El Questro

I remember years ago watching a travel show on the tv that showed a very expensive holiday on an outback station in the Kimberleys and never ever dreamed that I would ever get to visit that location – but that was on the agenda for today. We passengers eagerly clambered out of the coach to take a photograph of the road sign that marked the start of the Gibb River Road. This road is now sealed but was for many years a rough bush road along which drovers would move cattle from cattle yards to the sale yards. It is still used for moving cattle but these days the cattle travel at 100 kph in huge cattle trucks. We too were to travel at that speed in our trusty little coach. So my photograph was of the start of the Gibb River Road, not of the sign!

As we drove along we followed along the ridge that was the Cockburn Range. We learned how to pronounce the name of the range correctly “co-burn” instead of “cock-burn”! It should be spelled the way it sounds!

It was a welcome stop when we turned into Emma Gorge – which is the part of the El Questro tourist park (thousands of acres of cattle station) that is affordable to the majority of outback travellers.

We chose to try have either a cold drink or ice cream before I wandered off alone to explore the walk along the Emma Gorge. After the dryness of the open cattle country this was a real oasis. I certainly did not expect to find corkscrew pandanas here! Although it was really hot in the sun it was quite pleasant walking along the winding and very rough track. I found that I had to watch my feet rather than look out at the scenery I was walking through. I nearly tripped over a couple of times!

The track followed along a little creek that showed itself briefly through the long grass, not having much luck with taking photographs of the creek I turned my attention to the ridge towering above the treetops. I had better luck there.

We were to go on yet another boat cruise but on the way we drove along a real bush track, there was great excitement when we came to a shallow water crossing and even more exciting when we came across another that looked considerably deeper. Everyone stood up to look through the front window of the coach when we stopped to watch as a four wheel drive came through it. This was adventure with a capital “A”! Then WE did it! Good fun!

The Chamberlain Gorge cruise was quiet and leisurely and our guide gave us lots of information about the history of El Questro and about the geology of the gorge. The slow moving punt pulled onto a sand bank where most of the group drank “bubbly” (not me! I do not drink at all - makes me a bit of an outcast I have found.) and we all had fun dropping chicken feed pellets into the water to feed the fish. Some of the fish were very funny, they squirted a jet of water high into the air when one held a hand out from the boat! I enjoyed that!

The scenery in the Chamberlain Gorge was a rich colour that improved as the light changed during the afternoon. Here the sandstone was like building blocks, quite rectangular but all sorts of different sizes.

On our way back along the bush track we used on the way in, our coach picked up a stone between the dual back wheels so we had to stop at Emma Gorge again while Firie, our guide, removed the whels and removed the stone. The day had been so hot that while the coach had been sitting waiting for us to return from our cruise, the front windscreen had cracked! Apparently there had been a repaired crack in the window when we picked up the coach but the heat of the day caused it to explode.

It was a wonderful day (again) and I have a camera full of memories of my experiences. Each day seems to be as brilliant at the one before. So far I cannot say which has been my favourite – they have all be a favourite!.

AJ

Fabulous Scenery

After an early breakfast our coach was on its way south from Darwin to stop first at Adelaide River.

On the way south we learned a lot about the war time activities of this area and how the bitumen road served both as a Southern Access and as an airstrip for war planes. Evidence of those times is still on the sides of the road in the form of rusted 44 gallon drums that were once used as machine gun pits.

The Old Adelaide River Inn is home to a famous film star – the buffalo that appeared in the Crocodile Dundee movies! The buffalo died several years ago but has been “stuffed”and now supervises the happenings in the bar!

Since it was getting warmer and drier, many of us passengers bought ourselves bottles of water. Wanting a “sugar fix” I also bought myself a bottle of iced tea! Mango flavoured, very nice! Our next stop was the beautifully maintained war cemetery.

Here lie the unfortunate people of Darwin who were killed in the air raids on that city by the Japanese. By European standards the casualties were very small but to this remote area of Australia it was a catastrophe to lose over 400 people including 63 civilians.

The sprinklers were busy watering the imaculate lawns and the plantings of shrubs so we visitors had to time our walk among the markers on the ground so that we didn't get drenched too!

From here we made our way to Edith Falls. No one in the group wanted to swim so we enjoyed our sandwiches and juice in the picnic area and wandered around and took photographs.

This really is a beautiful waterhole and picnic area. The lawns are trimmed and the pathways paved so that it is easy to negotiate – which is important since we have two people in our group who are not very agile.

I don't know if I would call it the “best part of the trip” for the day but I certainly took the most photographs at the Katherine Gorge. We sat on a punt and were taken along the waters of the Katherine Gorge. The light was just beautiful and the scenery spectacular. Although I took hundreds of photos I will not share that many!

My final picture is of the canoes for hire, These are only for hire when the rangers are sure there are no esturine crocodiles to cause problems. The trees behind these canoes are weighted down with fruit bats. It is just as well I can't paste the horrible smell that these creatures put out! I thought the combination of the clean and colourful water craft contrasted so well with their backdrop!

AJ

On the water

It was such a beautiful day today that I loaded my camera into the car and headed off in the direction of "The Spit" which is a narrow neck of land stretching out into the Pacific Ocean and on which is located the Southport Yacht Club, the prawn fleet, Seaworld and a couple of very expensive hotels.
My main purpose was to take photographs of flags in different situation - this is one of the topics for this month for the Visions Group. Since there was a strong breeze blowing any flags I found were flipping around at a great rate of knots! I needed a very high shutter speed to get them!
I am not going to share the flags with you, instead I am going to show you a few shots I took while looking for them.

