Today is the first of October and close to the end of our odessy.

This morning as usual we left our camp at the comfortable time of 10am long after everyone else who was camped with us. Before leaving however Elaine had chatted with a couple of Weagles supporters on there way to Melbourne and was given a flag so that we could show our allegiance. By the way we were dumbfounded at the cost of their tickets.

Still heading west we stopped briefly at Yalata where the road house has been boarded up due, we discovered to asbestos issues. Then on to the Head of the Bight. This basically is the northern most point of the Great Australian  Bight and the start of the very spectacular Bunda Cliffs. To quote from the brochure 'whales take up residence here for an entire 5 month period from June to October'. Unfortunately it is the end of the season but we were fortunate enough to see a couple of mothers with calves. We have seen whales before and at much closer quarters but this was a new and very nice experience. The centre is, presumably, owned by the local Yalata community and the shop is run by whities. The whole set up is great with a well set up visitor centre that blends into the surroundings and has the usual story boards explaining everything including the geology, the marine details etc. Then after paying our entrance fee, reduced because we are seniors and reduced again because it is late in the season, we walked down to the viewing platforms. One is a lookout with a good view over the ocean and an excellent view of the Bunda Cliffs, the other is a boardwalk meandering down the hill to the cliff edge. In this case the boardwalk provided an excellent view of mother and calf really close to shore.

Tonight we are camped in a specially provided area at the gates to the HOB, just a flat surface with an old building in the middle.

Wednesday September 30

We followed our usual routine this morning and were, successfully, the last to leave our camp at the Cohen Old School site. 

First stop was Fowlers Bay, we hadn't intended to go there as we understood the road to be bad. However we were advised last night that if we used the eastern road it was good, and it was, part sealed, part unsealed both good smooth roads. Fowlers Bay is another nice town whose main industry is tourist fishing and whale watching. There were no whales to be seen, but it is late in the season and we have seen a lot whales whilst sailing. The town has quite a long history which is set out on a number of story boards along the main street which is on the waterfront. Very pleasant, then we went back to Eyre Highway and proceeded to the town of Nundroo where we fueled up and had a brief chat with a West Coast Eagles fan heading east. There is a steady stream of vehicles on this road heading east, trucks, caravans, etc and quite a few cars not towing anything. A high proportion of the cars have WA plates and you can guess where they are going.  

We are camped tonight at one of the many rest ares, this one about 40kms west of Nundroo. 

Today we were, as usual, last out, this time by design. We did a bit of a clean up and trimmed up the wood we are carrying. We have been told that firewood is a bit hard to come by on the Nullabor, although so far the reverse is true, so we have stocked up. We then headed off going west on what is basically the last leg of our trip, all 2000 approx kms of it, but today's leg was not far at all.

Now I have been saving this one up for a little while as we are now camped at the COHEN OLD SCHOOL site. There is not much here, just a sign and the remains of a building that was presumably the old school house. I have spent a bit of time on Google trying to track down the history as I gather that there was a town called Cohen. However I have not been able to learn anything but will ask question as we proceed. Having got here we set up a fire and made some Passover rolls from a packet that we have carried since Perth, followed by Elaine making one of her famous minestrones on the same fire in the same camp oven.

It is quite a nice spot away from the road with views over a farmers fields and tonight we have 6 neighbours.

Last night there were only 2 of us in the van park, however our hosts did a campfires and invited both of us to join them. We chatted for a while then cooked our meat on their bbq before retiring to our van to eat and sleep. So it was easy to be last out this morning and we took our time anyway as we were not travelling far. The van got watered we got showered and off we went to Ceduna.

Ceduna is basically the start of the Nullabor crossing and like all the others on the Eyre Penninsula is a very nice town clean and tidy and welcoming. So we shopped, fueled, grogged and headed off along the Eyre Highway. The first stop was not suitable for an overnightet so we moved on and are now camped with a few other people at a rest stop, I think the Koonimba but anyway about 80km west of Ceduna. We have also just had one of Elaine's great meals, roast chicken, cooked on our fire pot.

