28/6/02

Drove to Kings Canyon and walked round it. It's an amazing place, lots of different things to see, changes in scenery and wildlife. The start is a climb up a couple of hundred meters to the edge of the canyon, you get a good view of the whole length of it from one of the lookouts. As you walk round you start walking between mounds where the rock has been eroded away, this is the "Lost City", it's a bit like a Martian landscape from an old sci-fi movie. It has been eroded in a grid fashion and the mounds are @ a fairly even spacing, very unusual. The highlight of the walk is the "Garden of Eden" which you come across next. It is another smaller canyon that runs into the head of Kings Canyon. It is tree lined with waterpools and birds everywhere. There's some fat friendly ducks in the waterhole who are obviously overfed and there's supposed to be some Peregrine falcons around but we couldn't see those. It's a really peaceful place but a little chilly when the wind blows, still there are places to sit that are sheltered from that. If you take the stepping stones across the waterhole you can get to the head of this canyon and look down into Kings Canyon, that's about the best view of the whole walk. After climbing out of the garden we continued around the rim, there are plenty more views of the Lost City as well as some really close views over the cliff edges, not a good place to be if you suffer from vertigo. Finally you descend to the carpark via a smaller side canyon, again the falcons failed to appear. Went quad biking for an hour @ sunset, lots of fun. I wasn't that interested in the views, they were nothing special anyway, I just wanted to go fast over bumps. The girl in front of me rolled on one corner but was OK and came up laughing. I was absolutely covered in dust by the time I got back.

26/6/02

A lazy day really. It was sunny so sat outside making name tags out of eucalyptus leaves. Lunchtime (ish) we drove to the rock to do the Mutijulu walk, the one we missed the other day. It only took 45 mins so we drove around the rock, S took some pictures of the climb and we drove back to the campsite. In the evening we did our own, cheaper, version of the meal under the stars.

24/6/02

Got up @ 6:15am, must be keen! Made it to the rock just in time for sunrise, the colour change is fantastic from brown through red to orange. As soon as that was over we drove round to the base of the climb and waited for the ranger to come and open it. Eventually he did and, after the 1st rush of over keen people cleared, we set off. It is as steep as it looks, the chain is there for a very good reason, although I obviously had my spiderman shoes on as I didn't need it, S said I was showing off but my shoes gripped really well and I just walked up. After you've been climbing for 30 mins the steep bit tapers off and you're on top of the dome. It then becomes a bit of a scramble as you follow the dotted line through gullies to the top. The view is excellent, you can see Mount Connor one way and the Olgas the other, everything else is just plane, for miles! The climb down is as entertaining as going up, I did a few 180's and a 360 in some of the gullies that were ½ pipe shaped, it was quicker to come down some of them by simply running over the edge and using the opposite up slope to slow you down. The wind @ the top of Ayers rock is quite unexpected , well not so much, someone had told us about it already. It was still cold when we set off but the climb soon warms you up, until you get about ½ way up the chain and the temperature drops a few degrees as the wind hits you, I was glad of the gloves M&T lent us. As you come down you come through the same barrier and it really warms you up as you return to the car park. After we'd got down and had a bit of a rest we set off on the base walk. The 1st part of this is a separate, smaller, walk in it's own right, the Marla walk. There's signs up @ various points and we brought the guide booklet in the cultural centre yesterday which gives you more details. The base walk is 9.4km, it's all flat so it's not too strenuous, it was nice and warm in the sun, a bit chillier in the shade. It took us 2½ hours in all, including a 20 min stop for lunch and time to look at all the sites, take photos etc. There is a 2nd walk towards the end of the circuit but as we were bursting for the the loo and have spare time to fill on Wednesday we left it for now. Instead we went back to the campsite and crashed for a few hours, I even put the awning up on the van.

22/6/02

Drove to Erldunda from Coober Pedy. Long boring drive, only stopped in Marla for fuel and change of driver. Nearly missed Erldunda, it is the petrol station on the turn off to Uluru.

