Day 5: Kata Tjuta

After a quite relaxing and refreshing night in the resort, we were full of energy to walk around Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). The number of walks around the rocks has been reduced over the years from 12 to just 2. This is to allow the local aboriginal people to use the area for ceremonies and to protect sacred sites in the area from damage. The walks that remain are the Valley of the Winds, and the Walpa Gorge walk. We managed to get around both in the day we spent around the Olgas.
The Valley of the Winds lived up to its name: the walk starts by going through a narrow gorge into the centre of the rock domes, and the wind gets focused through here quite dramatically. There are 36 distinct rock domes that make up Kata Tjuta, and they make up a rough semi-circle, with a few in the middle. Once inside away from the wind, the scenery changes quite dramatically, from the dry, arid rocky conditions through the gorge, into a beautiful green oasis, with flowing water, hundreds of birds and plentiful wildlife, including the largest tadpoles we have ever seen! The cool shade from the many large trees provided us with a perfect place to have our picnic lunch. The walk takes about 3.5 hours, and it was amazing to see the different conditions as we walked around the circular route, which goes around the base of one of the large rock domes in the centre of the group. The trail took us up the side of one rock face, past a secluded waterhole where we saw a falcon being attacked by a family of crows. We saw the same falcon a bit later, having a drink from a stream running over the rock face, and managed to get some great shots of it.
After climbing up the steep rock face, the walk continued down through another steep-walled valley, with many birds nests clinging to crevices and caves in the rock faces. After this, it was a fairly easy circuit around back through the domes, and back to the start. We were both surprised with how green and fertile the area was - a stark contrast the surrounding area. It was clear why the area was a special place for the aboriginal people.
Walpa Gorge is a short walk up into a very deep gorge, with some amazing caves in the side of the sheer rock walls. Thankfully the sun was coming down, so most of the way we were in shade - a welcome change to the sun and heat of the previous long walk. After that, we settled into our chairs at the sunset lookout with a glass of wine, and watched the amazing changes that happen to the colour of the rock as the sun goes down.
It had been an amazing day amongst the majestic rock domes, and as we retired to the comfort of a swim at the resort pool, we were looking forward to the next day, when we would finally see Uluru up close.

A break in transmission

So its been a while since we've written anything! Apologies - put it down to us having too much fun, and not enough reception! I've actually been really surprised with the performance of the Telstra 3G USB modem we bought in Adelaide, its worked in most of the towns we've stopped in on the way. Unfortunately, we're often staying out of the towns, and reception is hard to come by when we're stopping for the night. So we've got a lot of catching up to do!

The Prequel - Part Two - SS

After a couple of nights in Apollo Bay, we headed west and continued our drive along the Great Ocean Road through the beautiful forests of the Cape Otway National Park. Then, along the rugged, spectacular, eroding, and iconic high cliffs of the shipwreck coast.

We stopped to view some of the limestone and sandstone pillars and arches, the remants of an old coastline being worn away by the relentless and pounding waves of the southern ocean. Amazingly over 50 ships were wrecked on this coast.

Here are a couple of pics for you:

The Arch:

From there we drove through the surprisingly vast expanse of forrestry in South West Victoria and around Mount Gambier in South Australia. Having seen the blue lake and sinkholes before, we bypassed Mount Gambier and continued on to Beachport.

Beachhport is a sleeply little town, with only a handful of streets and a couple of pubs. On a previous trip to SA Nik and I stopped at Beachport and I thought it was beatiful, with brillant blue water and spectacular coastal scenery. I thought then, and still do now that all it needs is a a beach side mexican restaurant!

We stayed at Bompas, one of the pubs, located directly across from the jetty, in an old room in the hotel. We had access to the balcony from our room with a view across the bay.

We also didn't do much in Beachport. We played some scrabble, ate fish chips at the other pub up the road. Nikki had his first of many fisherman's baskets, and ate more left over cheese. I thought I'd learn to drive Bogart our 4wd, and after an hour or so of crawling around the back streets of Beachport I set of to Robe, where wen enjoyed dinner at the Calendonian Inn.

From Beachport we set course for Adelaide. On the way out of town we stopped at a cutting (see photo below) .The cutting shows you what you can do if you put your mind to it! We stopped at Kingston SE for lunch. There were police road blocks set up, probably looking for the Kapunda murderer.

After lunchwe continued our drive along the coast and past the Cooryong (spelling?). It was less stinky than it had been in the past, but still stinky, and obviously benefiting from greater flows down the Murray River, with plenty of bird life to be seen. The squiggly line in the photo are migratory birds.

