26 September 2009

Coober Pedy to Adelaide

Coober Pedy, as you doubtless know, is an opal mining town situated in the middle of South Australia. The Mad Max films were made in and around there so if you have seen them you will be understand when I say that the area is bleak, dusty, and overwhelmingly brown. It really does look as if the place has been hit by a nuclear bomb and it's ugliness defies description. There are mine tailings everywhere, even in the town.

Sixty percent of the people who live there, live in underground houses which have been dug/blasted into the rock. The summer temperatures are so hot that living underground is the best way to keep cool as the indoor temperature can be kept at 22 degrees Celsius all year round. The houses can be quite luxurious but I think I would go nuts very quickly if I had to live there. There are hardly any trees or plants and the only grass is at the Aussie rules football grounds and at the school.

We did an afternoon bus tour around the place which was very interesting. We were taken to the underground museum, which also incorporates an underground home, the Serbian church (also underground ) and other places of interest. We were also told a lot about the opal mining, both present and past. It seems to be quite a lawless place even though there is a police station in the town. 14 cops have responsibility for a precinct as big as Belgium.

The Coober Pedy police station was blown up a couple of years ago by a guy who had applied for a job which needed a police check. Not a very bright guy apparently because he figured that if he blew the place up then his prospective employers wouldn't be able to find out that he had a record! He did wait until the place was empty before he did it, which was considerate of him. He's now serving a 9 year jail sentence, so doesn't need the job after all.

One of the graves in Coober Pedy's cemetery is marked by a beer keg engraved with, "Have a drink on me." The departed was told by his doctor that he had 2 weeks to live so he went to the bank and took out a $10,000 loan. He put the whole lot on the bar in the pub and invited the whole town to "Have a drink on me." Apparently many bank employees were amongst those that accepted the invitation.

We only stayed for two nights and were happy to leave and head down to Quorn which is near Port Augusta in the south. The day we travelled, we were followed by the Coober Pedy dust, it seemed. It was very windy and the sun and any views were obscured by dust all day. We arrived at Quorn in the evening and were glad to wake up the next morning to find the sky had cleared. Quorn is a pretty town with lots of old buildings still being used. They are often built of the local stone and are really solid and full of character.

We headed off to a place called Hawker which isn't far from Quorn and in the afternoon went on a 4WD trip into the Flinders Range. We had a great guide called Derek who took us onto private land to show us some of the area. We finally saw wild emus. It had taken us almost 7 weeks to see Australia's national bird. It was such a good afternoon, we booked to go on a full day tour with him the next day. We learned a lot about the geology and the history of the area and had a good time with the other people on the tour as well.

The Clare Valley was the next on the travel list. As we drove there the country became green. This was a lovely after weeks of spinifex and gum trees. The area is very pretty with rolling countryside and lots of farms and vineyards. We bought a bottle of the local Kirrihill Shiraz to have with our dinner the night before and it was great, so thought we would go and look at the the "Cellar Door" to see what other wines they produce. To our delight, they had some bottles of the same wine on special for $7.50 each so we bought some more, of course. In the afternoon we drove on to the famous Barossa Valley to stay in the town of Tanunda.

The Barossa Valley is also a very attractive place and there are lots of lovely old houses there as well as the vineyards. We went on a tour of some of the vineyards, a dried fruit emporium and also to a place owned by Maggie Beer who is a TV cook in Oz. Her shop sells lots of lovely things to eat, and tasting is permitted. There were pates, jams, pickles and all sorts of other yummy things.

From Tanunda we set out to travel to Cape Jervis to catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island. Once again we drove through lovely green and pretty countryside which was again a balm to our eyes after all the dusty desert we'd travelled through further north. Our maps were not detailed enough to include all the towns and villages, so some of the navigation was by guesswork. However, we arrived at the ferry terminal in good time. I must have been used to the camper van because reversing it on was quite simple.

Kangaroo Is is famous for the visibility of its wildlife. When we checked in at the campground we were casually told that there was a koala in the tree right outside. It was a female, sleeping soundly, with a joey that peered down at us and, as tradition demands, went right off the cuteness scale it was so charming.

We took a guided walk after dark and saw plenty more koalas in a very natural setting, i.e. asleep. Adult koalas sleep for 20 hours per day and eat for the rest in between scratching. We observed all these behaviours, including the "koala dance" when the animal hangs beneath a branch by its forelegs and frees up its rear legs to scratch each other.

In daylight we went to Seal Bay and saw: a superb fairy-wren, a golden whistler, a New Holland honeyeater, a new thornbill, black oystercatchers and crested terns. Oh, we saw Australian sea lions as well. For a fee a guide takes you onto the beach and to within 10 metres of the animals. Our photos are great, but still in the camera.

24 September 2009

Wildlife photos

The following photos were all taken in Kakadu National Park, most of them at Yellow Water.

A white, or sacred ibis.

A sulphur-crested cockatoo enjoying the nectar from a grevilliea flower. One of our guides reckons that if he could only get enough of the nectar for commercial purposes he would make his fortune. He claims it tastes much better than honey.