20/6/02

Up early for our town tour. When I booked it yesterday she said it was full, I sort of assumed that as there were other people in out age group on the site that they must be doing it as well, wrong! The tour was full of grey nomads, we were the youngest people by at least 25 years. Still they and the tour were OK. We visited :- the catacomb underground church; the water treatment plant (briefly); the Jewellers shop opal field (which is an old open cast mine in town that you can go "Noodling" in. Basically you dig through all the old spoil heaps looking for bits they missed. Rudi, the guide, reckons they missed 40% of the opal here, I think if they missed that much the place would be packed everyday!); the underground pottery (nice didgeridoos but he doesn't use local clay for his work so not totally authentic); the golf course (all sand, not a blade of grass in sight); the opal mines (well, we drove past them, they're a bit dangerous to walk around). Last stop was the Umoona Opal Mine and museum where we had a video presentation on Coober Pedy and the opal mines followed by a tour of the underground house and the old mine. After lunch we went up to the Big Winch lookout and then went noodling again, it's good fun even though you get covered in dirt and dust, we still didn't find anything.

18/6/02

Went to the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Gardens which were quite quite interesting. The plants are starting to flower, most of them are purple for some reason. We drove down to the riverside mangrove plantation and had lunch.

16/6/02

Up very late with hangover/worse cold, must be the drink. Fartarsed around until 12:30 when we felt able to do something. Went to see the Yourambulla caves to see more abo kids paintings. Cave 1 has a crack in the ceiling and the rain water is starting to wash the pictures away in places, cave 3 is the best I think, actually the walk up was the best, good views of the plains. After lunch we went to Kanyaka Homestead ruins. It's an old sheep station basically, well what's left of it.

14/6/02

I have a cold, don't know where it came from but someone is to blame! Still, we went back to Wilpena today to do the hard walk to St Mary Peak. It was bloody hard, not just a little more difficult than yesterday, a whole lot more! The start was great, about 4km walking through pine forest @ the base of the mountains then the path just turns left and goes straight up. You find yourself going through creek beds, over boulders, through bush path and up cliffs. The cliffs was the more difficult part especially when the wind got up near the top and the rain didn't help either. S couldn't make the top, it got too slippery for her and the final part of the route is very dodgy. I think she was only 50m or so away though, she did really well. I went all the way up, it took about 20mins return from where I left S. Coming down it really started to rain, fell over 3 times as I slipped on rocks, have bruised a knuckle on my little finger where I came down hard the first time, luckily my arse broke the fall so no further damage! Came back down the same way we went, there is a circular route that is 5km longer but due to the weather we didn't do it. Got back to base about 4:55pm, been out for 6½ hours, absolutely knackered but pleased we did it. Saw a baby emu with it's mother on the way home, nearly killed a couple of roos and a few sheep as well. Ma and Pa have arrived @ M&T's.

12/6/02

Got up early and dealt with the RAA man/battery palaver. First thing he said to me when he arrived was "there must be another battery". Doris (the van) started nearly straight away with a booster. First stop was the Orlando winery visitor centre, Orlando are the people who make Jacob's Creek so we had to visit having drunk so much of the stuff. We tried a few and brought 9 bottles, they have some really nice stuff that they don't export so have some of that. We had to stop next to the road sign and take our picture, also stood in the creek. After that we drove to Hawker, we hoped to get there before 4pm, park the van, find a pub and watch the football (England-Nigeria) but they don't get SBS here at all so no one had it on, sort of left us with nothing to do for a couple of hours and feeling a bit despondent. Txt'd Liz to get the scores so we knew what was going on.

10/6/02

Went on a tour of the valley and a few wineries. There were only four of us so we could spend a bit more time doing the tasting. Garth, our guide, was the type of keen local who makes things more interesting because he's interested himself, the only thing he didn't know about was the taste of the wines because he didn't drink. He drove us round the whole valley giving us a brief history lesson on the way, we went to all the villages. Lunch, which was included in the price, was a huge roast beef, very nice. Some of the wines were horrible. We saw the Jacob's house on Jacob's Creek, it's where the name comes from although it's not owned by Orlando who make the wine. Had to have a rest when we got back!

