Defender Experience Flinders Ranges: Detailed Tour Review

I’m somewhere between Adelaide (Tarntanya) and the southern edge of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park, at that point where the skies expand, the dirt turns red and you can’t help but exhale. My fellow travellers are gleefully pointing out the odd emu while I’m trying to work out exactly how big 25,500 hectares is, in relative terms. Is Arkaba, my home for the next few days, equivalent to just over a million tennis courts? The size of two-and-a-half Disney Worlds? No, wait. It’s basically as big as Edinburgh. As we approach the property, a five-hour drive from the South Australian capital, I can confirm that the vast, rocky landscape is bigger and more beautiful than one could ever quantify with numbers.

Flanked by the Elder and Chase ranges and the cliffs of Rawnsley Bluff, Arkaba is a former sheep station turned wildlife conservancy and luxury bush retreat. People usually come here to unplug and immerse themselves in the landscape of grand old gums, fluorescent-hued parrots, enormous wedge-tail eagles and hundreds of kangaroos, wallaroos and emus. I’m here for the debut run of Defender Experience: Flinders Ranges, a four-day, off-grid journey to the heart of Adnyamathanha Country. Arkaba is world-renowned for its walks but getting behind the wheel of a range of tough-yet-luxurious Defenders (from the British marque formerly known as Land Rover Defender) lets you venture further than is possible on foot. Aside from the chance to escape the pressures of daily life, the unique offering promises an extraordinary perspective on this serene, ancient land.

Our group of five (all singles but you can book as a couple) settles in at the charming 1850s five guestroom homestead for our first and only night in a “real” bed. The following morning, we each plant small gum tree seedlings on the property. It’s just one of the ways the station works to re-wild the land and undo the damage caused by invasive species such as goats and rabbits. Conservation efforts like these are performed in consultation with the traditional owners of the land, the Adnyamathanha people, or “rock people”. “We’re the original rockstars,” jokes Pauline McKenzie, a local Elder who welcomes us to Country and shares a few of the storylines from the land her people have called home for thousands of years.

Over the next few days, we travel deep into the heart of the sprawling property. “Off-roading is addictive,” warns one of our instructors (Defender staff are on hand throughout the drive). By day two, I realise he’s not wrong. This isn’t a driving experience rooted in speed; rather, focus and awareness of your surroundings. The beauty is in the slowness. While I love a walk, this feels like a near-perfect way to experience the vastness of the outback – it forces me to take notice. We watch sunrises blaze across rock faces, traverse up mountains and down into creek beds before stopping for tea and coffee served from the back of our lead SUV. The adventure is helped along by the Defender’s advanced technology: the “see-through bonnet” camera helps visualise wheel placement and hill control makes navigating steep angles less nerve-racking. One luxury I become thankful for is the air purification filter, which shuts out the fine red dust kicked up by our convoy.

We shower in corrugated iron huts that look out to the bush (yes, the water is heated), ending dusty days under the stars where we fall asleep to calls of the wild. One night, we’re treated to an open fire banquet that includes saltbush-branch chicken skewers, rack of lamb and seafood sourced from the surprisingly not-so-far-away Port Augusta, prepared by chef James Viles and his team from Offgrid. On another evening, at “Camp Defender”’ a rustic setup strung with fairy lights, we enjoy an astronomy lesson from Arkaba’s head of conservation, Bruce Lawson.

I spend our final starry night tucked up in the Defender’s rooftop tent (it pops up with room for two), staring out into the darkness and looking forward to another fiery sunrise. I try to mentally calculate how many tennis courts of terrain are still undiscovered after our adventure. Likely too many to imagine.