Rock, Desert, Camels

Part of the walking track round the base of Uluru (348 metres high with a girth of 9.4km)

Reverse side of Uluru, half way round the track

This is the Uluru climb, (un)fortunately closed because of wind

The desert is blooming because of recent rain

The obligatory sunset view of Uluru

The Olgas, 40 ams east of The Rock (Kata Tjuta = "many heads")

My favourite view of the Olgas

Part of the walking track through the Olgas

View of the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) from Karingana  Lookout

Myrtle, at 40 the oldest camel in the fleet 

Connor, our trusted steed, and Myrtle, the next in line

Late afternoon camel train, Uluru

Sunset over the desert

Connor, (he's the good looking one on the left)

Sunset viewing of Uluru, with Grey Nomads

Wow, where to start???  This is such a magnificent part of Australia, and one we're both glad to have experienced.

The arrival of Europeans in the area was part of the exploration of the Centre during the 1870s, though Aborigines are believed to have inhabited the area for at least 20,000 years.

Ernest Giles travelled through the area in 1872 and named both Lake Amadeus and Mount Olga.  Giles returned to the area in 1873 but was beaten to Uluru by William Gosse, who sighted the monolith on 19th July and named it after the Chief Secretary of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers.  Giles also was the first European to climb the rock, which he did accompanied by an Afghan camel driver (as usual, name unknown!)

Ayers Rock was created a national park in 1950 and in 1958, the Rock was combined with the Olgas to form the Ayers Rock National Park.  In 1985 the title to the rock was handed back to the traditional owners who, in turn, granted the Australian National Parks and Wildlife Service a 99 year lease on the park.

The Rock is every bit as beautiful as you would expect, and we were fortunate that our sunset viewing evening was one of the best of our 4 days here.  However, Kata Tjuta, approximately 40 ams east of Uluru, is equally as spectacular; it is a group of more than 36 rounded red domes, the tallest around 546 metres high.  Apart from the Uluru climb, there is only one 10.5 km walking/cycling track around the base of the Rock, whereas Kata Tjuta has an 11.5 hike through the centre (The Valley of the Winds), although we only hiked around 2.6 kilometres to Karingana lookout, which was truly breathtaking.  The track is steep and rocky in places, and the track beyond Karu Lookout (No. 1) lookout is closed at 11 am when the forecast is 36 C or above.

On our second to last evening, we took the Evening Sunset Camel Tour out into the desert. The young, enthusiastic cameleers were very professional and there was much to-ing and fro-ing about matching people to camels.  There were only 2 people allowed a camel to themselves, one young, rather heavy, girl who was directed to a camel at the rear of one of the trains (each consisting of about  9 camels), and one of our party, a slight older lady who was rewarded with Mrytle, the oldest camel in the pack and therefore entitled to a light ride.  We were somewhere in the middle on Connor, a young, previously wild, camel caught at Mt Connor not far from here.  We were taken on a gentle, swaying ride out for an hour out into the desert to a hill where we got to watch both Uluru and a beautiful sunset before padding gently back to the Farm.  Along the way, a guide walking beside each train presented us with lots of facts about camels and the local area.  Ray and I got the giggles a couple of times, one when told that a taipan's venom could kill 38 elephants (how was this determined and where did they find the elephants?) and two that "camels don't go to the bathroom while they are walking"; I had the startling thought that I might rock up to the toilet block and find it already filled with camels!!  On our return to the farm at twilight, we enjoyed beer, wine and outback bush foods, including a wonderful damper (thought you might like to try their recipe, below).

The Yulara campground is as busy as a beehive, with lots of to-ing and fro-ing of caravans and campers.  It is around 10 minutes walk from the main Yulara Resort but campers are welcome to bring themselves and their money to the resort which has a couple of restaurants, bistros and lots of shops (including, unexpectedly, an IGA).  There is a shuttle bus which calls in at 20 minute intervals and transports visitors around the resort and campground.  The pool at the campground is very welcome at the end of a hot day, and is big enough for a decent swim - providing there are no small people there at the same time.  Everything is well run and there are enough showers, toilets and washing machines for the number of visitors, which is a welcome change.  The camp sites are large and mostly tree-ed, though with very little grass, which is to be expected.  We've had a wonderful time here and could easily stay another week.

However, Kings Canyon calls, and then Alice Springs, so we leave tomorrow for adventures new.


