A family holiday for 6 months around Australia. Switching off for a while to remind ourselves of why we are doing what we do. Enjoying time with our little family that we have created. Creating some great memories and taking some awesome photographs as well.
After being in the Red Centre its going to be nice to chill out at the Alice for a while. The kids need a break from being on the road so we made sure of a nice van park for a few days...
During our stay we catch up with Brian & Merrilyn for a quick tour of The Local Botanical Gardens. Decided to capture some of the outback Flora
If you go to the centre of Australia it is guaranteed that you will watch the sunset at Ayres Rock. It will not disappoint you in any way. Every car will park at the designated parking area for the best view and then it's just a waiting game.
This 30-minute video is sped up to 1 minute to show the dramatic change of light that happens at sunset. In the last few moments, you really are freaked out by what the Rock does.
An amazing place to be in the afternoon
Heather goofing around with the camera
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The clearest skies without any clouds what so ever
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A day out today in Coober Pedy. We started at the feeding of the orphan kangaroos which was great fun for the girls (see video) and saw some aboriginal artwork at the gallery.
It was mothers day today and we sat for lunch in the underground hotel and enjoyed brunch.
Coober Pedy was a dusty hole of a place with no real comforts to speak of but a tone of character, a definate must see if travelling Australia... We stayed at the Riba's underground caravan and camping park which included a Mine tour in the evening it was very cool. We did some water divining and learnt about staking our own claim in the opal business. girls were terribly bored after 10 mins but it was their bed time and both were sleepy. This caravan park also caters for campers who want to camp underground in the hillside dugout tunnels..
Learning about how to blow the earth away with high explosives
Water divining is key to finding opal in the ground
The chicken man - strange travellers starting to appear
Coober Pedy from the Big winch Lookout area
Coober Pedy landscape
The Big Winch
We desperately wanted to find some opal and for people keen to try their luck there is a noodling area near the main street of town. It looks like a big pile of diggings from opal mines that you can noodle through and if your lucky and look hard you can find opal... we were lucky and found a few bits to bring home.
We bought the girls some opal earrings to remember their trip to Coober Pedy.
This is our final night at Coober Pedy tonight and since it was mothers day.. no cooking for mum so we bought one of their much talked about pizzas . Heading off in the morning leaving all the street drunk aboriginals behind. The only downfall to this town is the local aboriginals scattered through the streets drunk and sitting in the gutters... not a good site for tourists.
Noodling & The Breakaways
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After a great camp fire night with Brian & Merrilyn (our new found travel buddies) today saw us awaken to the picturesque Heart Lake. Although it is only a roadside stop-over, it is one of the better ones because of the lake.
Wayne on the roof of the land cruiser taking a sunset photo
We took a morning walk down to the salt lake with Brian and Merrilyn it was amazing to see such a huge lake without water but with its salt left behind... lots of great shots. Brian collected some salt to put in his salt grinder for dinner tonight.
A Salty Lake
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After noticing that all the freight trains come right by this lake, I decided to video underneath one. This can be very dangerous and the video proves this.
Panorama of the sakt lake
Rusty old train wheels from the mining done here years ago
The girls running along the old platform area
Brian & Merrilyn
The glare from the white surface made it hard for the girls not to squint
Salt lake education 101
The running man
heather on top of the salt mound
The Australian colours are starting to show
Run over by a freight train
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We jumped back into the van pushed forward to Coober Pedy today.
Along the way we started to see lots of road kill.. a tone of eagles and Kites (small eagles). We were warned when leaving port Augusta to be aware of cows, roos and strangely enough eagle. As anyone of these could jump out in front of you at any time. its not uncommon to see 4 or 5 wedge tail eagles sitting on the side of the road eating a dead carcus.
We only stayed a couple of days in port Augusta. It was more a rest time for us and preparation time to head up the middle of Australia.
While we stayed here we permanently fixed our solar panel to the roof of the van as it was becoming increasingly difficult being placed in our bathroom every day.. this way it can function all day as its supposed to. The batteries are of a super size and can easily last all day without a direct sun positioning.
We went for a boat cruise up the inland water way. Watched dolphins playing and shot some photos through the uppermost part of the inland sea.
Outback River Cruise
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We headed off without the license (as it was left in Victor Harbour) after a quick stop at the outback information center.
Ice creams for the girls
The Old bridge ferry
This old ferry carried parts up and down the waterway for building supplies. After finishing the bridge they realised that is was on the wrong side of the bridge so could not be taken back to the open ocean. they just left it to decay.
The new Shopping village at sunset
The outback centre snake
Drove on to lunchtime stop for some red dirt pictures and a family shot...
arrived at heart lake to see the sunset and get a shot in. Camp fire night with Merrilyn and Brian.
A quick trip to Port Germein before heading forward to Port Augusta. The longest jetty in the southern hemisphere.
Port Germein was once an important transport hub for the surrounding districts following the opening of its jetty in 1881 - at the time known as the longest jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. Due to the shallow water along the coast, the long jetty was built to allow sailing ships to be loaded with grain from surrounding districts. Bagged wheat came from the local area, the eastern side of the Southern Flinders Ranges via Port Germein Gorge (opened in 1879), and from the west coast in smaller boats. About 100,000 bags of wheat were loaded per year. The jetty was extended to its full length of 1680m in 1883.
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This jetty is very long and the wind today is tremendous, almost blowing us off the jetty. A cool little lighthouse still sits by the edge of the water and we took a couple of snaps here and decided to head up the road to the next "main town".
The jetty was extended to its full length of 1680m in 1883.
The girls stop for a quick snap
Cannot fit it into the full shot
Talk about repetition
At low tide the bottom shows for kilometers
The old lighthouse still stands
We arrived safely at Port Augusta and had the rest day to relax for us all. As we arrived at the main entrance to the van park we noticed barbed wire surrounding the fences and a sign saying if your not in by 9pm, the gate gets locked. Not a comforting thought to be caged in a van park. We cleaned the van a little, and grabbed an ice cream for the girls. Tomorrow will see me mount the Solar panel and fix a few things for the red centre journey.
