Australia Red Center, Part II (photos)

20 March - 23 March

On 20 March, we woke up in Kings Canyon and headed out for a hike. We pulled up and put on our fly hats and headed out. After a bit of up and down hiking you get to a huge cliff where you can lay on your belly and look over the edge. This is the view from edge. We hiked down to a water hole and back up, carefully sticking to the trail. It was a good hike, hot and buggy, as we were accustomed to.

After Kings Canyon we drove up to Alice Springs, the largest city in the red center. We pulled in to a caravan park, set up and had pizza for dinner. My notes indicate that we boiled eggs that night.

The next morning (21 March) we got up around 5:30am and headed west of town into the West McDonnell Ranges. We hit all the sites; Simpson's Gap, Ellery Creek Big Hole, Serpentine Gorge (where we saw Rock Wallabies), the Ochre Pits and Ormiston Gorge. We skipped Stanley Chasm because they were charging for entry. We ate egg salad sandwiches for lunch.
Afterwards, we headed back into town and checked out the shopping district. We went to a jeweller and checked out their opals. We learned all about the different kinds and which are most valuable (we had already learned about them in Coober Pedy, and the stories matched). Red is the most expensive and they had some great stuff, at much better prices than in Coober Pedy or Melbourne. Dara bought (actually, I was carrying the money, so I bought it for HER) a really nice necklace that has a little speck of red in it that glints when viewed from the right angle. Then we got groceries and headed back to the caravan park for dinner. That night, I re-organized the car.

The next day, 22 March, was a big drive. We burned lotsa gas (we bought 75 liters according to my financial records, and bought more gas first thing the next morning. Since we "forgot" to pay for camping that night, our only other expense for the day was AUD$3.30 on popsicles). Days driving in the outback all meld together, but I bet we saw some dead animals and eagles and excellent clouds and listened to Neil Young Harvest and The Frames and Josh Ritter and maybe even some Velvet Underground or White Stripes. We probably talked to some people when we stopped for gas, and we probably waved at all the cars going by as is the custom to always wave when you come upon another car in the outback. But, according to my notes, this is the day the we crossed the Topic of Capricorn. As I recall, Rover was particularly excited about the event. The next major excitement of the day was reaching Wycliffe Well, which is the UFO capital of Australia. We carried on and made it to the Devil's Marbles, arriving before sunset. We parked and put on our fly hats and headed out to take some photos. The Marbles are excellent especially at sunset and sunrise. They were obviously placed there by aliens.
We saw there was a wooden platform and assumed it was there to protect from snakes or scorpians or poisonous toads or something so we put our tent on top of it. We slept pretty well except for a violent wind that caved the tent in on us, making it easy to get up to see the sunrise on the rocks. Here is our camp at sunrise. Dara didn't like the flies, but she's pretty tough.

So, 23 March, we broke camp and headed north. We passed through Tennant Creek, Elliot and Daly Waters. Then, it started to get a bit greener and we stopped in at Mataranka and had a swim in a waterhole there. From there we pressed on to Katherine, which has a big gorge which is supposed to be great to go canoeing on. The clouds were great and we made it there just around sunset. It was pretty hot, and we had crossed from dry heat to wet heat, so it was pretty uncomfortable. That night, sitting at our table, we saw flying foxes for the first time. They are huge bats and you can hear them as they slowly flap their wings. They flew by in hordes. It was pretty cool.

That same night we saw the mother and child wallabies. It was one of the highlights. The baby, more of a toddler, was hanging out eating beside its mother, and then it decided to climb into her pouch. I saw it coming and I figured it was regressing to infancy or something because it looked like it never would fit. It was amazing. I filmed it. Photos in the next entry.

Australia Red Center, Part I (photos)

14 March - 19 March

From Adelaide we headed north to Port Augusta, arriving there 14 March. We wanted to find a mechanic to fix a few things on the car and check it out again before we headed up into the outback. We were told that if you break down in the outback, it is so remote and desolate that you have no choice but to pack your bags and get on a bus since it costs more to tow a car than the car is worth. So, we wanted to be sure. We found an odd mechanic named Cootsie and had him check over the car. We replaced the oil pressure switch and the fuel filter and a couple of radiator hoses and flushed out the cooling system. We felt pretty good about things so we headed back to the caravan park and enjoyed a nice bottle of sparkling red wine. If you haven't tried this, you should. It's kind of like red champagne but tastes better and you can drink it like beer as opposed to drinking it like wine (e.g. quickly). The next step was to fill up our 40 liter fuel can and our 40 liter water bottles and all our other various water bottles and hit the road (on 16 March).