A comb-crested jacana, or lily-trotter. Where the water lilies grow bigger leaves they truly can walk across them without getting wet feet.


A pair of sea eagles.



Radjah shelducks.


A plumed whistling duck.


An estuarine crocodile or "salty". The freshwater crocodiles swallow their food whole and are not a danger to humans unless you threaten them or their eggs. Even then the worst you are likely to suffer is a nasty bite. Salties can dismember large prey. They can, and occasionally do, eat humans. We were taught a healthy terror of crocodiles while in Northern Australia.

These guys are wading in the Alligator River East at Cahills Crossing. There are estuarine crocodiles in this river. From the lookout we were counting 4 or 5 of them upstream to the right. The man on the left is not safe from a croc, which can hide in a foot of water and outrun a horse over short distances. The fisherman is plain tired of living.


A darter.



This is an azure kingfisher. It's a very small bird, taken at maximum possible zoom, so it's not a great photo, but what a beautiful bird!




One of the Yellow Water lilies.

16 September 2009

Some more rock art photos

These are a small selection of the rock paintings at Ubirr in the North of Kakadu National Park.

There is a whole wall that appears to be the menu for a huge feast. This is where hunters would record exceptional success; a stone age photo gallery of the big ones that did not get away. You can enlarge the image by clicking on it. Most of these are fish, mainly barramundi, which are excellent eating. The one on the right with the square head is (I think) a catfish.



These paintings are less important than the Dreamtime images credited to supernatural beings and may be painted over by members of the right clan. There are several layers of drawings here, though I found it hard to see that.



A barramundi in an unusual, probably older, style that does not show the internal organs.




A classroom blackboard. Thise scene depicts a battle between two clans. The story was that a girl from one clan was hungry and ate some barramundi, contrary to the laws that restricted foods based on a variety of criteria that we find strange, such as age, sex, clan, skin name, etc. Another clan discovered the crime and punished the girl. However, the girl's own clan thought that she had been punished too severely and felt obliged to fight the 2nd clan. Several men were killed in the conflict. The moral of this tale is the importance of obeying the laws.
If you look carefully you can see two women painted in another colour. They are there for another story in which they both ended up turning into crocodiles.

11 September 2009

Now in Coober Pedy

Time is running out if we are going to have lunch before embarking on a tour of Coober Pedy and environs. It is not a picturesque place, in fact I'd rate it even lower than Doncaster as a place to live. The land around here is very flat; even by Australian standards it is featureless. The opal mines have dumped spoil heaps all about and all in all it does not charm. However, we have been reliably informed that the tour is interesting. Coober Pedy's history and underground buildings make up for its stark appearance.

Since my last post we have driven many kilometers and have seen the Uluru, formerly known as Ayers Rock. It is a pretty big lump of sandstone, and the scientific explanation for its being there makes little more sense than the Aborigines' Dreamtime stories. We managed to catch a ranger-guided tour to explain some of the detail, walked another short trail and drove all around.

Then we went to Kata Tjuta (I think I've spelled that correctly) or the Olgas. These are smaller, but still impressive lumps of red sandstone. We walked some of the trails and had a very pleasant chat with a Melbourne couple over a cup of tea.

Rather than pay the famously high prices at the Ayers Rock Resort, we stayed at Curtin Springs Homestead, which provides a basic campsite 80km up the road. An emu wandered into the campground and eagerly approached a table bearing a bowl of salad. We heard an exasperated, "Nein, Nein." and more German that might have been an invitation to go away delivered under stress. However, the bird exercised some charm and was eventually rewarded with some left over lettuce.

We were not so generous ourselves, but nonetheless the pet emu decided s/he liked us and settled down for the night not 10 metres from our van.

After Uluru we went to Kings Canyon, of which we had heard excellent reports. It was a very pleasant little gorge, well populated with birds, including 3 species new to us. The rim walk is advertised as 3-4 hours, which would have put pressure on our schedule, so we took the 15-minute helicopter flight instead. It was great.

Gotta go!

07 September 2009

Alice Springs Desert Park

Before I get in to a description of the Park I must apologise for the lack of recent photos. This Internet cafe is very convenient and reasonably priced, but it doesn't have a DVD drive so I can't upload photos. Sorry.

We started our visit at 7:30 in the morning and stumbled out at 5:30 in the evening, utterly exhausted and exhilarated. The Park explains the natual history of the arid centre of Australia.

The early start was for a guided bird watching walk. The Park has many birds in aviaries, but this was all about wild birds that visit the park. Since we were the only tourists we had Anthony's undivided attention. Having someone who knows the birds was a great help. We would turn our binoculars on a small bid and Anthony would say "That's an inland thornbill. See the markings on the chest?" On our own we would not know what details to look for. often we don't even know which section of the field guide to look in.

Anthony was also able to indentify the bird calls we were hearing. He get really excited when he heard a particular song. "That's a grey honeyeater!" We gazed at the tree where the song appeared to be from and walked carefully towards it. The song stopped and almost immediately a small bird flew rapidly across our view and out of sight. Apparently most birdos in Australia hunt for a grey honeyeater all their lives and never see one. Wow.