Easy day today, we got going early, for us that is, and headed for a place called Smoky Bay where we are safely ensconced in Baldwins Van Park. A van park was necessary today because Elaine wanted to use a washing machine. So we did the washing and other good things and went into town to see what there is to see. Like most of these towns it is a very neat and tidy place with lots of new looking houses. There is also a jetty with a very interesting restoration story. Apparently they got organised then nothing happened so a few years back they started again and this time suceeded. The design was done by a Western Australian called Murray Drew who donated his services and lots of volunteers helped along with government and shire money with the total cost over $600,000. They sold planks as part of the fundraising and they can be seen with the names of the donors engraved in them as you walk along the jetty. There was also a lovely little cavorting alongside, but unfortunately he was nursing an injury from one of those damn jet skis.

Have to go as our hosts have invited us to join them at the bonfire.

We have spent the day here at the Haslam campground. The town is very small there are less 100 people here but it is a nice little place and the campground is basic but adequate.  This mornings exploration revealed a long jetty and a rocky foreshore. There was also story boards giving the history of the town. Then I watched somebody launch their boat by driving their 4wd across about 100 metres of shallow water then manhandle their boat off the trailer, then take the vehicle back to the shore and walk back out to the boat. The rest of the day was spent cleaning the van and researching the stops across the Nullabor followed by happy hour with the other motorhomes here.

Ok this is Saturday but I am pretending that it is Friday and this is my Friday blog.

I stepped out of the van into water.........just kidding, but we were that close to the water. The high tide was about 5 metres in front of our van and the beach was covered in seaweed. At low tide sand was exposed for about 100 metres from our van and there was a bit of fun watching people drive over the wet sand and around puddles to lauch their boats. There was not many rocks or shells on the beach but what there was were very nice. So that despite my intention not to collect either I finished up with quite a big collection, mainly shells.

We left fairly early, like about 10am, due to fact that sand was getting into every available nook and cranny, both on the van and on us. When we got to the main road we stopped and did a bit of a clean up. Then proceeded to Haslam campground about 80km along the road, turning off the highway onto what is probably the worst road that we have encountered for a long time. We did however get there in one piece only to discover that our TomTom could have chosen a sealed road a bit further on, naughty boy!

We will spend a couple of days here to tidy up and prepare for the 1300km Nullabor crossing along with a number of other motorhomes heading to Albany.

We are on the move again, as usual last out and I mean last out, all 10 of our neighbours had departed before we took off. This mornings walk revealed one only kangaroo track the beach and not many birds. So we are now heading north again which means that we have sand dunes on our port (left) hand and green fields either side.

First stop was the Woolshed Cave, so named for its size and shape, about 30 kms along the road and about 10 kms of unsealed road to the actual cave. It was quite spectacular but the most impressive thing was the surrounding rocks, they were well worn striped pink and white mixed with the usual weathered limestone. We stopped at Venus Bay for morning tea, a very fresh looking town with lots of new looking houses and infrastructure. We also used the break to attend to a minor repair. Then on to feature called Murphy's Haystacks, which was a group of tall rocks just coming out of the ground without any surrounding rockery. It was on private property and despite the comments on Wiki Camp we decided that it was not suited to an overnight stay. So on the road again we noticed, as we have noticed on other occasions lots of dead and felled tress in the paddocks just left all over the place where they originally fell. It has also been noticable on this penninsula that all the towns are preceded by a sign board listing their attractions.

The next stop was Streaky Bay and we took the drive to Cape Bauer with a view to camping there. It was a rather spectacular place with cliffs and ocean views all around, but the cold wind drove us away. Unfortunately the wind has detracted a little from our stay on this coast.

Tonight we are camped, literally, on the beach at Perlubie Bay and have been assured by the other, more experienced campers that we are safe above the tide line. I have also been on the net checking and the next big tides are a few days away.

Today we stayed right where we are just a little south of a place called Port Kenny on the west coast of the Eyre Penninsula. This morning I walked on the beach in the northern side of our camp, it is nice fine white sand spread over two sweeping bays. Quite a nice long walk with high sand dunes alongside the beach. After lunch we both went to the beach on the south side which is much smaller and the sand has fine gravel like rocks mixed into it. I thought about a swim but it was much too cold.

There were four other vans here last night, three left and tonight there are about ten other vans, this includes the five motorhomes that we have been meeting off and on since Port Augusta. One other thing the wind has been and still is very cold so that we are all rugged up.

