Swimming with sealions and dolphins

www.bairdbay.com you have to look them up and if ever in this area of Streaky Bay on the Eyre Peninsula you have to do the swim with Dolphin and Sea lion Tour.
 OMG.  Thanks to Alan, Trish and Mick, the morning was unbelievable.
 I have a new favourite animal, bugger the puppy dogs and bunny rabbits- Les and the kids better look out too. The Sea Lions have it all.

 

 

                                                        

 

Their big grins say it all

Eyre Peninsula

OK, off again, did a couple of day trips from port Augusta, one down to Point Lowly, but unfortunately not able to see any giant cuttlefish, 2 or 3 jellyfish but no cuttlefish, also headed North to Woomera for the day to look around the old Defense Base, the museum was fascinating and the the exhibits of rockets and satelites amazing. The highlight, however, was stopping on one of the many salt plains on the way home, its funny how the small things are the memorable moments.

Headed down to Port Lincoln after Port Augusta, didn't see any tuna, although for a price you can go swimming with them, I think I'd rather eat them.  You could also go diving with Great white sharks -  I don't think so, I've seen jaws, those cages just don't work!
What was fun was the hiring of sandboards and surfing the sand dunes - Cool Dude. And Les has still got it, that mis-spent youth water skiing the Murray has paid off.

                                    
                                               Boy, are we going to feel that tomorrow

Flinders Ranges

Hawker was beautiful, highly recommend anyone coming through to stay at the Big 4 in town, the hosts were fantastic, the park, large and shady sites and a great playground and pool area,We could have stayed here much longer, Jessica was actually most upset we were leaving as a movie is being shot in the region and she was hoping for a glimpse of the stars and all the action. The production crew had all cabins in the park booked out, but no idea where the stars were staying.

So, from here we ventured into Wilpena Pound, but once again our timing is impeccable, as the walks were closed due to the rangers culling the feral goats. There are quite a few scenic drives through gorges and around ridges and we took in as many of the lookouts as possible, but have had to put it on the "Next Time" list.

Travelling South once again,we were half way between Hawker and Quorn when our vehicle started to make horrifying noises, at first we thought it was the brakes screeching against the discs but they seemed Ok, if we engaged 4WD the noise quietened,Les found that we had actually broken the front left CV joint, we decided to limp into Quorn to seek help.  The mechanic there was extremely helpful but suggested unless we wanted to be stranded for weeks waiting for parts to get into Port Augusta, he ranga head for us and found an approved repairer to look at it this week. So very slowly we drove into Port  Augusta and that is where we are now.

Its not as bad as it sounds, luckily we are members of RACQ, and as such they will pay for accomodation and a hire vehicle till all fixed, so we have been able to get out and about.

Whyalla is not far and a whole day was spent looking around this area. The HMAS Whyalla museum was well worth the visit, as was Hummock Hill, and one for Dad the model railway.

Maree through the Flinders

Its been 12 months since Maree had its last drop of rain, aren't we lucky to see it:)
The publican shows us pictures of his last downpour, 40ml and they were cut off for over a week, with water over bonnets of 4wd.  77km of dirt left, just hang out til then. And it did.
Our journey today takes us pass more memorabilia from yesteryear. In reality though it was only 40 years ago when these places were deserted, it might as well been over 100 years ago.

No cold beer here

And this one is for Glen and Theresa, the Farina P.O.

 

Farina was a thriving township, established with the Ghan, it was where the railway guage changed and the train had to switch tracks, with a population of around 300 people, the township consisted of its own school, Post office and of course Pub, along with all the workshops and stores, all that remains are the few ruins, The school shut down in in 1957, and the general store finally closed up shop in 1967, the last occupant of the town left in 1975, well the pictures show what is left in that short time.


Not far now and we're off the dirt.  Hooray.

The Flinders Ranges now come into view, I can remember travelling up here for family camping trips but somehow as a child the splendour is lost, not this time though, and I wonder how much the girls will take in of all of this.

 

 

We arrive at our destination of Hawker and settle in for a few days, after shaking off the dust we intend to explore the Southern Flinders from here

 



Getting off the Track

We continue following the tracks of the Old Ghan Railway, not much remains of the track now, a few rusted and broken bridges and the ruins of the railway sidings are the only proof of this past existence in this unforgiving landscape.