Recipe Homemade Beer Bread (courtesy of Uluru Camel Tours - camels not obligatory)

Ingredients:  3 cups self raising flour, 1 can beer, pinch salt and sugar, 1/4 cup water, 1 Tablespoon seasoning (linseeds or poppy seeds).
Mix ingredients in a bowl with hand - don't knead.  Grease 2 loaf tins and pour dough (should be sloppy, not dry) into tins.  Sprinkle with grated cheese, bran or sesame seeds.  Bake in hot oven 375 F/190 C) for 45 minutes or till golden.  Let cool before cutting.  ENJOY.

In Search of a Gem

Sunset over salt lake (Lake Hart), just north of Pimba

Coober Pedy outlook from The Big Winch, top of town. Sally is standing on two large besser blocks)

This is what I'm looking at over the wall.  Zoom in it's pretty scary.

View of the main street, Coober Pedy

Panorama Coober Pedy, with some opal mines in distance

A tired Ray in the only patch of shade we could find

Welcome to Coober Pedi

The wide open road, Stuart Highway

Hard to get away from the flies

Underground house, cut out of rock

So, dear readers, here we are in Coober Pedy 846 kilometres north of Adelaide on the Stuart Highway, and 213 m above sea level.  Coober Pedy (originally known as the Stuart Range Opal Field, after John McDouall Stuart, who in 1858 was the first European explorer in the area) translates from Kupa to mean "white fellow's hole in the ground" which reflects the way in which most people live here, to escape the extreme climatic conditions of the area.  It sits on the edge of the erosional scarp of the Stuart Ranges, on beds of sand and siltstone 30 m deep and topped with a stony, treeless desert.  Very little plant life exists in town due to the region's low rainfall, high cost of water, the sandstone and lack of topsoil.

The many residents who prefer to live in caves bored into the hillsides (dugouts), do so because the dugouts remain at a constant temperature all year round (23-25 degrees C), in contrast to traditional houses which must be air conditioned to survive the often 50 degree C heat in summer.  However, as we were told when touring Faye's house (hand dug with picks and shovels in the 1960's by Faye Nayler and 2 friends) they are also subject to flooding, and in fact Faye's house has been flooded 3 times this year.  Each house has several shafts built to the surface which allow air flow to the underground rooms, but they are also difficult to seal, leading to flooding in heavy rains.

Opal was found in Coober Pedy by 14-year old Willie Hutchison on 1st February 1915; since then the town has been supplying most of the world's gem-quality Opal.   The opal fields cover an area of 4,954 square kilometres and consist of 70 individual fields.  Looking across the region from the highest point in town (the Big Winch), it is simply a vast sea of mullock heaps and there are signs everywhere warning visitors to keep watch where they are walking, lest they fall down a disused mine shaft, of which there are many (see pictures 3, 4  and 5 above).  The town is surrounded by a moon-like landscape dotted with shafts and mullock heaps, with the workings extending for nearly 40 km around the town.

We made the obligatory stop at Woomera, which was the 1947 site for launching of British experimental rockets.  Woomera lies within the bounds of the Woomera Prohibited Area (WPA) and is managed by Defence Support and Reform Group for the RAAF.  During the 1950s and 1960s the Woomera Rocket Range was the second busiest rocket range in the world, next to Cape Canaveral.  A total of seven British nuclear tests were conducted at Maralinga in 1956 and 1963.  The site was contaminated with radioactive materials and an initial cleanup was attempted in 1967, with another cleanup completed in 2000.  Debate continued over the safety of the site and the long term health effects on the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, and former personnel.    For those of you to whom this is a revelation, check out Maralinga: Australia's Nuclear Waste Cover-up by Alan Parkinson.

The big excitement in town tomorrow is the footie game (presumably AFL as we are in South Australia) between the local team and that of Olympic Dam.  It seems everyone will be there, and we were given a lift today by a photographer from Adelaide who was sent to report on the game, so it must be a big deal.  After dropping us in town he was off to interview the local Postmaster, who is also the Mayor of the town, and will be the Referee for tomorrow's game.  Obviously a man for all seasons.

Unfortunately we won't be there, as we have exhausted the sights of Coober Pedy in the short time we've been here, and tomorrow we're headed the 688 kms to Alice Springs, with a possible stop at Kulgera (on the NT border).  We worked out the total kilometres from here to home and it's 4970!  If we make Darwin, that blows out by 2000!!!

