The Rock

ULURU This morning was fine with a little bit of sunshine and we headed off and did the walk around the base of the rock, 3 hours. It sure does look great looming out of the ground on the drive out there and walking around it is surprising the different angles, textures, rocks and caves. It was great seeing some water trickling down and some water in the Kantju gorge. You feel that photos do not do justice to what Mother Nature has created.

Now in the Northern Territory

MT CONNER Yesterday we crossed the border so now in the Northern Territory, haven't encountered any warmth yet. Today we travelled the Lasseter Highway to Ayers Rock with the main rock now known as Uluru. Mt Conner is the first mass that you come across and rises 350 metres above the desert, commonly mistaken for Uluru as you can imagine.
ULURU Our first view of the great rock, it sure is spectacular. It has clouded over this afternoon so fingers crossed that the weather clears in the next couple of days so that we can do some of the great walks. Couldn't get over the pink colour without the full sun so must look fabulous at sunrise and sunset which we hope to experience. It is 3.6 km's long and rises 348 metres above the desert and apparently has another two thirds below the sand.

Lake Eyre

WARBURTON GROOVE Today we did a flight from Coober Pedy up to the northern part of Lake Eyre where the water is flowing in from Warburton Groove with all the water from the floods up north earlier in the year. It is a rarity for the lake to have water as it is usually a salt pan. There is now a lot of bird life in the area and we got to see several flocks of pelicans. How does word get out there about the amount of water and fish?
OPAL MINES AND TAILINGS they look quite eerie from the air. WILLIAM CREEK HOTEL After flying over the Lake we landed at William Creek to have bit of a stretch, naturally we went to the hotel, which is quite famous as the only tin shed hotel in Australia and one of the top tourist spots in South Australia. We ordered a drink, looked at the clock and it was only 10.00am, went down well I must say as we got up at 5.30am. Please note that the pilot only had a coffee.

DESERT COLOURS The colours and shapes change as you travel and quite surprising the number of creek beds. A lot of rain is predicted at the weekend so some of the creeks may soon have water running.

Spectacular South Australia

SERBIAN UNDERGROUND CHURCH Sunday we did the town and mine tour, unfortunately it was raining, pretty sure Coober Pedy received half it's annual rainfall which is a whole 5". A lot of homes and business's are in dug outs, the church is very impressive, note the shape of the ceiling.

WILLIAM CREEK Yesterday I did the mail run day tour - www.mailruntour.com which as you would guess you go with the mail man as he delivers mail to the outback cattle stations, one of them is the largest in Australia. The scenery changes as you go around and we also got to see the dingo fence, the longest man-made construction in the world. Dingos are one of the largest killers of stock. We left Coober Pedy at 9.00 am and I got home at 10.00 pm, Paul did not fancy having that amount of time sitting in a vehicle.

THE BREAKAWAYS Today we drove back out to this area as it was part of our Sunday tour and it was too dismal to get out due to the weather. It was great to have time today to have a really good look around. The colours and shapes are just breath taking.
THE BREAKAWAYS

THE BREAKAWAYS

COOBER PEDY CEMETERY Karl found out that he only had a couple of weeks to live so he went to the local Westpac - only bank in town and got a loan for $10,000.00 then put the money on the bar, even the bank staff partook. This is a photo of his headstone and the bank apparently never recovered the money, he was a very popular man around town as you can imagine.

Where not to live

ANDAMOOKA Wow, prime real estate with this fabulous view. This is an opal mining town so as you can imagine no vegetation and houses that are shanty's. A lot of the backyards are just tailings. Only 30 km's away is the thriving town of Roxby Downs, it has a population of 3,500 with 3,000 people being employed at the BHP Billiton Mine at Olympic Dam. Roxby Downs has some trees, grass, new homes and a bustling shopping centre so a real contrast to Andamooka. LOCAL ENJOYING LUNCH AT THE SIDE OF THE ROAD This wedge tailed eagle certainly is very impressive looking and when flying has a wing span of at least 1.5 metres.

Up the centre

SALT LAKE Today we left Port Augusta and headed north towards Darwin about 3000 km 's away. This is no doubt one of the many salt lakes that we will pass along the way. It is very interesting scenery, mainly flat with scrubby salt bush. A GROSS SIGN THAT IS ALONG THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN HIGHWAYS

WOOMERA A very desolate town just off the Stuart Highway, guess it's claim to fame is the Woomera detention centre and the home of rocket launching. There are only a few streets and lot's of housing similar to housing commission homes/units. One shop that sells groceries and alcohol with a post office next door. Reckon that the busiest place would be the caravan park with people heading north or south.

Now at the cross road

UP, UP AND AWAY Our morning flight got cancelled again due to some cloud coming in but we took off in the afternoon and it was fabulous. Great to see from the air the areas that we had walked and driven. Our pilot was 23 years old, what a great job!
PAST QUORN Leaving Wilpena Pound today the scenery changed and we started to see some sheep and a few cattle and at one stage these dead trees. As you can see, very baron land. Shortly after leaving we were delayed once again while some scenes were shot for the the movie "Road Train", every second vehicle was towing a caravan, it sure is staggering the number of caravans on the road. Close to Port Augusta the scenery was quite spectacular being surrounded again by the Flinders Ranges.