Oops! A flag slipped in! The buildings in the background are Southport. Usually when high rise buildings are shown on the Gold Coast they are of the ones in Surfers Paradise. Southport is a suburb adjacent to and north of Surfers Paradise. Southport is considered to be the CBD of the Gold Coast while Surfers Paradise is the tourism hub. There are not as many tall buildings in Southport as there are in Surfers Paradise - but no doubt that will change over the years!

Here is a different way to explore the Gold Coast. I have caught one of the Helitours just leaving from its floating pontoon with a well dressed passenger in the front seat. The tall building at the back is a shopping centre and office block. Three floors of the Australia Fair building are shopping centre and four are car parking. The Australia Fair (Scarborough Fair originally) was first opened in 1983 and is still a vibrant and popular place to shop.

It was so pleasant rambling around the Marina along the Quay that I was often tempted to take photographs - on a sunny day like this the place looks magnificent! Of course, the large and luxurious water craft along this main walkway are on display to be sold. Several different marine brokers have strings of beautiful boats moored here.

I would love to know more about this iron boat. It sits solidly on the water beside smaller bouncy, white luxury craft and has no pretence at beauty. What is the purpose of the projection at the front? I wonder. There was no one I could ask, just a couple of other people passing the time like me and they knew even less than I did!
AJ

Adelaide City sights

After exploring the countryside around Adelaide over the weekend, today was spent in the city – not shopping but checking out the sights! After tucking the car away in a multi story car park (which cost us an arm and a leg) we sauntered across the road to the Museum. Since it was a few minutes too early for the doors to open we wandered around taking photos of the buildings and statues.

A water feature held our attention for a few minutes, the strange shapes, we found out, are supposed to represent segments of back bone of a whale.

The Adelaide Museum has a wonderful collection of Aboriginal artifacts; I was amazed at a small piece of almost decayed bent twig which was the oldest boomerang that had ever been found. It looked to be too small and light to have been of much use as a throwing stick and yet that is what it was. How the finder knew that it was an ancient tool and not just a very old piece of branch, I really do not know! A collection of decorated shields made for a good photograph – no flashes were permitted so this was the best I could do without a tripod.

Leaving the museum we walked down to see the river, on the way passing the Immigration Museum. We popped in for a very quick visit, I found the plaques on the wall that commemorated the movement of many different people from many different countries of far more interest than the stuff inside the rooms. The bronze statue of a family on the move was in the courtyard and of course fell victim to my camera!

Across the river was St Peter’s Cathedral. Since Adelaide is the city of churches I really wanted to visit at least on of the places of religion before we left.  It really is a beautiful building – and the inside is magnificent too. The organist was practicing some dramatic piece of music that shook the stone pillars with its deep and loud sounds! Colin had to leave because the sound was too much for him! There are some amazing stained glass windows too and I managed to take a couple of shots of them by resting the camera on the pews. This photograph of the Cathedral was taken as I walked from the river towards it.

Before returning to the car we had to take a walk through the Rundle Mall – the heart of the city where local shoppers and curious tourists mingle. We had refreshments in an island coffee shop (like a tent in the middle of the Mall) I had a mixed berry smoothie – I had never had a smoothie before and it was quite delicious!

My final photo for the day was taken in the Mall of one of the many street sculptures – there were four pigs but this one appealed to me the most!

Tomorrow we pack our cases and leave South Australia. We are taking my sister and her husband due east so they can see where we used to have our farm. We shall nor go into the farm – we haven’t made contact with the present owner and we don’t really have time to anyway. However we can give a reasonable idea of what the size of the land was just by driving around.

AJ

An old place with a face lift

Every large town has a water supply and that water supply is also a place where the public are encouraged to visit and to picnic. Our water reservoir has been closed to the public for two years while the dam wall was raised to more than double the capacity of water that the dam would hold. Just before Christmas the construction workers packed their machinery onto trucks and the finished project was opened to the public.

Two days after Christmas and only a week since the gates were opened to the public, Colin and I took my new  little car (a red Toyota Corolla) for a run. I packed a picnic hamper and filled the large thermos flask and with the skies blue - for a change - we drove through the lush countryside to visit the Hinze Dam. We really expected for there to be crowds of people there when we arrived but to our surprise there were only two cars in the large car park beside the picnic tables and when we drove on to visit the Information Centre there were only about twenty cars up there.

This is the view over the dam from the Information Centre. This particular area contains tables and chairs for those wishing to sit and have coffee or lunch here. Below the fence is a series of paths through lawns and areas planted with sedge plants (they are the darker green nearest to the fence).

There is yet another room to the right of this picture that has a huge glass-less window that also looks out over this scene and it is called "the Function Room" and it is where groups of people can meet and do whatever is planned for them (!) It is a very striking location for a meeting.

This was the view of the spillway that we saw when we first arrived at the Hinze Dam. When the dam is full and running over it would be a wonderful sight to see. You can tell from this picture that new vegetation has been planted, in fact there is new vegetation all around the picnic grounds too so once that is all established the place will look quite stunning - I know! It looks pretty good already!

Looking down on the spillway you can imagine just how dramatic the water will look when running down this at speed! There are so many different obstructions that will break the flow and create amazing spray and turbulence that I just can't wait for the dam to fill and for the spillway to be used!

We have some wonderful things to see so close to home!
AJ