Our new found friends decided to stay put today while we got going about 9.30am and went back to the main road and headed north. The scenery on this coast is quite different to that with which we have become used to on the east coast. It is still very nice hills and greenery but here on the west coast it is more (for want of a better word) business like. We have green fields, trees and sheep so it really is very pleasant.

First stop was 'Cummins Monument' lookout which was really very spectacular and where we intended to overnight. But the wind was too strong and much too cold so we moved on. There are a lot of rock walls in the farms lining the road which are built using local rocks stacked in such a way as to not need mortar, very clever. Our next stop was at a layby where there was a story board about these walls which were apparently the way farmers, in the late 19th century, fenced their properties. Again it was not good enough for us to stay the night and we moved on again. After passing through the town of Elliston we have settled for the night, and maybe more than one night, at a place called the Walkers Rocks Campground along with half a dozen other campers. We are partly sheltered from the wind and just a hop,step and jump from a very nice beach.

Well another day in the life and times of Loose Ends and her crew. A normal time, normal for us that is, start after a short walk up the hill from our camp just to see what was there and there was only a few more properties. Then down into Port Lincoln to dump and water up then we headed off.

Our original plan was to head south to a place called Sleaford Bay then to head west via Port Lincoln.  However there was nothing special to see down there and it was too cold to consider staying there so we just pointed our nose west and drove. First stop was Coffin Bay, lousy name and I still don't know how it came about, where we looked at the bay first from a lookout then from the boat launching ramp. Then we stopped at the local yacht club for morning tea, this is quite a nice building but the marina was only about 10 pens, all empty. We did however have the pleasure of seeing a small half cabin cat boat sailing. Then of to a place, recommended by our last host, where we could camp in an olive grove. But when we got there he wasn't really ready for guests and we would have been his first. So, feeling very guilty we moved on, and are now camped at the Farm Beach Campground which is sponsored by the local council. We have also met  up with the 5 motorhomes that we met at Pt Augusta and as they are traveling the same way as us with a similar timetable we will probably sees bit of them which is nice.

Another day spent at John Martin's campground in Port Lincoln. Yesterday we bought a few bits we needed to complete a couple of minor repairs and today we did the repairs. As usual Elaine did her cleaning, the never ending job as well, as helping me with the van repairs.

Then I went to the Alex Stenhouse Maritime Museum while Elaine did some washing in the parking area. The museum was well worth the effort as it was a well put together collection of maritime artefacts, small boats, etc. It brought back a few memories as amongst other things there was was a heavy weight sharpie and old Seagull outboards both of which I have had at some time in the past. There was also a lot of half models of all sorts of sailing craft, which is always interesting, together with a lot of maritime history pertaining to this part of the world. On top of all that there was the history of the man and the tools of the boat building trade.

After that we went and had a quick look at the local marina which is just another canal developement and full of commercial fishing vessels. After that back to our camp to hide from the wind and rain that is developing here.

Well today we drove the short distance into Port Lincoln and confirmed that this is a big city. We drove pretty well straight through to a place called John Martin Caravan repairs where we organised a few parts that we needed and organised to stay for the night. John has an area that can be used as a campground which is very convenient if you have a few jobs to do, which we have, jobs that is. Anyway then back into town, and the usual shopping, where we met up with one of the motorhomes that we met in Port Augusta, they are staying somewhere near the town.

Well the day started, after my usual walk this time along the beach below our camp, with a long chat with our host Peter. He was one of the guys who gave us the fish yesterday and it turns out that he owns the ocean front property that included our camp. He called past to see if we used the fish and we had a long chat about his plans for the property which consists of 8 lots plus the one we were camped on. He also owns the farm bordering the lots, it is a family farm which is now leased out as he has sort of retired.

We then headed south along the main road detouring a couple of kms to a place called Lipson. It was a very old settlement and as we stopped to photograph a beautiful old church we were waved down by a man called John. It turned out that he is part of the local progress group and proudly showed us over the two local halls. One was fairly ordinary but the other was a treasure trove of history including very nice pressed tin ceiling, a protruding wooden stage and lots more.

Tumby Bay was next, another pretty town on a very pretty coastline. Unfortunately all these towns are more suitable for and are geared to provide for summer holiday makers. You know the usual dive, swim, fish with a little bit of exploring and therefore does not have a lot for us to see.

