Park life

You have climbed to the top of Mount Remark­able and the sun is start­ing the set, turn­ing the rock all around you a blaz­ing red. You can see down to the town­ship of Mel­rose and for­ev­er out across the Flinders Ranges.

You are stand­ing at the look­out in Yorke Peninsula’s Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park, over­look­ing the wreck of the Ethel, watch­ing the waves pound in and wash around the skele­ton of the bro­ken ship. You can smell the ocean and see it blend into the hori­zon far off in the distance.

You are sit­ting out­side your tent in Mam­bray Creek in Mt Remark­able Nation­al Park just after dawn, drink­ing a cup of tea. The morn­ing cho­rus of birds is singing in the giant riv­er red gums all around you, kan­ga­roos are graz­ing on the creek banks and emus are begin­ning to wan­der through the campground.

You are walk­ing the trails on a warm day in Mori­al­ta Nation­al Park and you have already seen 11 koalas nap­ping in the forks of the gum trees. A kook­abur­ra calls from a near­by tree and a pair of rosel­las zoom in front of you.

You are in your four-wheel dri­ve, tack­ling a steep dune along the Wan­na 4WD track in Lin­coln Nation­al Park. You catch a glimpse of an osprey fish­ing and remem­ber the win­ter you saw south­ern right whales breach­ing along the coast. 

You are stand­ing near the entrance to Bat Cave in the Nara­coorte Caves World Her­itage Area, the hairs on your arms stand­ing on end as you wait for thou­sands of endan­gered south­ern ben­twing bats to begin fly­ing out into the warm twi­light to look for food.

You are in your favourite place.

South Aus­tralia has set aside close to a fifth of the state for pro­tec­tion in more than 300 nation­al parks and reserves. These are the places that we love to go, to camp, hike, surf, watch the birds and ani­mals, have a pic­nic or take photographs.

They are our spe­cial places, where we can appre­ci­ate the beau­ty of nature, where chil­dren and adults alike can have fun, relax and de-stress.

With about 100 camp­grounds and thou­sands of kilo­me­tres of tracks to explore, what are you wait­ing for?

Go out and play!