Sally and Ray

PS  We bought fly nets for our hats in Port Augusta, knowing what a problem Central Australia has with flies (see Ray's back) and for the first 24 hours we cursed and swatted and sweltered in our black nets.  However, we were told this morning about a cream which repels flies, without the toxic DEET contained in most fly repellents.   We were fortunate to find some in the IGA in town (the Chemist sent us there as his stock had run out).  It's Rosemary and Cedarwood oils in a cream base and it smells lovely and works brilliantly. We both used it before we left the van this morning, and nary a fly troubled us all morning.  It's quite something to walk among the uninitiated, serenely fly-less and watch lesser mortals cursing and swatting!  We did, however, share our new knowledge with all and sundry, so I suspect the IGA has also run out of supplies today!

Turning Right

Best pies in South Australia - really (Port Wakefield)

Beach walk to Beachport Beach

Harbourmaster's House, Robe

Busts of Matthew Flinders and Nicolas Baudin, Robe

Chinese Memorial, Robe.  As Victoria taxed each incoming Chinese ten pounds poll tax, they instead landed at Robe in South Australia and trekked 400 kilometres to the gold fields in Victoria, during the 1850s.

The Obelisk, Robe, gradually being undermined by the wild seas.

Wonderful coastal scenery around Robe

Originally built on Margaret Brock Reef off Cape Jaffa, at the end of its service, the lighthouse was dismantled and reassembled at Kingston, 1974.

Main street, Kingston, on a Sunday afternoon

So, having decided not to stay at the Robe Naturist Park, we spent some time in the beautiful town of Robe, and travelled on to Kingston where we free camped overnight at a lovely grassy spot near the town jetty, along with a dozen others.

Robe was a most interesting town, with many beautiful stone houses, all neatly kept, though again with a very quiet main street - most of the shops were closed after lunch Saturday.  It is in the south east limestone coast of South Australia, lying on the southern shore of Guichen Bay.  Guichen Bay was named by the French explorer Nicolas Baudin after Admiral de Guichen in 1802, as he was charting the south coast of Australia.  Robe is one of the oldest towns in South Australia, founded by the colonial government as a seaport, administrative centre and village only ten years after British settlers formally established the Province of South Australia.  (Named for the fourth Governor of South Australia, Major Frederick Robe, who chose the site as a port in 1845).

As with most places we pass through, this one warranted more than the day we gave it, but if we did that we'd never get home!

And speaking of getting home, we've made the momentous decision to Turn Right instead of Left.  We added up the kilometres between Port Augusta and Darwin, via Perth and coastal WA and decided that Turning Right was a better option, as we weren't putting enough time into exploring WA.

So here we are in beautiful Port Augusta, cleaned, watered and shopped, ready to take on the Stuart Highway tomorrow.  We've had a lay-day here to gird our loins for the long road up the Centre of Australia, and look forward to the very different sights we'll see to what we've already put behind us.

I hope there will be internet in various centres along the way, but if you don't hear anything for a while, we're not lost, just out of range!  We still intend to be home by December, but if you hear nothing for a month or two, better send the Cavalry!!!

Kingston to Port Augusta

Why Weren't We Told?

History at school was never as interesting as this!

Information Board at Meningie

Statue at Meningie, with modern day Birdman

Bushranger:  Birdman of the Coorong

John Francis Peggotty 1864-1899

South Australia’s history has only ever been able to claim one genuine bushranger, but he was remarkable – he was the only one to pursue his career on the back of an ostrich!

John Francis Peggotty, the son of an Irishman, was born prematurely in 1864 in County Limerick.  Surprisingly he survived, but only grew to the size of a 7 year old boy.

As a young man, Peggotty exploited his stature, climbing down the chimneys of wealthy Londoners, robbing them of their jewellery and parading his ill-gotten gains. 

After sailing to Australia in 1890 he continued his lucrative career along the majestic Coorong, riding proudly on the back of an ostrich – one of the many set free when the market for fashionable ostrich feathers ceased.

The reason for Peggotty’s choice of an ostrich became evident when he often soared away from police through the shifting sands dunes of the Coorong.

The Birdman of the Coorong, as he became nown, was soon held responsible for the robberies of many a lonely Coorong traveller and the murder of at least two.

Peggotty remained at large until 17^th September 1899, the day when he tried to hold up a local fisherman, Henry Carmichael.

Unfortunately for Peggotty, Carmichael had a rifle.  After a short chase and shots fired, Peggotty and his mount both came to an unglorified end.