Then on to the Kippio Smithy Museum about 25 kms of unsealed but ok road off the main highway. The scenery on the way was breathtaking rolling green hills with the ocean in the background. The museum itself is a National Trust Museum and was well worth the few hours that I spent in it. Elaine did not join me in the museum, instead making jaffles in the van. Included in the very extensive museum was a well set up print shop which reminded me, strongly, of my years in the printing business. There was also a 1937 Chevrolet like the one my parents had, almost as this was a four door and ours was a two door coupe. Then I spent time looking at a big collection of tractors and motors which interested me and occupied a lot of my time.

Then we looked for a camp, the first one was not suitable and we went on to where we have now camped at the Louth Bay campground. There are lots of these campgrounds in the Penninsula and they all charge minimum money and provide minimum facilities, which suits us and lots of people like us perfectly.

Wednesday September 17

Well today dawned sunny with virtually no wind so I took a walk on the beach below our camp. The actual camp was behind the dunes and well above the beach. It was nice to feel sand and waters between my toes and to see the birds around the beach. The beach here is backed by low cliffs and has sand very much like the sand that we are used to in WA. Then we drove off through the farming country which is pretty greens and yellows, but mainly greens, at the moment. We were informed later that this is a marginal farming area do the farms are quite large and that this will be a good year. One other comment about the farms, they are virtually treeless which I understand is not good from a soil erosion point of view and a few other factors such as salinity. 

We stopped for lunch at yet another pretty town. It is very noticeable on this coast of this peninsula that the scenery is beautiful and that the town's have gone to some trouble to match their surroundings in order to attract tourists. The coastline is full of wide bays, blue water as far as the eye can see, and on the land side rolling green hills. The beach are long sweeping beaches with the aforementioned white sand. 

We are camped tonight on another low hill next to the ocean and have the whole place to ourselves. We have also been treated to dolphins swimming just off shore and a crop dusting plane doing the fields around us and flying over us almost close enough to touch. Then to top off a nice day a couple of fishermen came past, confirmed that were not Victorians and gave us three nice king george whiting which I duly filleted, Elaine duly cooked and we duly ate. 

Even by our standards we made a late start today, what with my hairdresser (Elaine) giving me a haircut and our reluctance to leave such a lovely spot it was 10.30am before we got on the road.

First stop was Whyalla which turned out to be a very nice town, nicer than we expected. It is after all an industrial town with one of Australia's largest industrial plants as its centrepiece, that being the BHP steel mills. But even that steel mill is clean and tidy. The town was a mixture of old and new houses and they were all, or all those that we saw, clean, tidy and in good condition. The streets were clean and tidy and the parts of the commercial areas that we saw were the same. There was also 2 very good lookouts, one a Mathew Flinders and Frecinet memorial the other a very complex lookout built by BHP as part of their centenary celebrations. The BHP lookout had 3 covered eating spots, a WW11 antiaircraft gun and the main lookout above all of this at the top of a suitably high hill. The waters around the town including a fairly new looking marina were sparkling and picturesque. Good on ya Whyalla!

Then back on the road heading south into strong winds and heavy rain clouds and rain. Even with that it was a pretty drive with lots of green fields, bushes and trees and the rolling hills that southern South Australia is famous for. I noted that there were more twig or branch fences, maybe it is a SA thing.

Then we arrived at Port Gibbon where we plan to spend the night. First an exploring drive along the spectacular clifftop road to Point Gibbon then back to the campground. There is no actual town here but the area has history and we have magic views only 50 mtrs from our van.

Just a little addendum to today's log, I spent some time earlier trying to download some photos. I will continue to try but may finish up having to do that from my computer when we get home.

As I intimated, very subtly (!), yesterday we are camped in a lovely spot. Not many neighbours but those we have are nice. It surprises me how many people live on the road full time, modern day gypsies maybe. Today for example we met a couple who have been on the road for 8 years and straight after that a man who had been on the road for 16 years. Yesterday a young couple with 4 daughters who are about 6 months out and plan a couple of years, distance educating their daughters on the way and earning money writing for magazines. These are just an example, there have been many others, some have sold their homes and others just rented them out. I have to admit that it sounds like an appealing lifestyle which we couldn't manage without figuring out ways to see our grandchildren and children at regular short intervals. Going back to the couple from this morning we discovered how small a world it is, they come from North Perth and knew lots of people that I knew from the area (my grandparents lived there and I knew lots of local people). They also were boating people and once again we had lots of mutual acquaintances.

