Blogs from South Australia, Australia, Oceania - page 276

From Adelade we headed North. Yay warmer! We started by stopping for a 10am wine tasting. The wine was really good too... So all buzzed up on Sav Blanc and a Rose Dessert wine we headed north through the Flinders Ranges. Lunch was a tasty Kangaroo Pie, which might be my favourate red meat. Who needs cows when you can have roos. From there we went to Alligator gorge... hiked through the river and gorge. We spent the night in the bustling metroplis of Quorin. In all seroiusness it is almost a real town. It had a decent pub. you've gotta love the Aussies, they build the worlds longest fence as a deterent to keep the dingos away from the sheep and cattle. now any dingo that wanted too could get through this fence, but it ... read more

Fifty kilometers to the north of Coober Pedy witches hats of white dirt, 20 feet tall begin to apear on the windswept plain. They are the mullock heaps, earth disgarded from the mine shaft beside each one, every gram checked for colour, opal. No humans to see, what few there are 30 feet down carefully chipping a drive forward or sorting spoil in the adjacent hut on wheels, before all that isn't opal, joins the mullock heap's pointy top through a dinosaur neck extractor. Alice Springs is 700km behind and Adelaide 700  father south   as the Sturt Highway nears Coober Pedy. Those first Mullock heaps have by now coalesed into ranges with odd outliers at spots where the effort of digging outweighed the value of opal found. Suddenly the town, in a gully. One minute cold(its winter) and windy saltbush, saltbush and mullock heaps to the horison ... read more

Not a destination on everybodies itinery. It was planned to be a 5 day pit stop enroute to Ayers Rock but was elongated into 2 months!!!!... All the guide books say that you should see everything in Australia before coming here as you wont want to leave, i just thought that was a devious marketing scheme aimed at squeezing more $ out of tight arse backpackers! but i was pleasently surprised to see that their write-up was spot on! This Hostel is slap-bang in the middle of nowhere, and is like an oasis!. Where every night is a saturday night. It has tree houses, hammocks a swimming pool, outdoor bbq area for the saturday night bbq's and free wine!, a gym, sauna, tennis and beach volleyball court, football pitch, Tv/Video Lounge, Games room for the alcoholics, ... read more

A small park with buffalo. You basically walk in a square. Nice lot of bird life on the last stretch.... read more

Well, Kangaroo Island was just a taster of what was in store over the next 9 days. We had booked a tour with Campwild Adventures from Adelaide to Alice Springs. 9 days, 3 showers – a far cry to what I’m used to at home! It turned out to be the best part of my trip. Again, sleeping in a swag, nothing to protect me from the weird and wonderful things to be found in the Australian outback. Sleeping under an outback sky is one of my favourite memories from my whole 8 months away. The stars are so bright, the sky is so black, it really was amazing. I saw the most amazing sights I’ve ever, the Flinders Ranges, Oodnadatta Track, Lake Eyre, Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Watarka, and so so much more. The amount of ... read more