PORT AUGUSTA This is the lovely sunset view of the Flinders Ranges from our site. We have been to the supermarket and bottle shop and stocked up again before we head off up the centre north.

An amazing day

US AT HUCKS LOOKOUT Today we were booked to do a scenic flight at 9am but alas there was some cloud around and the flight was cancelled, so fingers crossed for tomorrow morning.

BRACHINA GORGE Fortunately the weather cleared and we did this fabulous geological drive that took us up to a lookout with 360 degree views and then through the Brachina and Bunyeroo gorges, the scenery was amazing and the rock formations changed between the gorges. It will be good to now fly over where we have driven.

Some of the wildlife we saw today, the yellow footed rock wallaby is unique to the Flinders Ranges. We also saw an eagle rob another birds nest of it's chick up in one of the rock faces, it was sad as the mother bird was circling around crying and trying to scare it off.

The Magnificent Flinders Ranges

RAWNSLEY

CHASE RANGES

Wow, this area is so spectacular and it is very hard to take photos that do it justice. We are staying at the caravan park at Wilpena Pound at the base of the ranges, lot's of kangaroos and birdlife. As you can see there are differing rock formations, driving in you wonder why there is no undergrowth under the pine trees, the reason being the very red dirt/rock base.

Yesterday coming here we had to stop before Hawker for about 20 minutes as the road was closed whilst they did some filming for an Australian movie "Roadtrain", so what a great back drop.

Some of the sights the last couple of days - ECHIDNA that we saw on one of our walks, the funny little thing sidles up to a tree thinking that you won't notice it. GOAT saw some of them by the Wilpena original homestead and then more on some very rocky hills. CROW has stolen an egg from somewhere and then went and hid it under a log. CAMEL well this man has just arrived near here after leaving Port Augusta two weeks ago and is heading up to Darwin, he expects this trip to take about six months, so we may well see him again on the road.

Very Rural

DARES HILL SUMMIT Amazing views from here across to where the Murray River is, apparently in the days of paddle steamers you could see the boats steam. We are currently in Jamestown which has a really nice community feel as it services all the local farming areas. It is one of the top five growth towns in South Australia and there were 11 new homes built last year!

ONE OF THE LOCALS on our drive to the Dares Hill Summit. Emu's just tend to ignore you yet some kangaroos we saw in the Bundaleer Forest bounded off as soon as they heard us.

More of Yorke Peninsula

Wheat and barley are the main crops throughout the area. Wallaroo has this huge tunnel taking the grain from the silos to the boats. There is also a passenger and vehicle ferry that takes you from here to Lucky Bay on the other side of the Eyre Peninsula saving about 4 hours.

WALLAROO Throughout the Yorke Peninsular are lovely buildings from the late 1800's and in the main towns there appears to be a lot of pride. Where we are at Port Hughes there are a lot of new homes being built and a Greg Norman golf course estate. At Moonta there are remains of copper mine buildings and hills of tailings.

Yorke Peninsula

PORT HUGHES Today we left Adelaide and drove here, about two and 1/2 hours, the scenery changes along the way with the land quite flat before Port Wakefield with really scrubby bush and then heading to here the road was really straight for a while before some small hills with a water pipe running beside the highway. The area is supported by grain and barley crops and of course us tourists. This week and next weekend is a big Cornish festival - the largest in Australia, there will be something wrong if we can't buy a good Cornish pastie. We have a lovely campsite with this ocean view, have had funny weather with high cloud hovering, just wish the sun would burn the cloud off. The nights are really cool, fortunately we have a beaut heater.

Fleurieu Peninsula

VICTOR HARBOR About an hour away from Adelaide is the picturesque seaside town of Victor Harbor rumoured to have a lot of aged folk and nicknamed 'God's waiting room', not a bad spot to be waiting for him. Driving here you pass through Mclaren Vale which has rolling hills and hectares of grapevines. We walked to the top of the bluff in the background of the photo.

GRANITE ISLAND From the esplanade you can walk along this 500 metre pier or hop on the horse drawn tram across to the island, we walked. The island has scrubby bush and the only wildlife we saw was a mouse but there were lot's of birds - shags, pelicans, seagulls and hawks, fortunately we did not see any of the 42 species of snakes found in South Australia. A great coastline and islands with granite rocks, such a contrast from the Great Ocean Road.

We have spent the last couple of days looking at the great Art Gallery, Museum and Botanical Gardens in the city of Adelaide.

Out and About Again

PICCADILLY VALLEY Yesterday we went for a drive in the Adelaide Hills, it was pretty with the autumn colours and the wineries looked lovely with the grapevines a golden yellow. We also visited the oldest German Australian town Handhorf, it has lovely old buildings and arched tree lined streets. GLENELG Although Glenelg is famous for it's beach it does have this lovely marina at the back of the apartments that front the beach. Today we went and visited the Art Gallery and Museum, both spectacular buildings in the city with great displays, very easy to spend a few hours there.

I'm back

FAMILY At the end of last week I flew back to the Gold Coast to spend a few days with my Mum and Dad. We popped around to see our old cat Sam, thank you Heath for giving him such a great home and lot's of TLC. The good thing was that Sam did recognise us on our visit. Paul stayed here in Adelaide and looked after the home fort, it was funny being apart after 15 weeks together 24/7.