Back to the travelling bit, this site is fantastic and worth a lot more than the couple of days that we are giving it. There are two issues firstly a cold wind, probably right through the eastern shore of the Penninsula , which is easily countered with warm clothes (which we had to dig out from long term storage under the bunks), but there are also flies in their millions which are not so easily countered.

As usual we have a fire operational, last night using some of the wood that we carry with us collected along the way and cut up using my battery powered chain saw. However we were running low so on my morning walk I collected some drift wood before finding out that could attract a heavy fine. So we put it away from our camp, but we were lucky enough to find a huge, ex-light pole piece of wood which is now smouldering away as Elaine cooks a rossellah (similar to a stew).

'Sitting on the dock of the bay watching the tide roll in......... ' We are in fact on the shores of the beautiful Fitzgerald Bay, in front of us is a shingle beach with sparse mangrove trees, with the tide coming in, we are on a strip of flat ground above the tide line and behind us is what looks like a retaining wall. It is a shingle mound that, according to the story board has been dated as 30,000 years old! In the distance is a view over the waters of the head of the Spencer Gulf  to ranges in the background and in the middle ground 5 aquaculture enclosures. Rather nice!

Today we drove about 17 kms to move about 10 kms north of last nights camp and the difference is like chalk and cheese. There we had a very practical surround of houses (and shacks) and a refineryand a very long jetty, here we have pristine waters, a few fellow campers, spread around the bay a few buildings and rolling hills. Personally I could stay here for a long time but I suspect that my driver will be hard pushed to survive more than a couple of days.

Today was a little different to yesterday.

We started off heading south onto the Eyre Penninsula where we will spend, probably the next couple of weeks. At the same time the other motorhomes in our camp headed off in the same direction, they are heading to Albany for  CMCA rally and will also spend time here. They are friendly enough but we are not included in their little group. I suspect that as we cross the Nullabor we will meet up with a lot more motorhomes heading to the sane place. We have stopped at a place called Point Lowly which is about 9 kms north of Whyalla which in turn is famous as the site of the BHP iron ore refinery. Where we are are there is also an oil refinery using shale from Moomba. On the way in we were stopped by a train heading north carrying products from the steel mills, pipes, girders, etc. So here we are for the first time since the beginning of August on absolute ocean frontage. Admittedly the ocean is the Spencer Gulf but that is close enough. A walk round to the lighthouse on the point revealed that both Mathew Flinders and Freycinet visited here at the beginning of the nineteenth century. It also provided a nice view of the refinery and the 2.4km jetty that services it.

Morning after again!

Yesterday was fairly straight forward, after putting reserved signs on our spot we headed for town. Shopping and doctors on the agenda, there is woolworths, Coles and foodland in town and reasonable parking. So after doing that and fuelling and watering we went out to the Mathew Flinders lookout to take some photos. The area is quite pretty with the Spencer Gulf in the foreground and the mountain ranges in the background and in the middle Augusta. Then back to our camp so that Elaine could watch the football.

You could call this a lay day, that is what we did......not much.

We left the mighty town of Pimba at a reasonable hour and drove the 170 kms into Port Augusta. The scenery had now changed to rolling hills of gradually increasing size covered with low green bushes and, every now and then, a few small trees. Quite pretty really. There were also grazing sheep including one black sheep with lambs, probably twins. Then we arrived in town and I should change that to city as it is quite a big place. We are camped tonight on the west side of the city at a place called the Augusta Motorhome Park which is an enterprise of the local football club and is very full with about 25 vehicles here. I should note that some are caravans, not motorhomes.

I was thinking, whilst walking this morning, about driving. As most of you know Elaine does near enough all the driving and I have noticed that young couples that we are seeing on the road share the driving. On the other hand our peers don't share, like us one partner drives the other acts as observer. Other than that my walk produced nothing of interest.