In the outback, you are on a two lane road and the one scary thing are the road trains, which are trucks carrying two to four trailers. They can't slow down and they take a long time to pass so no matter what your speed, they are scary.

We made good progress on the first day, making it all the way to Coober Pedy, which is an opal mining town. The place is so hot that most of the people who live there build their houses underground, dug into the sides of hills. We checked out the town for a bit and looked at some opal stores and then got some beer and went back to the caravan park. We set our tent up on some gravel and I found some bits of opal right under my feet. It was in Coober Pedy where we first encounter the outback black flies, which swarm you in search of moisture, which means they go for your eyes and nose and mouth. It's maddening. More on them later.

The next day (17 March) we woke up and packed up and went to The Old Timers Mine, where we went on tour of an opal mine. It was pretty interesting and they had seams of opal in there worth thousands. Then we headed north, passing opal mining fields. The next stop was The Breakaways which is where Mad Max Beyond Thunderdown was filmed. Here is a photo of us with Betty. It was here where we first started seeing the huge wedge-tailed eagles. Further along we would see them feeding on dead kangaroos. Sometimes we would even pass hugely bloated dead cows with eagles picking away at the carcass. Sometimes you would smell an awful smell and then you would see a deflated dead cow that just popped. It was pretty cool.

We made it all the way from Coober Pedy to Ayers Rock that day and enjoyed some beer in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. My notes don't say what we ate, but I bet it was pasta.

The next day (18 March) we woke up and drove out to The Olgas, seeing Ayers Rock for the first time seeing Ayers Rock for the first time on our way. We stopped at the car park where the hikes begin and got so attacked by flies that we retreated into the car and proceeded to kill the ones that came in with us. We sat there and watched people running across the parking lot to their cars. On account of the flies, and the fact that it was near noon and wicked hot, we decided to abort the mission and head back to the caravan park. We sat and had lunch and I was determined to save the eight dollars required to buy a fly hat. Our car had come with some mosquito netting and I made us some fly hats by stitching some string through it and tying it on top. Here is Dara modelling my creation.
After lunch we went over to the rock and went into the visitors center. It was about how the aboriginals used the land and found food in the area and the spiritual significance of the rock. We considered climbing it, but the locals consider it sacreligious and it was pretty windy and hot, and we didn't really feel like it, so we didn't. We decided instead to drive around the rock a couple times, once clockwise and once counter-clockwise. I have more film of this than I care to admit.

We went back to the caravan park, met some French people who sold us their New Zealand guide book and then we went to watch the sunset over the rock. The colors really come out in the sunset.

The next day (19 March), having learned our lesson the previous day, we went EARLY and with fly hats to hike the Olgas. Here is a nice shot of a valley. We were covered in flies, but we had our our fly hats on, so it wasn't so bad.

After our hike we had our final look at Ayers Rock and headed to Kings Canyon, arriving there and camping for the night.

Southern Australia (photos)

March 7-10

The Grampians National Park

After driving down the Great Ocean Road, we moved inland to the Grampians National Park. It was a nice way to spend a couple of days. The weather was better too, although the temperatures were colder than normal for this season.

Being on an animal hunt and all, we learned that there were emus at the nearby golf course. Jim was able to get a couple of good close-up photos of emus. We decided to get their attention by waving a red dish towel at them. It worked for a few moments, and they moved a little closer. But then, they trotted away. Go figure.

We did a moderate hike up the pinnacle the next morning. It was a relatively steep climb up the mountain over flat-edged rocks. It took us about 2-3 hours overall (being out of shape and all), but the view was worth it.

After the hike, we decided to rest and eat a little lunch in the sun. We then journaled for a couple of hours. It was the perfect way to spend the afternoon.


Collection of Animal Signs

Yes, animal signs .... after the little penguin sign on Phillips Island, Jim started a collection of photographs of animal signs along the road. Lots of koalas, kangaroos, emus, cassowaries, etc, are often hit by drivers. In the case of cassowaries, there are only 40 noted in the Mission Beach area of Australia. We never saw one of those either. Anyway, this is the beginning of a rather large collection of animal signs.