8/6/02

Went to the eucalyptus oil refinery, very interesting. As well as making the oil they are completely self sufficient for their water and power. They have solar panels and a small windmill generating their electricity and the water comes from dammed streams and rainwater. The windmill generates as much power as 2 solar panels, all of them charge a bank of 4 batteries, I think they're probably the least efficient thing in the whole system. Drove up to Penneshaw, via Pelican Lagoon where we had lunch, and found the campsite. It's right next to the ferry terminal and the penguin colony. Had a walk round the bay then @ 7pm we went to see the penguins. They have part of the beach with walkways on it and as the penguins come home for the evening they walk up to their burrows underneath you. They're funny little things. We saw a couple of 2 week old chicks on their first outing from their burrow.

6/6/02

Up @ 6am, before dawn! We have to get the ferry @ 9:30. Trip to Kangaroo Island was a bit like a 45min rollercoaster ride, gale force winds and a 2m swell made the trip a little rough, there were lots of very sick people on the boat. First stop on KI was Seal Bay. We did a guided walk and it was well worth the money. You get to walk down on the beach with the sea lions (the Seal Bay name is a bit of a misnomer), you're not allowed to get closer than 5m but that's still close. As the guide was doing her first bit of spiel a mother and her young pup came back from a swimming/fishing lesson, it was magical to watch, the pup didn't want to stop playing. There were a lot of sea lions resting on the beach, huddled up together to keep warm. There were some lone pups whose mothers were out @ sea fishing. One in particular was very energetic and playful. He was running up and down the beach annoying all the others. Second stop for the day was the Kelly Hill caves. You get a guided tour for your $4 but they're really not very big (well the bit that's open isn't), the thing that stands out for me was how white everything is. The caves stopped growing a long time ago when a calcite cap formed over the top rocks stopping anymore water getting in and this has stopped a lot of the coloration that we've seen previously. After these we drove to the campsite in the Flinders Chase NP, it was empty so we got to choose our own plot. They have a koala walk so @ dusk we went out on that. We found 5 or 6 up a couple of trees, they had just woken up, there was also loads of wallabies bouncing around and a kangaroo hopping round the caravans when we got back, I think it was the park pet.

4/6/02

Drove to Hahndorf, a German colonial town, it's nice but very touristy with lots of art galleries, junk and antique shops. Had a nice sarny in the old hotel after visiting an art gallery. Went up to Mnt Lofty via lots of little villages, nice view of the whole area. A couple of bandicoots (I think) were playing around the seats, one came right up to S to have a sniff.

2/6/02

Drove from Mnt Gambier along the coast to Adelaide. We stopped in Kingston SE, we were going to have lunch here but it smelt bad so we carried on. We saw Larry the Lobster on the way out of town, a huge concrete crustacean. We eventually stopped in the Coorong National Park by a lake, have no idea which one though. Found the campsite OK when we got to Adelaide, it's very busy. We found the TV room, again it has a 1970's TV in it and naff reception but a Dutch couple who got there first managed to find SBS and the football OK. Saw most of the matches, England only drew 1-1 after Danny Mills cocked up, shame cause he'd had a good game until then. (Note: It's amazing how much football I've watched since we left the UK, @ home I watch none, mainly cause you have to pay extra for it all, but here it's all free so I'm becoming an armchair expert again!)

29/6/02

Drove to Alice Springs. Arrived by early afternoon. Popped into town and did some shopping, may have overdone it a little.

27/6/02

Drove from Yulara to Kings Creek station which is close to Kings Canyon, arrived by lunchtime. Went and collected firewood. Sat in the sun for a few hours, cooked dinner and ate it by the campfire. Aub did a great job of building it, it was a bit of an inferno to start with. Luckily it did not reach the tree above.