Back on the road we passed through flat plains with low shrubs but different colours and shapes to yesterday. Then bigger shrubs and low spread out trees and some low hills all together changing and in its own way rather nice. Then we came to Lake Hart which is a  rather large, at the moment, salt pan followed shortly after by Lake Gairdner which is larger and had some water in it. Then, under a cloudless sky, we reached Woomera and had a good look around the displays at Australia's rocket range. As usual very interesting and not exactly as expected.

Tonight we are camped at Pimba, you haven't heard of it! Not surprising as it only has 40 permanent residents.

I will start with a word about Coober Pedy which is a RV friendly town. Next to the council chambers where the visitors centre is they have a well set up dump spot (to empty toilet cassettes) and a water filling station. The water costs 20c for 30 litres and 2 vans can fill up at one time, using nozzles like petrol bowsers or using their own hoses. Surisingly not all residents live underground, there is quite a big settlement of normal houses above the ground. There are also a large number of underground dwellings. I don't know what the numbers are but it makes for a rather picturesque town. My morning walk from the caravan park took me to neighbouring mines and to what I think of as a moonscape, at least that is the word that came to mind. There were lots of deep holes in the ground, some very narrow (test drills with some sort of mechanical core drill), some big enough to lower someone down to check for signs of opal and a couple of very big excavations. We were told yesterday that there is no scientific way of locating opal, then one of our friends told us that they use something like a water diviner!! Either way it appears that finding opal is by luck only. Then we headed south after the usual bit of shopping.

Very soon after leaving town the evidence of mining ceased and the landscape reverted to flat plains with very small shrubs. Then suddenly in the distance comes mining, this time in a relatively confined space but busy with at least 12 of their machines (actually they are big vacuum machines that suck the mulluch out of the shafts). Then back  to flat plains but with a couple of road bridges crossing fairly substantial roads going I know not where. Then another big mine mound so we stopped and looked. There were the expected holes in the ground and a big excavation complete with an entry to some sort of dugout?

Back on the road the scenery varied from the plains with low scrub to bigger shrubs and some small trees. Also a few low hills, some depressions in the ground that probably hold water when it rains and a very long fence, several kilometres, with fence posts made of tree (or shrub) branches. It seems to me that even similar looking scenery has its own character and this makes for interesting travelling. Finally reaching our camp for the night call the Mulga Well rest area about 250 kms North of Pt Augusta.

Today was spent in Coober Pedy which, like a lot of other places that we have visited, turns out to be a rather fascinating place.

We started the day by booking into a caravan park with power and a washing machine. The power is to give our fridges a bit of a boost and the reason for the washing machine is to wash our sheets. Elaine does the day to day washing in buckets as we travel so that she reduces the need for a washing machine. This caravan park is part of an old mine and residence. If you wish to camp you can actually do so underground but caravans are above the ground. The owners residence, his office and the TV room are all underground. After doing the washing and showering we headed for town and went looking for a house, an underground house, that was open for tourists. However when we got there the owners were absent so we went 'noodling' on the next door paddock which was full of mine dirt. Noodling is the practise of going through the mine tailings looking for bits of opal that have been missed, a bit of a long shot I would think. Although I read somewhere that there are some local people who actually make a good living that way. Anyway we had a bit of fun but didn't find anything of interest. Following that we went off to do a tour and were lucky enough to be the only people on the tour. This tour showed us how the miners lived underground in the early days and what a modern underground home looks like. We also saw how the mining is done and had a very informative guide. Before leaving we went up to the lookout and were able to see the town, a reasonable size and busy, and spread around mines and underground residences.

Well now change of state brought a change of weather, it was cloudy and looked like rain this morning, and a change of scenery. We were seeing scattered hills of various shapes and sizes and plains of low green scrubland. The rest centres, as we passed them were large flat areas without toilets but with a small gazebo. The first stop was a town called Marla which is the turning point for those going on the Oodnadatta track and is a bustling roadhouse supporting a full range of roadside enterprises. Then on towards Coober Pedy.

We came over a small hill and in front of us we can see lots of little white mounds of earth. Then as we proceeded there was thousands of these little hills and some a little bigger and some big ones. These represented opal diggings, so many that the ground must be like the honeycomb that you buy in the shop. As we had covered a lot of kms today we didn't reach here until late so after a quick look around we have camped about 13 kms south of the town and will go back into town to do the tourist thing tomorrow.