Anthony knew the species well because a pair tried to nest in the Park last year. he even found the remains of the partly-built nest to show us. Unfortunately the birds gave up because other honeyeaters were stealing their material.

A little later we saw a family of splendid fairy-wrens. These are not rare, but they are very small birds and do not frequent campgrounds. The males in the breedng season are a dazzling blue and this male was in his courting suit. He was gorgeous. Because they are so small and active they are difficult to photograph, but I got a good picture of the female.

The stone-curlews were easy to photogaph. The pair are sitting on eggs and believe that their camoflage is good enough to protect them. And yes, we did walk right past them until they were pointed out to us.

The rest of the day was spent enjoying the many talks given by Park staff on various aspects of life in the Red Centre. It included a talk illustrated by free-flying birds of prey, a long discussion on the noctunal animals of the desert and a brief description on how the local aboriginal people survived.

There are many nocturnal animals, with a good selection in the nocturnal house. These included hopping mice and superficially similar marsupials, whose name I have forgotten. The mice eat seeds and apparently never drink, despite the low moisture content of their food. The little marsupials are carnivores and actually gallop rather than hop. They get plenty of moisture from their prey.

We have been educated in the various hunting techniques of snakes. Some even specialise in eating other snakes!

Then there are lots of aviaries, with examples of birds that don't conveniently just turn up. These were often good subjects for a photo. They included some nice princess parrots. I hope we find some wild ones to add to our list.

And ever visitor is given an audio guide so that, at the numbered points around the Park, we could listen to an explanation of, say, a plant's particular adaptation to the wildly irregular rainfall that occurs in central Australia.

Thus the Desert Park is the highlight of the holiday so far.

Today we leave Alice Springs and head for Uluru (Ayer's Rock or simply "The Rock"). The next Internet will probably not be until Coober Pedy. Will write again.

04 September 2009

Farewell to the Tropics

We haven't seen much of the Internet lately. We've covered a lot of ground.

Near Broome there is a bird observatory. It's a delightful place and we met some lovely people there. We also saw some nice birds at the bird baths. What a pity we didn't have time to stay and do the tours.

The trouble was we had already booked a date to see the Bungle Bungles and we had to drive to the Turkey Creek Roadhouse. It took two days. Then we were ready for the tour at 5:20 the next morning. Ugh.

The road into the Bungle Bungles is rough even for a 4WD, so taking our campervan and driving ourselves was not an option. The tour was 2 days of air conditioned 4WD drive bus and walks around the most interesting spots in a geologically very remarkable area. The distances were not long, but both days were over 40 degrees C in the shade. Most of the walking involved following fissures in the rock formations and at least part of them were in the shade, thank goodness. We diligently followed the instruction to drink lots of water.

Day 1 took us to Mini Palms Gorge and Echidna Chasm, then back to a rather luxurious bush camp, with permanent tents, showers and even a bar. The camp also had a little bird bath where we saw many finches, honeyeaters and even some quail. Day 2 was Picaninny Creek and The Cathedral. LOTS of photos. We were then delivered back to Turkey Creek and our camper.

From there we continued back towards Katherine. In Kununurra we visited the Hidden Valley and had the great good fortune to see a bower bird displaying by his bower. He flunted a purple crest, picked up choice treasures from his mound, sand, bounded around and apparently got a mere "Ho hum" from the female.

Later in the valley we came across an English twitcher (obsessive bird watcher), who had seen one of the rare white-quilled rock pigeons that live in the area. The wretched bird did not reappear for us BUT the twitcher did not see the bower bird display, nor had he seen the even rarer cinnamon-quilled rock pigeon in Kakadu that we saw two of. Neener neener neener.

From Katherine we visited the gorge in Nitmiluk National Park and did the 3-gorge cruise. The guide was not a local. That accent had to be acquired in South Auckland! A very, very lovely gorge system and a warm swim.

Then we headed South for some heavy-duty driving. It's 1166 km from Katherine to Alice Springs. That's not to say we didn't see some nice places along the way. At Mataranka there are "thermal" springs. They are not geothermal as we have in NZ, but the ground water temperature is 32C. The setting was very picturesque, too. The campground has resident peafowl and two agile wallabies came hopping by in the evening, hoping for a handout.

Much further South we visited a desert mango farm and bought chutney. We also sampled and purchased their mango wines! And they are growing grapes on the same property. We didn't know they could be grown in the tropics.

On the last stage into Alice Springs we were surprised by a good, solid period of rain. The first we have seen since we arrived in the North and most unexpected. Rain in the desert brings out the flowers and also, in thsi case, the cops. I was randomly breath-tested just before we arrived in Alice. Lucky it was such a small taste of mango wine!

It is also surprisingly cool here. We (i.e. Eve) have done a huge pile of laundry and booked some tours around the town. Hopefully there will be time to post some more news on this blog before we leave.