# Pics from South Australia Trip 4 (final) -- Arkaroola



## moloch05 (Feb 4, 2009)

The following are photos of my trip into the Arkaroola Wilderness Sanctuary and Resort. This privately operated reserve is located in some of South Australia's most scenic but inhospitable country. The reserve is situated at the northeastern end of the Flinder's Ranges. Access is via a 120km gravel road that turns east from the highway near Leigh Creek. The road is suitable for a conventional car as long as it has not rained, a rare event in this part of the country. 

My primary reason for visiting Arkaroola was to try and find one of the most beautiful dragons that live in Australia, the Red-barred Dragon (_Ctenophorus vadnappa_). I unfortunately had car problems on the way into the reserve so I had to depart sooner than I had intended. It was essential to try and find a mechanic before the start of a 3-day holiday weekend. As a result, I failed to find the dragon and many of the other herps from this area. 

I have to apologize but most of the following photos in this post are habitat shots with only a few herps at the end.

To reach Arkaroola, I drove east from Kimba and then turned north at Port Augusta. The road from Port Augusta soon passed the western slope of the Flinder's Ranges.



























Red River Gums were numerous along creek beds:






Cypress Pine were frequent on rocky slopes:






Near the little mining town of Leigh Creek, I turned east along a gravel road towards Arkaroola. The road passed through some bleak habitat. This sign made me laugh since there was so little "flora" to see:












Further west, the road passed through the Vulkathunha Gammon Ranges National Park. There was water in some of the gorges and even water flowing across the road in a couple of places. I talked with the locals and this was apparantly the remnants of heavy rain that they received in November (5", most of their annual rainfall).

... An interesting sign... 86 species of reptiles on their checklist!:





















The road emerged onto the edge of a plain that faced the incredible Lake Frome, one of several immense salt lakes of South Australia. This dry lake is about 100km in length and is barely visible on the horizon of the first pic. Once upon a time, there was a great deal of water in this part of Australia.






... gibber flats:











I climbed this hill with lots of cracks and crevices but did not see a single reptile. I suppose that this was not surprising since the rocks were hot to touch. The day had been about 40C.





... this is a view of the road as it disappeared into the distant hills of the Arkaroola Reserve: 











... here is the headquarters of Arkaroola. During the breeding season, a gorgeous male Red-barred Dragon (_Ctenophorus vadnappa_) lives on a rock near the building but now I unfortunately could not find a single animal. Staff said that they have not seen any recently probably due to the high temperatures. This resort is privately operated and reminds me a little of a desert version of O'Rielly's Guest House at Lamington National Park, Qld. There were many overseas tourists ... mostly American and Japanese ... who went on guided 4x4 tours through the remote country.







My car was sick (failing fuel pump) so I had to leave early on Friday morning and limp back to Leigh Creek for repairs. These are a few shots of the Arkaroola area that I took on the return journey:











... part of the formation named "old woman sleeping" by the aborigines:






Due to my limited time at Arkaroola, I did not see or photograph many reptiles. The few that I did photograph included this _Cryptoblepharus_ skink:






... and this new species to me, a Central Rock-Skink (_Egernia margaratae_):






... Central Bearded Dragon (_Pogona vitticeps_) near Leigh Creek:






I also saw but did not photograph a Gould's Monitor (_Varanus gouldii_) and a Black-headed Monitor (_V. tristis_). The later raced out of a tree and into a hole before I had a chance to take out my camera.

Here is a link to photos of the Red-barred Dragon, my target species at Arkaroola. These remind me a little of Eastern Collared Lizards since they can be bright green with red bars during the breeding season:
http://www.yellowfoot.org/Reptiles.htm


Despite the dry coniditions, there were a few plants with flowers on the rocky slopes:
... I think a member of Malvaceae





... a mulla-mulla:





... others:











Budgerigars were common along the creek beds along with Zebra Finches:






Little Corellas:






I was lucky to make it back to Leigh Creek in time to find a mechanic and to have a fuel pump ordered for overnight delivery. The next morning, I had a look around the countryside while awaiting car repairs. I was so lucky not have to "enjoy" this view for several days over the long weekend. This was the view across the road from the cabin where I stayed:





In this habitat, I found one of Australia's smallest lizards, _Menetia greyii_:











Later, I saw this DOR Western Brown Snake (_Pseudonaja nuchalis_) near a dry creek bed south of Leigh Creek.






I hope to visit South Australia again next season and try for the many species of _Ctenophorus_ dragons that I failed to find this year.


Regards,
David


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## Moreliaman (Feb 4, 2009)

Still looks like you had a good time m8 (pity about the brown) , nice pics, thanks.


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## froggyboy86 (Feb 4, 2009)

Great photos David, sorry to hear about your car travels. I'd like to travel to the Flinders Ranges one day and look for Crinia riparia. 

Aaron


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## OzGecko (Feb 4, 2009)

David,
You dont need to go all the way up to Arkaroola to see Red-barred Dragons. Further south, back in from Wilpena you can find them along with Tawny Dragons (some of which look quite interesting).


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## Renegard (Feb 4, 2009)

My parents actually own a 67 square km block of land up north of blindman, not far form arcaroola, leigh creek is actually the closest town to it.

But it takes us 3hrs to get in from the main road, it's actually only 30km in a straight line. But it is so rough to get it. The only reptiles i've ever seen up there was a stubby tailed lizard, and a saw a monitor of some sort run up a pine tree.

Looks like you had a good time regardless!


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## Renegard (Feb 4, 2009)

My grammar was that terrible in the above post i am not even going to begin to fix the abundance of errors.


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## moloch05 (Feb 5, 2009)

Thanks, all. 

Daniel,
That is interesting info to know. I had the impression that they only lived in the northern Flinders. Have you ever looked for the other unusual species like Ochre/Gibber/Lake Eyre Dragons?

Renegard,
I can understand slow travel like that. The road that I used was not bad but I still ended up with one slashed tire.


Regards,
David


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## OzGecko (Feb 8, 2009)

Hi David,
Lots of peole have that same impression, even some good friends of mine did until I showed them where they are.
As for looking for other dragons. I was going to go looking for Lake Eyre Dragons as the SA Herp Group has been invited to go looking for them on some of the smaller salt lakes, but I dont think I can get the time off work. A friend of mine found an Ochre Dragon a while back. He initially thought it was a painted until I told him it looked like an Ochre Dragon.


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