Sunday September 6

It's Father's Day and it makes me think of the kids and especially my lovely grandchildren just a little bit more. I think of them all the time anyway but a bit extra today, thanks for all the greetings that I received. 

This morning started off with me spilling the cereal container and Elaine has a photograph of me picking it up off the floor. I should add that what I picked up from the floor went into a container by the water tank for the birds. We don't feed wild animals but that was just like them picking up seeds from the ground. Talking about wild animals we had a pet dingo cub for company since arriving at the camp yesterday. He hung around obviously wanting food which we didn't give him but he seemed quite friendly and at one stage slept under the van. Then he disappeared overnight returning this morning. So eventually we took off leaving our pet behind heading for Lassiter Highway then Erldunda then to head south along the Stuart Highway. On the way we passed Mt Ebeneezer which is a small settlement on the edge of Ebeneezer Station. There we saw the biggest ever motorhome built on the back of a 5 ton truck and towing, on a trailer, a 4wd ute and a boat. At Erldunda we made a few phone calls along with the usual fuelling up.Then down the highway and we are now camped on the South Australian border where Elaine has been busy cooking everything that we can't take across the border fresh. 

Just another couple of comments, firstly that we keep meeting people who are eager to help where practical and who are supremely relaxed. For instance today we trying unsuccessfully to get a photo on time delay on my camera and a guy we have never met wandered over from his caravan, about 30 mtrs away, and offered to help. The relaxed bit is just so obvious when you see and chat with people in these free camps. The other thing concerns a couple we met yesterday when we stopped to look at Kathleen Springs. After looking at the story board we decided not to walk to the possible waterhole and head back to the van. On the way we met a couple who just looked from a distance from the story board then turned around to go back to their car. They had driven a few hundred kms from Alice Springs passing several nice gorges and sites to see and planned to reach the Kings Canyon Resort that night having 'seen' all the beaut things there were to see. On the following day they would 'see a bit of the countryside' while dirt biking or similar. I think that we are only getting a superficial look at inland Australia so what are they getting?

Saturday September 5

Well the afternoon siesta has been had and, while I still feel a little weary, I am back to operating standard. We are still in the land of offline blogs but hope to be back under the cover of the Telstra dome tomorrow. 

Today's project was a walk around the rim of Kings Canyon which was touted as 6 kms, grade 3 moderate to take 3 plus hours. It was a massive and exhausting climb up from the car park on a staircase using the existing rocks with concrete fill to keep them from moving. After that it was up over rocks and down to the pathway time and time again, all set up to the same standard, for the rest of the walk. In the middle was a set of stairs going down about 50 metres or so to a bridge over the so called Garden of Eden which is a glade set between high cliffs and supporting a wide variety of flora and, I presume, fauna. This is very nice to look at from the bridge and I slacked out of the detour to actually walk the garden which would have been an additional 600 mtrs. It did look beautiful from the bridge but my body was saying be sensible. Then after the bridge another set of stairs back to the heights and then another 3 kms of up and down the rocks. The view from this walk was stunning (another one of my overused words) of rock formations and structures, plants growing in the cracks and occasionally the distant countryside. The last km was downhill and this was almost as hard as going up. I guess partly because I was getting weary because, like the rest of the walk, it was very well prepared and planned. Along the way everybody, from a bunch of young American female exchange students, to a couple of families and some older people (I like to think not as old as me) passed me by. When I got to the van Elaine informed me that I had taken just 2 and a bit hours. Since I had spent quite a bit of time looking and taking photographs I was quite pleased with myself. While I had been enjoying myself on the canyon rim elaine had done the creek walk which she found interesting. 

The pity about all this is that there is so much more to understand than my superficial look at the majesty of it all, and I don't have to knowledge to apply to it or the memory to remember it all. 

Friday September 4

Well thus passes another fantastic day as we travel through paradise. However we are out of phone cover so this is being done offline. 