Below are two of the signs found in the Grampians National Park:
a wombat
an emu



Mt. Gambier

From the Grampians National Park, we decided to cruise back down to the coast to catch some more ocean views. We passed through this little town known for their volcanic lakes. Mt. Gambier Lake was a nice place to eat lunch, but definitely nothing too spectacular.


Coorong National Park

This campsite was listed as one of the top 10 in Southern Australia. Definitely for a reason. Our campsite was on a small piece of land surrounded on three sides by water. A perfect location for the sunset and sunrise. There were so many birds resting near our campsite. The pelicans were fun to watch off shore too. A peaceful place to be ... better yet, we were the only ones in the campground.

That night, the wind was strong and cold as it traveled across the water. We actually postioned the car to block the wind for both our table and our tent.

Check out the sunset shots:
Sunset Dara & Dinner.
Sunset East
Sunset West

With the great location, we decided to wake up early and watch the sunrise. This is the reflection of the sun to the west. It was still a little cold. That is me underneath that blanket. Looks like Jim snuck in another picture of Betty.


Deep Creek Conservation Park

Well, we found another secluded campsite along the coast. This conservation park was overlooking the ocean from the hills. Just another spectacular view of the coast here in Australia. :)

Check out a couple of photos:
coastal views #1
coastal view #2

Australia Southeast, Part II (photos)

March 1-6

Philip Island

Near Melbourne we stopped for a few days (1-2 Mar) on Phillip Island, which is famous for their "penguin parade." The penguin parade, which happens nightly, consists of herds of "fairy penguins" waddling up the beach after feeding out at sea for up to two weeks. They come in around 8pm every night. After the first one arrives, you can watch them storm the beach and rush to climb up into the bush to their burrows. It's pretty fun to see, but, due to the "touristic" appeal of the traffic, you end up paying a good bit of money to sit on concrete stadium-style stands and listen to a boring commentary until the floodlights come on. Even after PAYING, you have to be stealth if you want to video or take any photos. BUT, not to be negative, we were there, so I can't complain about it being touristic.... as the woman said to her husband when he arrived home complaining of rush-hour traffic: "you are the traffic."

Anyway, we also went to the location of the penguin parade during the day and they have an "interpretive" boardwalk which we walked on and we saw that the penguins were hanging out under the boardwalk. I got a photo of this penguin by hanging over the edge and filming underneath. Here's a profile of a penguin giving me the evil eye. When you leave, you need to check under you car for penguins before driving away.

Bending over the edge of boardwalk and stooping down to check under the car was more work than I'm used to, so when we got back to our "trailer park", I had a nap. That's our tent and table there and those big trees are Eucalyptus, which are the kind that koalas live in. AND, you may be surprised to learn that koalas attack. Everything is very dangerous in Australia. Even the cute little platypus has a venom-filled talon on its back foot. You also need to watch out for seagulls.


Melbourne

After Philip Island, we continued our clockwise journey and came into Melbourne. It's a nice city with some good old buildings, and we had a good time doing the self-guided walking tour. The Grand Prix was also there the same weekend, and on Thursday, you could get in for free, so we went and had a look. The cars go fast and you only see them for a split second. I don't get it. Here's a photo. We did a long walk and checked out the "alternative" part of town and had a great dinner at a place called "Deelish." We don't eat out much so it was nice.


Great Ocean Road

Melbourne is the beginning of the Great Ocean Road, which runs along the coast to Port Campbell or so. It was fantastic with great views of roaring abandoned beaches. We were going clockwise. The first place we stopped was Torquay which is a famous surfing location. We don't surf so we didn't really care but we stopped in the visitor's center and got a brochure listing the interesting sites along the way. We read it, digested it, created a mental map of the journey and checked off the locations as we went along. We like doing things like that sometimes.
--- The first place we stopped was Torquay, another famous surfing spot. The ocean views were nice, and we watched some surfers. CHECK.
--- The next stop was in Anglesea. It was raining. We went to a golf course known for its population of kangaroos. We saw herds of them. And, as I said, everywhere in Australia is dangerous. Ok, kangaroos. CHECK.
--- My notes tell me we next saw a lighthouse, a big arch and some waterfalls. Probably took photos, but they aren't uploaded. CHECK.CHECK.CHECK.
--- Next stop, KOALAS! There was a little turn off near the town of Kennett River. We were instructed to turn left at the caravan park and head a couple kilometers up the road. Then, we were to look up into the gum trees. We weren't sure what size they were but once we saw one (I spotted it first, hah!) we knew what we were looking for. We saw probably twenty or thirty different koalas, some of them were even awake. I got some great video of one climbing... a rarity during the day (they sleep twenty hours a day). We later learned that the koala population is in danger because a lot of the females are infected with clamydia. As I said, Australia is a dangerous place. Here is a picture of Betty on the road in Kennett river and here is a picture of a koala. Allright, koalas, CHECK.
--- Next we stopped for the night in Marengo, which is right next to Apollo Bay. It was cold and stormy, and we hung out in the camp kitchen. When we arrived, there was a pretty cool rainbow. Apollo Bay, CHECK.