To this day his body has never been found.

…is it still lying in the lonely wilderness of the Coorong, laden with a fortune of gold and jewellery??

Crossing the Border

Goodbye Brussels Sprouts

Long straight roads in Victoria

Beach at mouth of Fitzroy River, SA, mussels growing on bamboo

Fitzroy River at sunset

Don't think this cyclist is going anywhere.  Beachport.

Beachport Jetty

Wild waves straight from the Great Southern Ocean

Beautiful, balletic Codrington windfarm.  Unlike Joe Hockey, we love them!

Panorama from Bowman Scenic Drive

Field of Gazanias beside Pool of Siloam, which is reputedly seven times saltier than the sea.  

I see our last blog finished in Warrnambool, so on we travelled through Port Fairy (well known for its yearly music festival), a particularly pretty little town on the coast to a free camp on the Fitzroy River approximately 40km east of Portland.  We had intended to stay 1 night but it was such a lovely place that we ended up chained to the spot for 4 nights.  We were right at the end of a dirt road, next to the river, and a short walk from a magnificent beach, which we never did get to the end of on our morning’s walk.  There was an ulterior motive for staying so long in one spot too and that was to work our way through the fruit and veges on board so that we didn’t have to throw away too much at the SA Border.

Our last night in Victoria was spent in another free camp in Dartmoor, one of the neatest small towns we’ve been through.  There was a very large and well treed (and koala-ed) paddock on the edge of town, beautifully grassed, and sparsely populated with Grey Nomads.  We had a very quiet night and indeed it was the last night we’ve needed to run the diesel heater.  After a wet and cold start to our trip through Victoria, we seem to have run into T-shirt days and warm-ish nights.

So, Photo No. 1 shows our grand entry to South Australia on the A1.  Much  to my chagrin, I was left with 1 sweet potato, 1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 apples and a small bag of Brussels sprouts.  There was no way I was ditching a beautiful Cox’s Orange Pippin apple from Tasmania, so we ate those sitting in the van in front of the quarantine bin (which for some unfathomable reason was located 6 km inside the SA border).  I am always loth to throw away good food, but the fine for non-compliance far outweighs the cost of our left over veges, so into the bin they went. I've often wondered what happens to the poor rejected fruit and veges in these bins; methinks that if I were a swaggie, I would wait by the bin for my daily needs!

Our next stop was Mt Gambier, equidistant from Adelaide and Melbourne, and the major service centre for the Limestone Coast.  A very pretty town it is, with all the conveniences you could want including a Bunnings (for the extra essential hooks Ray keeps putting up) and a Ford dealership (to replace a blown fuse).  The Central Caravan Park lived up to its name, so only a block’s walk to Woolies one way, and the quilting shop in the other!  We normally try to avoid caravan parks, but this one came highly recommended, and apart from being centrally located, was small, immaculately clean and very well run.  The other advantage of course is meeting other travellers and gaining information on the road ahead.  We met two lovely ladies from Port Augusta, and they gave us all the information we needed on quarantine regulations for the next part of our trip.

For the record, the Limestone Coast covers an area of approximately 21,310 square kilometres in the south-eastern corner of SA.  It stretches south from the Coorong National Park to the Victorian border.  It also includes inland pastoral districts and the Coonawarra Wine district.

We could have stayed much longer in Mt Gambier, but that’s true of most of the places we’ve been so far.  Instead we opted to travel on, so took the left fork and the road less travelled through Millicent to Beachport, with its 772 metre jetty on Rivoli Bay.  What a find!  The coastline here is spectacular and rugged with a great scenic road winding for miles north from the town with lots of lookouts along the way. It helped that the day was windy, so big waves on the rocks, coming straight from the Southern Ocean.  Stunning scenery and we are tonight ensconced in another free camp just behind the dunes, with the wind howling and the rain starting again, but with the promise of a warm day tomorrow.

Beachport was named on 23 May 1878 for the then British Secretary of State for the Colonies, Michael Hicks Beach, 1^st Earl St Aldwyn.  It is also possibly the location of the first casualties of WW2 on Australian soil.  On 12^th July 1941 a local fisherman discovered and towed to Beachport a German sea mine either laid by the raider Pinguin or the minelayer Passat.  The following day, two Able Seamen, Thomas Todd and William Danswan, part of a three man Rendering Mines Safe team, were killed when a wave lifted the mine and caused it to explode on the beach while they were attempting to defuse it.  A monument now stands in the town to honour them.