Day 4: Coober Pedy to Yulara

Waking up after a reasonably restful nights sleep underground, we faced the longest driving day so far, and not much to be seen on the way. Plenty of flat open plains, with the odd crazy roadhouse in the middle of nowhere.
On the way to the border, we were fascinated by what looked like a black sheet of oil covering over the red soil in some large open areas. We stopped and checked it out: turns out it was a layer of small, black rocks, perfectly distributed in a single layer over the soil. We have since spent some time trying to work out how this unusual landscape could have been formed, It didn't look like the blackness was due to fire - the rocks looked black all over.
As we crossed over the border into NT, the landscape changed into more small rolling hills, interspersed with red, sandy dunes, and rock outcrops. We were very impressed with the huge rock outcrop of Mt Connor. Unfortunately you can't get near it as it is on private land, but we thought that it was a remarkable peak in the otherwise flat landscape. It has very sharp, squared sides, which are very different to the more rounded shape of both Uluru and the domes at Kata Tjuta.
We stayed at the Voyages Desert Sails Resort, right next to Uluru for the next 3 nights, which was a fantastic chance to rest and relax by the pool, in between walks around the spectacular scenery of the area.

Day 3: Hawker to Coober Pedy

Just a driving day today. Checked out a couple of ruined buildings on the way out of the Flinders. Susannah is now talking about building a new house out of stone! I am more keen for a small guest cottage first, and then just going from there. :p
Stopped briefly in Port Augusta to get the tyres aligned after all the dirt roads and potholes in the Flinders. Also managed to get some new tyres ordered up from Adelaide, for us to get fitted once we get back down to Port Augusta, after Uluru. Bogart (our Toyota Hilux Surf 4x4) is a japanese import, so getting parts for him can take some planning. He is running fantastically though, after a full service in Adelaide. I have no doubt he will continue to serve us well during our journey, even he does get very dirty and covered in locust bits!
The drive up to Coober (not Cooper, as I have always thought!) Pedy was amazing. After you head away from the coast, the landscape is so flat and featureless that you get excited when you see a fence, a radio tower, or another car. Susannah has also started driving the car (it's her first manual car) and is doing really well, already driving a couple of hours a day. We have started getting into the country waving habit, as the cars get fewer and far between it seems more appropriate than back home (we just wave to people who live on our road). The ground surrounding Coober Pedy looks like giant burrowing animals have been living there, as the clay and dirt piles thrown up by opal mining dot the ground in seemingly random patterns and sizes, from tiny molehills to virtual mountains.
In Coober Pedy we stayed in the underground motel, which was a pleasant surprise. Cut into a rock wall, the only thing visible from outside is the door to the room. It was amazingly cool (tempature wise and conceptually) and surprisingly tranquil - an underground house is very quiet, you certainly don't need to worry about hearing noisy neighbours! We will definitely consider staying underground again on the way back, when we will spend a day checking out Coober Pedy properly.
We have also decided to catch the Indian Pacific back to Adelaide once we've reached Perth, with our car on the back. It should be fantastic - I've been talking about taking a long train journey for ages, so I think this will be a great experience for us.

Day 2: Flinder's Ranges

We stayed in Hawker, at the Hotel Motel, which is a quaint 1970s style motel, but quiet comfortable and spacious. We drove from Hawker, up to Wilpena, and checked out the edge of the Pound. we had lunch in the campground, which was quite quiet for this time of year, with plenty of vacant sites.
We then drove up to Blinman, stopping at almost every lookout on the way! Needless to say, the camera ran out of batteries before the end of the day! It is so beautiful up there at the moment, there is a fair bit of green around with the recent rains, but the plains are still that great yellow colour, and the rock walls are a striking contrast of reds and grays. Blinman mine was decidely average: the paths are all overgrown with shrubs and trees, forcing us to walk around some decidedly dodgy cliff-top paths to see the whole place. And since the underground parts of the mine is currently closed off, during safety renovations, we couldn't really see much. Found some beautiful bits of copper infused rock in the surrounding area though, so I have added these to the rock collection...
I am totally obsessed with eagles, and forced susannah to pull over whenever I saw one (or anything vaguely eagle shaped), so I could take copious photos. I shall have to work out what I've photographed now - luckily we brought the "What bird is that" book. Am I becoming a twitcher?

The Prequel - Part 1 - Susannah

We packed the car and drove to Melbourne to party with Carolyn and Tim who recently got engaged. During our stay we visited many Melbourne institutions including Brunetti's, the Alexander Gardens, and the Hofbrauhaus (kranskys and steins of beer - awesome!).


Brunetti's

Photo of the flower display in the conservatory in the Alexander Gardens

Before we left Melbourne Nikki spent some quality time with his blue cheese and I spent some time with left over wedding cake.

We also caught up with Bernie and Megan who helped us set up the lighting for the wedding. On the way out we stopped off at Werribee Mansion and checked out the grounds and the Victorian State Rose Garden. We've come away with a few ideas for the garden, mostly involving massively old trees. :) We are now thinking we need an rose arbour, an old style green house, an orchard and fewer trees so that those that remain can grow to their full potential.




























We also saw a polo match!

We then drove along the magnifent Great Ocean Road and stopped off at Apollo Bay for a couple of nights. We didn't do much there as there is not much to do. But, we did relax in the spa and enjoy the local pizza, and fish and chips, and the local scenery.

Here are some photos of Apollo Bay.