The next day, 6 March 2005, according to my notes, I showered. We left around 11:30am and headed to the Melba Gully and did a short hike. There was a sign at the beginning of the hike warning of snakes. Then, we continued along and made it to the vicinity of the Twelve Apostles. We stopped off at Gibson Beach, which is just before the apostles. Since they didn't have color photography in the time of the apostles, I shot some photos in black and white. Here is Dara walking on the beach and here is one of the apostles, as viewed from Gibson Beach in black and white. Here is a picture the two of us on Gibson Beach. Ok, Gibson Beach, CHECK.
--- Next stop was the Twelve Apostle viewing boardwalk. Here is a picture looking back at Gibson Beach. Here is the standard Twelve Apostle photo and here is a photo of us, in sepia. The sky was very overcast, so we decided that we would check out some of the other sites and head back for sunset. When we went back to the carpark, I noticed a lot of helicopters. We prefer wheels. Twelve Apostles, CHECK.
--- Next we went and checked out some big blowholes. The ocean had carved out a channel and roars into these narrow passages and spurts up when it hits the edge. This photo, in my opinion, fails to convey these features. Thunder Cave Blowhole, CHECK
--- Next, we went and climbed down to Loch Ard Gorge. It was pretty cool. Here is a photo of us at the gorge. Notice that the weather is clearing up. Gorge, CHECK
--- Next, the Seabrooke River. We saw a lot of rivers hitting the sea in Australia and they are always interesting battles between water forces. Here is Dara, backlit. Seabrooke River, CHECK.
That was it, we checked off just about everything on the list, time to go to the campground. We stayed in Port Campbell that night and saw this coastal view on the way. We set up our tent, and according to my notes, had cocktails. Then we went back to the Twelve Apostles for sunset. It was pretty cloudy. Back to Port Campbell. It rained, and we played cards in the camp kitchen.

Australia Southeast, Part I (photos)

February 24-28

dara / We were off on the road and heading South along the ocean road. We wanted to see the main sights in Australia (the Twelve Apostles on the Great Ocean Road, Ayers Rock & the Olgas in the Outback, The Great Barrier Reef, the Whitsunday Islands and Whitehaven Beach). We also wanted to see all the fun Australian animals in their natural habitat.

In Saltwater Creek Camping Area in Ben Boyd National Park, there are tons of kangaroos . The kangaroos hopped around the tents and ate grass. Pretty wild. Then, Cape Conran National Park had these cool goannas in Australian speak or iguannas for the rest of us. They also had one of the best beaches, and it was deserted.

Wilsons Promontory is another national park along the Southern Ocean. We decided to camp here for a couple of days. There are great beaches and clear water perfect for snorkeling. We went for walks along the beach at sunset (romantic, huh?). We also enjoyed a little resting and relaxing after our first couple days on the road. I took an afternoon nap in Jim's hammock .

The birds are pretty cool in Australia too. Check out a kookaburra and an Australian parrot .

We like to cook dinner before it gets too dark. It just makes everything easier. Here is a picture of me when we are hanging out after dinner. We are catching up on our journals. It is a constant struggle for us to keep them updated. :)

Jim's favorite animal is the wombat . It is much bigger than this picture illustrates. They are a big, thick animal, that looks for food at night.

Apologies

Unfortunately, we have not had the opportunity to update the blog. We wish that there was a good reason. The only real reason - there are not many internet cafes in the national parks and in the Outback. And once you fall behind, it is hard to catch up. In summary though, Australia was great. We are now traveling around New Zealand in a campervan. Life is good, and we are enjoying every minute, although we miss all of you (of course!). We are looking forward to seeing you soon. More importantly, we are updating tonight ... There might be more pictures than text for the second half of our Australian trip unless a description is warranted.