Blogs from South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 264

The title of this blog came from something Peter said as we arrived at Mount Bryan to stay for a few nights with his parents, Jim and Rosemary. The Mount Byran valley was truely gorgeous with its Spring-time colours in full force. In October, the Canola is in flower and the contrast between the blue of the sky and the yellow of the canola can be an assault to the eye!! The wheat also looked stunning in a glistening shade of blue-green . The boys were doing their sheep shearing stuff so took a morning off to capture some of this beauty. To be honest, Peter had challenged me to get a "weather photo" suitable for submission to Channel 2 news, but I am not sure I made it. Perhaps a new camera is in order.... ... read more

Just a quick entry to get going.... Well it seems like an awfully big adventure to me! I'm in Adelaide, cooling off after 3 days in Singapore. And trying to get over jet lag before I run around Kangaroo Island for two weeks helping in the study of echidnas and goannas there. I guess the scientists won't be too happy if I don't wake up until mid morning! Tomorrow I am off wine tasting in the Barossa Valley - trying one of the organised tours for the first time. Although people I met in Singapore were quite negative about Adelaide, I've enjoyed it here - it's been good as the city is quite small so I've walked everywhere. Today I've done some of the museums / cultural centres - the Aborigine one, Immigration museum and the ... read more

If you are looking at the route map you will have to zoom out twice (press the minus button on the left hand side of the map twice) to see the whole route. Planning Considering today's weather we are planning to head for a Park near Cherry Gardens called Scott Creek Conservation Park which might offer us a little protection from the elements. The last time we did this walk I remember losing the trail and it being reasonably hot and tiring, but today we are heading for a very pleasant 15 degrees with scattered showers. Information about Scott Creek Conservation Park The Friends of Scott creek have a detailed web site available which I might use to identify plants and critters we see. What happened The park is near Warrawong Earth Sanctuary (which is apparently ... read more

On Thursday morning, we joined the Oodnadatta track which follows the old Ghan railway. We stopped at the Coward Springs for a dip in a spring caused by a leaky pipe from an artesian bore (there's loads of water in the outback it's just a long way down and very old). We also saw Lake Eyre South (a huge saltlake) and some very strange junk sculptures in the middle of nowhere. We travelled through Lyndhurst (start of the Strzelecki track), visited an open cast mine at Leigh Creek Coalfield and stopped at Copley Creek for a Quandong pie. From there the terrain started changing as we entered the greener region of Flinders Ranges. We stayed the night in bunkhouse accomodation (the temperature had started to drop pretty much as soon as we left the Oodnadatta track ... read more

On Tuesday morning we were allowed a lie-in (up at 5.30am) before driving back to the Erldunda roadhouse. Here, 10 members left the group (to go back to Alice) and 1 joined - leaving 9 of us to travel on to Adelaide. We spent the day travelling through some amazingly remote country stopping only at the South Australian border and then, many dusty miles later, for fish and chips at a roadhouse at Marla. That evening we arrived in Coober Pedy famous for Opal mining, 30m deep abandoned mine shafts (walking the opal fields in not recommended) and being the place where the people live underground in rock chambers in order to escape the heat (and continue their never-ending search for riches from the comfort of their own living room!). After a meal at a Greek ... read more