Rae Wallace

raesholidays

Rae Wallace





The first thing we noticed in Adelaide was the cold weather and the news is it will get worse with a cold front approaching. I’d booked us into a beach front apartment in Glenelg for the next few nights before we drive down to Cape Jervis to catch the ferry to Kangaroo Island. The apartment was right on the boardwalk not far from the wharf. This is Mums first time staying in Glenelg, thankfully she got to see the wonderful sunset over the water our first night as I didn’t think we’d get the chance to see it with the weather expected. Mum and I both love a good Zoo and Adelaide Zoo has two big attractions - Wang Wang and Fu Ni. The only live Panda Bears in Australia. I was fortunate enough to do ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory July 6th 2019

I have to admit I'm a little excited to be going on the Ghan this morning. Our Hotel was a transfer location for the Ghan as the train station is 10kms out of town. There was a Great Southern Railway employee waiting in the hotel lobby. She asked for ID and checked our luggage in. We were allocated room 7 in carriage K. The train was 24 carriages long with 2 locomotives, 125 guests with 27 crew to look after us. Weighing 1210.2 tonnes. We had our photo taken at the front of the train then headed towards the rear of the train to board. In our room were a number of goodies along with a journey companion on the small table. We only just fitted into our small cabin bags. Our room had a tiny ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Batchelor July 5th 2019

We're on the move again heading to Batchelor for the night so we could visit Litchfield National Park. To continue our buff tour of the Northern Territory we spotted another Railway Museum. The Adelaide River Railway Heritage precinct displays much of the original equipment from the rail line built in the 1880 to service the Pine Creek Goldfields. Extensive work has been done to restore and document their rail history and it was very impressive. Unfortunately we had to keep moving so couldn't check out all of the buildings. I'd read about a Butterfly House in Batchelor and thought we should check it out. The owner (a VERY strange and eccentric guy) had built the butterfly house and pet gardens from scratch. He's collection of butterflies were very impressive and we really enjoyed feeding the bunnies, ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory June 29th 2019

We were up early heading for Katherine but first we’re going to check out Pine Creek. Just after leaving the Mary River Roadhouse there was a vehicle approaching us with flashing lights and going slow. I slowed down and moved over thinking it was a truck with a wide load. Imagine our surprise when it was a bunch of bike riders. Mum and I waved as they passed. It was a charity ride from Katherine to Darwin a 3 day event. At least they were riding in the cool of the early morning. We’ve seen a lot of people traveling around on bikes and camping. Pine Creek’s a mining town and home to the Pine Creek Railway precinct, the original terminus of an uncompleted transcontinental Railway system. Yes I’m being a buff again. The Pine Creek ... read more
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Flying into Darwin we noticed it’s a lot greener and thankfully hotter. As we were walking through the airport to claim our luggage there were cameras everywhere. I started wondering how they knew we were arriving today .... then the cameramen started to get excited as we were walking towards them but they weren’t looking at us, the bloody Parramatta Eels football team were behind us ... ? After getting our bags we hopped into a taxi so we could pick up our traveling home for the next week ... a Maui 2 berth Camper. I was a little shocked by the size of the camper and worried it would be to hard to drive. After a lesson on all the vans features I was let loose on the roads. We started easy and headed for ... read more
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We arrived into Alice Springs under the cover of darkness and through the 'Gap' I later learnt the gap was the southern entry into Alice springs via a gap between the Western and Eastern MacDonnell Ranges. The Todd River along with the railway and main road run through this gap. There's not a lot of room and I'm looking forward to travelling along it via the Ghan in a few weeks. Our first day in Alice started with brunch in a lovely cafe downtown ... shockingly this was the first chance we've had to do Eggs Beni. After brunch we decided to check out the Alice Springs Reptile Centre. We were just in time for the talk and got to hold a couple of lizards and a Python. They have a huge range of reptiles including ... read more
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We're on the move again and heading to Kings Canyon. It's approximately 325kms away from Yulara. I've booked us on to an afternoon AAT bus transfer. The bus takes about 4 hours with a quick stop at Curtin Springs. Which is a privately owned cattle station, over one million acres in size. The station is home to a number of salt lakes (we saw as we flew into Yulara) and foolaroo .... AKA Mt Connor. Many tourists have mistaken Mt Connor as Uluru. Although they look familiar the lack of a resort is a dead giveaway. The Kings Canyon Resort is located in the Watarrka National Park and is home to the George Gill Range. The resort is surprisingly large, with a few eating places, a bar, tennis court and a swimming pool. It's all well ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » Northern Territory » Uluru June 16th 2019

We were so lucky on both our flights. We flew near Lake Ayre on our flight from Adelaide to Alice Springs and could see the path the water was taking to fill the usually dry lake. On our flight from Alice Springs to Yulara we got our first glimpse of Uluru. I felt so sorry for the flight attendants when everyone on the righthand side of the plane started taking off their seat belts, standing up as they tried to get a picture of Uluru. It was manic. All they could do was announce that they needed to be seated with there seatbelts on as we were about to land. Mum and I stayed at the Desert Garden Hotel. There’s a number places to stay in the Yulara resort as well camping and caravan park. I ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » South Australia » Coober Pedy June 14th 2019

As we were driving along the Stuart Highway towards Coober Pedy, we were constantly amazed at the changing landscape. Silly me I've forgotten the gadget that downloads my big cameras photos to my iPad so I'll need to post them later. I'd booked us into the Lookout Cave Underground Motel. Our room was fantastic but way too modem to give us a appreciation of what it was really like living underground.the fan had to be on 24/7 to circulate the air and keep the room cool as it was a constant 25 degrees underground. I did get a bit concerned when every morning there'd be chips off the wall on the floor and bedhead. Unfortunately we didn't find any opal. We did the mail run tour our first day. The tour is run by a local ... read more
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Oceania » Australia » South Australia » Quorn June 9th 2019

It's holiday time again and we're off to see more of Australia. We start our adventure by flying to Adelaide where we picked up a tank. (Compared to my little Getz the Mitsubishi ASX feels like I'm driving a tank) I hardly recognised Adelaide airport, its been a few years since I've travelled to Adelaide for the cricket. After making a quick stop at Costco for supplies we headed off for Quorn. Quorn is located 335 kms north of Adelaide and is 293 meters above the sea level at the southern end of the Flinders Ranges and will be our home for 3 nights. The drive up was very picturesque. Coming across the biggest wind farm we'd seen in Australia. We detoured into the township of Snowtown, we didn't see the infamous bank but spotted our ... read more
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