 

 

 

Half way between William Creek and Maree Lake Eyre South comes into view,  What an enormous expanse of ...salt.  Your heart goes out to the first explorers for the disappointment they must have felt on realising it was salt. 

 

 

Moving further along the line, not far from Maree now and as those afternoon clouds build up again, we came across a unique art display, one sculpture is Plane Henge, another the Ghan Hover Bus, The Terrier tanks(the head is a car chassis). and Flower power.

 

 

The track also takes us through the famous dog fence.

 Before heading into Maree, and yes just in time as down comes the rain just North of Maree,
Pheww made it.

 

Oodnadatta Track

At Marla we say goodbye to the bitumen and head on to the dirt.
It never rains in the dessert.
Oodnadatta - The driest town in the driest state on the driest continent.  Ha.
It rained as we were coming in, about 20km North it hit us, just a quick storm, nothing too bad.
But then as we got closer to Oodnadatta, for those who don't know (I was one) Oodnadatta is on a clay pan, we slipped and slid, visions of rolling were in my mind, Les just seems to think the worst would of been jack knifing it (probably off the road), so it was with white knuckles and a huge sigh of relief that the famous Pink Roadhouse was reached.
That evening we watched the storm clouds roll around us, wondering what made us think of coming this way?? What are we doing???

The following morning with blue skies beaming it was with some trepidation we left to continue down the track. We had tried to find out track conditions but being not the tourist time everything was shut,there was no phone coverage or a land line, so seeing a couple of trucks rattle off down the road we followed. Les was driving, our plan was to take it slow and see how it goes. 10 km down the track OK, 20km OK, 30, 40, 50 all Ok, don't know what we were worried about, apart from a few puddles around William Creek, nothing to write home about Phew..,

William Creek was wonderful, the pub full of memorabilia of past travellers and an interesting display of rockets fired from Woomera back in the 70's. One the first stage rocket fired in 1971 was only found in the 90's this particular one delivered a British satelite safely into orbit.  With a population of 6 (no I'm not kidding) it was well worth the visit.

 



 

 

 

 

 



Goodbye to Alice

Yes, finally time to leave Alice, goodbye Wallabies, goodbye rabbits, these ones didn't bite.

 

Heading South we looked in at the Henbury Meteorite Craters, a site of six craters from a falling star originally the size of a 200l container that broke into six segments as it travelled through our atmosphere and left these very obvious craters, not as large as Wolfe Creek but just as impressive.

 

                                                                   Hello S.A.

 


Further down the Highway we camped at Kulgerra while we travelled up the track to Finke and to the geological centre of Australia, (I had never known there was a marked Geological centre), named after Dr Lambert, Australia's Director of Surveys and mapping for 25 years from 1951 to 77.

We will have to do the Finke track another time, preferably one not to do without back up, or at this time of year.

Gorges and Gaps

Sight seeing around Alice, there is plenty to see, Happy to report Grace's hand is on the mend, no infection etc.

As we have all spent time in Alice before we have been trying to cover new ground, as beautiful as Simpson's Gap and Standley Chasm are it is nice to see new things.  We took a drive down the Ross Highway to look at Emily and Jessie Gap, these sights are significant to the local tribes Dreamtime story of the Three Caterpillers and both gaps contain Aboriginal art if you can access it ( this depends on the rainfall) so I can't imagine there would be too many times yo couldn't walk into it.

Out on the same drive you can access Coroborree Rock, another sacred sight.

 

We have also headed out to the Ochre Pits, or as Les called it "the quarry", but beautiful colours through the rock, we also pulled into Ellery creek and the Big Hole and it was just that, a big hole full of fresh cool water.  Who would have thought out there amonst all the Gorges dry as, and then to come across this oasis. It is part of the West MacDonnell National Park and has camping facilities nearby, so next time we know where to stay.

 



The last place we travelled to was Rainbow Valley, this is where one of the Qantas ads was filmed (I still call Australia home ones with the choir??). Photos don't do this place justice as it was absolutely breathtaking. It is also part of a National Park and has camping facilities so another one to mark for next time, I would imagine it would rival the rock(Uluru) for its beauty at sunset.