Mulga Parrots
Driving through Gawler was like being on a wildlife safari! Around every corner there was something to see…. red kangaroos, grey kangaroos, wallaroos, wombats, birds of prey, so much action.
We were especially excited to encounter the southern hairy-nosed wombat, a “near-threatened” species. They stood on their raised mounds of earth, seemingly keeping watch, but usually they would dive into the nearest burrow as we passed. Getting a photo wasn’t easy, we had to creep extremely slowly & quietly into position to avoid scaring them back to their underground network of tunnels.
Southern hairy-nosed wombat
Wedge-tailed eagle
Wallaroo
It seemed like we were the only humans in the park, and we had a campground to ourselves except for 2 roos who came to drink from the water tank (the land is so drought-stricken). The next morning we had a brief look at Lake Gairdner, a vast dry salt-lake, then we turned south along the endless dusty red road towards the main highway to Port Augusta.
On opening the back of our ute, we discovered everything was covered in a thick coating of red dust. And I mean everything…. It got into every corner, every box, everything was red! So after a long cleaning process, we have now attempted to seal and dust-proof our tray, as we have many more red dirt-tracks to come.
Wedge-tailed eagle chasing kangaroos