25/6/02

Visited the Olgas today. First we did the Valley of the Winds trail which took about 2 hours, very scenic. Afterwards we did the Olga gorge trail which took just under an hour. We stayed and watched the sunset.

23/6/02

Drove from Erldunda to Yulara, arrived about 12. Had lunch then went to see the Uluru-Kata Tjuta NP cultural centre which was very interesting. Drove around Uluru before coming back to the campsite.

21/6/02

Drove to the Breakaways reserve. We saw the Castle which was featured in Mad Max III. Drove a little further to see the dog fence which is supposed to keep dingo's to the north away from the sheep. Aub drove along the fence for a while and then went to turn onto the road. Couldn't get back on the road there so Aub tried to turn us around and we got stuck. Managed to move back a little after Aub tried to dig us out and build a road. Luckily someone in a 4x4 stopped and towed us out. Went to watch the football, England 1-Brazil 2.

19/6/02

Drove from Port Augusta to Coober Pedy. Stopped @ Woomera on the way and visited the heritage centre. Woomera was used by the British to launch experimental rockets during the 50's and 60's. Continued to Coober Pedy but got a little worried because we thought we were going to run out of petrol, luckily we made it.

17/6/02

Drove to Port Augusta. Stopped in Quorn for a coffee on the way, every thing seemed to be closed.

15/6/02

Thought we would have an easy day. Visited the Sacred Canyon which contains Aboriginal rock carvings. Not quite as impressive as I expected, maybe we were not looking in the right place. Visited Arkaroo Rock which has a good walk up to it. The paintings look like children's art. Went to watch the football at the pub, we thought they couldn't get the channel it was on so came back to the camp. Just as the first half finished they came to lock up. Went back to the pub and luckily it was on. Final score Denmark 0 - England 3.

13/6/02

Drove to Wilpena Pound. Decided to do the Ohlssen Bagge walking trail. Steady climb to the top which is 941m high. Good view of Wilpena Pound. The walk took 3½ hours, this was a warm up for tomorrow's hike.

11/6/02

Lazy day, did the laundry. Tried to go shopping but the van wouldn't start. The guy at the campsite tried to jump start it but without success. Called the RAA out but he couldn't get it started so he took the battery away with him to charge overnight. After he had left Aub tried the van again and there was still power. There was obviously another battery which Aub eventually managed to find, we walked to the shops in the end.

9/6/02

Caught the ferry back to the mainland. Drove to Tanunda. A bit of a scenic drive again! Stopped for lunch at Mnt Barker. Got a little worried as the van wouldn't start again, Aub left the lights on. We were only there for about 15 mins. Sat and waited a while, Doris had a rest, our van is now called Doris, and she started again OK.

7/6/02

Up at 7:30am to try and see the koalas again so we could get a photo. Well worth it as we saw a couple of them. Drove to Flinders Chase NP and went to see Admirals Arch. The weather was atrocious, wet and windy, but it was worth it as we saw many New Zealand fur seals on the rocks. Next stop was the Remarkable Rocks which were remarkable! The rain had eased a little, but it was very windy. Headed to Kingscote where we would spend the night. Went to the pub to watch the football. England won (Argentina 0, England 1) , hurrah!

5/6/02

Drove to Port Elliot although the scenic route via Murrey River (a bit out of our way). Arrived and checked in at the campsite, it's a little quiet! Drove to Victor Harbour where we walked over the causeway to Granite Island. Walked around the island, really pleasant. Views were good but unfortunately we didn't see any whales.

3/6/02

Walked to Adelaide along the River Torrens. It took nearly an hour and a half to get there. Stopped for lunch then strolled around and visited the Immigration museum. Walked through the Botanic Gardens where we then headed towards the river to make our way back to the campsite. Absolutely knackered by the time we got back.

1/6/02

Walked the Mountain Trail which took us around Valley Lake, over Sugar Loaf and then up to Centenary Tower where we stopped for lunch. Excellent view of Valley and Blue lakes. Made our descent down and walked around Blue Lake where we continued down to the town. Went to the Irish pub to watch the football.