Our new friends from the camp near Yulara left camp well before us, 3 of them heading the same way and 1 heading to spend a few days looking at Uluru. Interestingly 2 of them had mutual acquaintances. The road to Yulara, Lassiter highway, is very busy a continual stream of buses and RVs. The view of the big rock as we drove away looked as though we were driving to it, I guess that is something to do with its size. We stopped again at the Mt Connor lookout this time for morning tea and our last photograph of the big rock. Then with a little bit of assistance from Elaine who organised pools of water we had the pleasure of seeing the tiny rainbow finches drinking and were able to photograph them. These birds are about the size of an adult thumb, really tiny. The scenery now is what I guess would be called desert scrubland as we are now in the Simpson Desert. It is fairly dense scrubland and with the backdrop of low hillocks or sand dunes is quite pretty. 

Then we arrived at our destination, a bush camp about 35 kms east of Kings Canyon. We parked about 100 mtrs from the road then our friends arrived and went right down the back about 500 mtrs from the road. After a walk by me and a drive in that direction we decided to go back to where we were. This is a nice camp with no facilities. 

Another morning after blog because I was too tired last night, although we did spend a little bit of time around the campfire. We have been lucky here with 4 other WA couples in this camp, all nice people and travelling together and we have become friendly. So all up this has been a good few days with good company and great things to see.

Now to the things to see, we made a late departure and headed off to Kata Tjuta (formally the Olgas) where we first did the Walpa Gorge walk. Once again a lot of effort has been put into this to make it interesting with a planned walk. The walk is through a high sided rick gorge with lots of plant life both on the ground and on the rocks with a bit of water towards the end of it. The upside of this effort is that there are not a lot of people running around all over the place and damaging the environment as they tend to stay on the track. There are also signs asking people to do exactly that. After lunch we headed of to the Kara lookout in another part of Kata Tjuta and again the majesty of the rocks puts one and life into perspective and into a contemplative mood. Such that I sat at the lookout for a while thinking about the whole thing and the wider implications. Elaine did part of both walks, good on her.

Then back to Uluru and a place called Talinguru Nyakunytjaka, now try to pronounce that out loud. This is a few kms away from the rock and is set up as another viewing area with 2 viewing platforms and interpretive walks to them from a large well made parking area. The view of the rock is different starting at flat ground level and was well worth the extra walk. I guess it is another respectful way of bringing tourists to the area and still protecting the environment and their heritage. Elaine stayed put this time.

Then back to the camp after refuelling again because we had done aver 200 kms running around the park!

Well day 2 at Uluru and it was a very interesting day it was.

We were definitely last out of the camp, not that I was a stay in bed, I was not up early but I did get up at a reasonable time.

First stop of the day was the camel farm. Quite a large vibrant operation and not at all what we expected. There was some very interesting photographs giving excerpts from the history of camels in Australia, maybe 30 or 40 of them. There was also some old carriages etc and of lots of camels. All in all an worthwhile visit to a surprisingly large concern.

Then some housekeeping, fuel, water & tyres. On to the park passing the entry gate showing our passes at 1135 am. Today's visit was to the cultural centre and once again a big lesson in the tjukitja of the Anangu people. The tjukitja is their story of creation and their beginnings and is a bit of an eye opening saga. As you see I am getting quite an indoctrination but it is interesting and I am glad that we have been able to have this opportunity. Here at Uluru they are at pains to tell visitors their tjukitja  and the detrimental effects of Europeans and how they are overcoming that within the society which we have created and that they are, at least partially, assimilated. The pity is the that my old overloaded brain will not remember all the detail. Once again a tiring day.

Well a rock is a rock is a rock but this rock is big! Really big!
I won't tell you what time I got up today but I had kept my resolution for one day. But I woke up already late and it was raining so I rolled over again. Anyway we eventually got going and paid for our park pass and headed for a ranger guided walk. I did the whole thing but Elaine had to quit early, the distance wasn't great but I was on my feet for over 2 hours which was quite tiring. So I got my fill of culture and a lesson in aboriginal history remembering that it has been scientifically proven that they have been here for 40,000 years. That makes them the oldest culture in the world and they are still around and are the only culture in the world that can claim unbroken ancestry to the beginning of their time. I don't know that I put that very well but might try again tomorrow.
After that we had lunch then drove around the rock and visited another waterhole and viewed some more paintings. I should note that all theses places have story boards so that visitors like us can understand what the dreaming stories are all about. Then we found a parking spot in the specified parking area to watch the sunset on the rock and stayed their to see the sunset. Not quite as exciting as we expected but very nice anyway.