Tomorrow it's Robe and Kingston, at the southern end of the Coorong.  Coincidentally, 7.30 SA tonight had a piece on Sunland Holiday Village, Robe, Australia's first (and still the only) ocean beach nudist resort.  They offer "quiet and secluded campsites for your total relaxation" and all guests are expected to participate "when conditions are suitable".  I can't imagine how conditions in Autumn/Winter could be suitable so I think perhaps we will be looking elsewhere for a campground!

The Great Ocean Road

Our lonely camp ground at Cumberland River, shared only with 2 very large kangaroos

Cape Otway Lighthouse

Interesting tales from a former lighthouse keeper Pat (from Flinders Island would you believe)

View from the Cape Otway Lighthouse, looking back to the cottages

Some of the Twelve Apostles

Razorback and associated Islands

Road leading in to Cape Otway through the Otway National Park

Koala in Otway National Park

London Bridge has fallen down

Capstan and anchor from the wreck of the W.B. Godfrey, right at low water

So, our journey over the past few days has been along the beautiful, and wild, Great Ocean Road.  We've been in Victoria now for 10 days, and in that whole time we've only seen 2 sunny days.  Luckily the day we drove the major part of the Great Ocean Road was bright and sunny, hence the lovely pictures.

After leaving Queenscliff we travelled west through Barwon Heads (for those of you who remember Sea Change, this is where it was filmed).   Our first stop was at Cumberland River, where photo No. 1 was taken.  It's beautifully situated on the river, faced with a magnificent cliff.   As with most of the campgrounds at this time of year, free or otherwise, it was sparsely populated, except for two enormous grey kangaroos.  It was quite confronting opening the door in the morning and seeing them grazing near the van - we've been used to the small Bennett's wallabies and pademelons of Tasmania. These two kangaroos would both have been my height (which I know isn't much for homo sapiens but is still quite large for a kangaroo!)

After a lunch stop at Apollo Bay (quite the best souvlaki we've had outside Athens), and a stroll round the very pretty town, we headed for Cape Otway, an approximate 25 km diversion from the main road through beautiful bush and fern gullies to the Cape Otway Lightstation.  It incorporates the 1848 lighthouse,  1857 Lightkeepers' cottages, WWII Radar Bunker which was built in 1942 after a US ship, the City of Rayville, was sunk by a German mine off the Cape in November 1940, and the telegraph station.  

The 90km narrow gap between Cape Otway and King Island was so hazardous that at least 18 ships were wrecked there.  In 1835 almost 250 lives were lost when the convict ship Neva foundered off King Island.  In another major shipping disaster, 399 immigrants died when the Cataraqui was wrecked off King Island in 1845.  The Cape Otway Lighthouse was built in 1848 at the western approach to Bass Strait.   Originally fuelled by whale oil, then kerosene and later electricity, it shone 48 kms out to see.  The old light was decommissioned in 1994 and replaced with a solar-powered automatic beam (our lighthouse keeper called it a "Tupperware light").  We were fortunate to find a retired lighthouse keeper in residence when we climbed to the top of the lighthouse, and he was a font of knowledge of all things lighthousey, and even better, more tales of life on Flinders Island where he was born.  

After spending quite a few hours around Cape Otway we headed for another free camp, Red Johanna(?) nestled behind the dunes.  The beach is often the replacement location for the Bells Beach SurfPro when the waves are low at Bells.  We really enjoyed the campsite, especially having a lovely beach to walk on in the morning.  Seeing it at high tide and in bad weather would be a bit daunting though, as the cliffs are similar to the cliffs further east around the Twelve Apostles - best not to be caught on the beach with an incoming tide.

So, from Johanna we headed for Warrnambool where we have just spent 2 nights enjoying the "big city", and a morning visit to the great Maritime Museum on Flagstaff Hill.  

Unfortunately it is verboten to take any fruit or vegetables into South Australia, and we still have a fridge full of Cox's Orange Pippin Apples, so we might have to stay a couple of nights were we are tonight, at Fitzroy River Reserve, until we deplete our stocks.  I have just checked the quarantine regs again and the list of No's is endless, including most of what is in our fridge.  We're only a couple of hours drive from the border, so here we stay and here we eat!  The regulations vary from State to State, so we'll Google them when we get close to the SA/WA Border!