux tree

The Cazneaux Tree, also known as Cazneaux's Tree, is a Eucalyptus camaldulensis or river red gum that was made famous by the photographer Harold Cazneaux. It is located in the Australian state of South Australia in the locality of Flinders Ranges near Wilpena Pound.

Scenery en  route

We have spent a few holidays in Rawnsley Park and many parts of the Flinders Ranges where we have camped in tents when our children were young, and then in our caravan since our retirement.  The Flinders Ranges is probably our favourite area of South Australia and most years we have spent some time in these beautiful ranges.  Over the years it has developed into a more touristy area but it is still enjoyable and still feels quite remote as there are many tracks and roads through the various valleys where you can feel quite isolated but also not far from civilisation.

Our holiday over Easter was with friends and family and friends of friends so our group was quite large, last count was 28.  Our two adult children with their families made up our family group of 11. 

This is the airstrip at Rawnsley.  Our son and family had a 1/2hour flight over Rawnsley Park and Wilpena Pound.

The waterhole at Rawnsley Park

View of the Flinders Ranges from Rawnsley Park campground

View of our van and awning and the group setting up their camper trailers

Our 5 grandchildren posing for the photo

Entrance to old Wilpena Homestead

Entrance gate to the old Wilpena homestead

Sunset from Pugilist Lookout near Rawnsley Park

Another view from Pugilist Lookout

Rugged rock formations

This view was taken north of Wilpena resort, near the Cazneaux tree

This is a painting which we have in our lounge room which was painted about 30 years ago by a local man from our suburb who obviously loved the Flinders Ranges as much as we do. As you can see the dirt road is now bitumen.  When we first visited here it was dirt road from Hawker through to Blinman.

Cats Galore (edited)

 Please read the already published blog as the first one didn't have any words, think I changed something after I previewed it! I think I am out of practice on blogging.

I have edited the post and hope it works now.

 Sorry about the confusion, hope you enjoy the words and photos.  

Cats Galore

I am linking up with   Sunday Selections

CATS GALORE

 I was going to head this post Pussy Galore but thought it might not be quite appropriate!

 Today was one of a very few days we have had out over the last couple of months, mostly because we have been doing a small makeover of our back garden which has turned out to be more work than our old bodies could handle - the joys of getting older.

Getting back to the Cats, we had a great day out today with a lot of cats - the four wheeled variety.   

It was the 50th anniversary of the E-type Jaguar, the best looking Jaguar in my opinion, but unfortunately we don't own one.  

We headed out this morning to the National Motor Museum in Birdwood, South Australia.  We didn't go to the Parade Ground in the city where the E-types had a display before heading to Birdwood.  We live on the Birdwood side of town so it was better for us to head straight up to the Museum where the E-types arrived later in the morning.  Members of the Jaguar Drivers Club of SA made up the numbers with the many different models of Jags.

 The weather here in Adelaide today was as good as it gets - nice and warm, no rain, no wind and nobody was complaining.

A perfect day for a picnic

The red ones apparently go faster!

And last of all is our 1985 XJ 6 Series 3

Day Trip to Kapunda, South Australia

We haven't been out and about much in the last few weeks as we have been making some changes  in our back garden trying to make it more maintenance free, but of course that has meant doing some physical work.  We both have some age related aches and pains which makes progress in the garden pretty slow, so we decided to give ourselves a break and headed off to Kapunda in the Barossa Valley for a drive and to rest our aching bodies!

Our first photo opportunity was this old Dodge car on a property in Kapunda.  For those of you that have followed my blog you may remember that my husband has an interest in cars, and also of rusty things, so this car was a good find for him, and I do find the rusty old cars quite photogenic too.

The trip from our house to Kapunda is a nice drive of about an hour, so it is good for a day trip.

Kapunda Railway Bridge

The bridge was built over the River Light using stone from the nearby area.The railway bridge is no longer in service.  It was opened in 1860 to transport copper mined in Kapunda, and the section between Gawler and Kapunda closed in 1994.

The o.d railway line is still visible in parts of the town.

This building is part of the original railway station, but I think it is now a Bed & Breakfast and a work in progress as there were no signs indicating a business.  It was quite impressive.

I took this photo as it is the Uniting Church where my husband's grandfather was minister for some years, in about 1930.  The original church is the brick building to the left of the one on the right.

Restored mine chimneykapunda open cut copper mine

Copper was discovered in Kapunda in 1861.  

Kapunda was a keystone in the early development of South Australia. It has the distinction of being the oldest copper mining town in Australia, but not the oldest copper mine.

Clyde, the Clydesdale sculpture at the Copper Mine

View of the open cut copper mine

 

There are some lovely old houses in Kapunda, here are a few different styles.  There are also some very new housing developments as well, but I love the old style.

Wheatsheaf Hotel est. 1855

Some more rusty stuff! 

We came across this collection of old farming machinery in the small hamlet of Allendale North, just out of Kapunda

Part of the main street

One of the hotels

Town Square

Mural depicting the farming area

Map the Miner, a 7 metre statue commemorating the Cornish mining history

Davidson Reserve is a nice area where we had lunch.  There is a lake and walking paths as well as covered seating areas.

After lunch at Davidson Park, we headed towards home, passing through the farming countryside with stacks of hay in most of the paddocks.

These next few photos were taken as we drove home through the foothills near home.