What a lovely, relaxing Saturday.  Woke up at 05.00 - ugh!  Read for a while and then had a little sleep and woke up again at 08.55!!  Must have needed it.

Spoke to my neighbour who had just been surfing so decided that today was the day to go snorkelling. Beautiful sunny day and temperatures up to 23 degrees C, so I suited up in the Gazman wetsuit, hood, gloves, boots, facemask, snorkel and knife on leg.....looked rather mean and almost as if I knew what I was doing!  Wrapped the key to the caravan and my glasses in a plastic container and placed in a bag and strapped that to my leg as well.  Armed with fins that looked as long as my leg, I toddled off to the beach.  A bum crawl into the ocean was required as there is nowhere else to slide in gracefully! So whilst rolling around in the surf to put humungous fins on, lost glove which a kindly (and most likely snickering) young fella with a bubs retrieved for me.  Then I was off, flippering through the swell into the wild briny!  Once I was through the surf and sand that was churned up from the bottom of seabed, all became clear as I ventured further out and was able to see the reef.
Was being careful not to venture too far on my first sortie as there was quite an undertow and a lot of cross currents.  Amazing one can flipper away and not go anywhere when the current is strong!
My neighbour and his wife decided to join me and as I came up to clear the facemask, I had company, so that was fun.

It is a great wetsuit and as usual, Gary always bought the best when he was pursuing "action" stuff!  So I benefit from great gear.  Was as warm as toast and snorkelled around for nearly an hour until the currents tired me out.  AND, now I suffer. Oh boy, the legs are tired and the muscles on the front of my tibia are going to be sore tomorrow from the extra pressure of using the fins. Bum muscles are sore also, but they could do with a bit of firming up!!  Felt totally invigorated and joyful that I can still do this stuff before I am too old.
After lunch had a great walk along the ridge overlooking Port Campbell which took about 1.5 hours. Also found the old tracks to the edge of the cliffs and took a detour along these and got some great pics!  Totally stuffed after I got back, and settled in for a nice snack and thirst quencher before din-dins needed to be prepared. All in all, a great day!

 

Good Friday came and went with no dramas - hallelujah!  Had a nice sleep-in after a scrappy night.  Why still awake at 01.15?  Have no idea, but was a pain in the poobag.  So after a quick brekky, onto the beach and decided to do the cliff walk. Quite spekky with a great view of the township and coastline. Also got to check out the reefs in the harbour and where is a good safe place to snorkel along with a bit of advice from the local surf club.  Though it seems that Easter Sat and Sun will be larger swells. Another pain the poobag! Oh well.  Decision was made not to snorkel today, but get the bearings and visit the Info centre, scoot up to Timboon and source some cheese and chockies and just enjoy the drive through the countryside.  Ended up travelling down to Peterborough. Beautiful beaches, but no life in the old town. What gives with that? A general store and a newsagent and the Fire Brigade truck and that's town! Definitely a seaside, holiday home town, but that's it.  More life in little Port Campbell and definitely some good eateries in this little burgh.

Had the mandatory Timboon Fine Ice Cream (gluten free and egg free, for those who need to know!) Yummy.  Had a nice picnic is the old forest at Timboon as well.

Travelled along the Great Ocean Road and checked outh the coastline - so wild and windy, beautiful and treacherous.  You can almost imagine the shipwrecks occurring.  Visited the little cemetery at Loch Ard Gorge - so tragic to see a whole family, father, mother two sisters and two brothers, wiped out in a shipwreck with the only survivor being one of the daughters, Eva Carmichael, who was rescued by a Tom Pearce who was given a bravery medal in front of 5,000 people at Melbourne Town Hall. Quite a celebrity for those times. But how tragic to lose your whole family. Eva Carmichael returned to Ireland after 3 months never to return.  Why would you?

Also went for a very nice helicopter flight over the 12 Apostles, Port Campbell, Loch Ard Gorge and London Bridge (which is no longer as it has now dropped into the ocean).

Good walks, nice drive and home to the Taj for a little R&R.

So "god nachtz'from Port Campbell until tomorrow.  Just a little difficulty here with WIFI which drops out intermittently, so having trouble loading photos. Also no TV unless one has a Sat Dish.  (Hmm, note to self, need to get a Sat Dish!)  PS: Another note to self: where is my microwaver that I bought for the van? I know I took it out before toddling off to NT, but now I don't know where it is!  Jaysus!

One thing I like about old towns is the cemeteries.  There is so much history and events that can be gleaned from headstones; the tragedy of illness that can take out whole families and even how life span has improved. So many early settlers died at early ages with not many making it passed their 60s. Have added a couple for interest - a man and is daughter who died within 3 weeks of each other - illness, possibly influenza outbreak? Another of a lady named Ruth Tregea who lost 3 of her children. So sad. Interestingly, this group of graves belonging to the Tregea family in Port Campbell has newer graves in good condition, but the older graves have been left to ivy and overgrowth of plants and they are in disrepair. Shame as the history of the family is all on the headstones.  Strangely, I was giving some money to the Good Friday Appeal at Timboon, and one of the roadside collectors was a young boy of 8 years, who has his name on the tin; it was Tregea!  Pity that he does not know that his ancestors' graves are uncared for and they are the people he came from.

 

 

 

Port Campbell - Easter 2015

Easter 2015 - life rushes past. The worst part about reflecting on the future is that on the law of averages, I have another 23 years left on this Earth and it's all a downhill slide from hereon in.  Ugly thought!

The best laid plans of mice and men....that was definitely me today.  Everything all organised - or so I thought.  Caravan out and checked (or so I thought!). Car fuelled up the night before and ready to go as soon as pusses taken to the cattery.

Hiccough No. 1 - Pusses knew that the jig was up when the carry baskets came out.  Of couse, let's hide on Mum.  Taffy, after a quick hide and seek around the bed ends ended up under the dining room table in the corner of the room. Discovered and despatched to basket. Scamp - another story.  Wery, wery quiet.  OK. 5 minutes spent searching very few places, but no puss!  Looked in the dressing room. Not to be found.  This is ridiculous. Search again. Look at the top of dressing room shelves.  Oh yes, here we are. Hiding at the back, under Gary's old welding jacket. Drag puss off shelf (slight temper) and into basket. Off we go to the cattery.  All good.  NOT.

Hiccough No 2 - The oil warning flashes - Oil High.  Shittybrickety!  Have just had car serviced.  Oil High means, in the Merc, that it has been overfilled which can damage the engine or catalytic converter.  You have got to be kidding me!  Immediately find phone number for mechanic and advise of problem and if they can drain off the excess oil as I was due to head out to go away.  Very obliging and shot down the freeway and after about 1/2 hour, all done - and yes, overfilled by 300ml.  Yep. That's just enough to send the gauges flipping out.

Back home and it is just after 10.00 am. Load up car with clothes, computer and food.  Check tyres and hmmm, they need just a tad more air, but I'm on the way and decide to stop off at the Servo on the way to Geelong.  Nup. Not happening. Queue a mile long refuelling.  Finally stopped at Colac, refuelled and aired up and on the way.

Journey was uneventful, but traffic heavy until Colac.  The new freeway out of Geelong certainly helps. The Monash Freeway out of Melbourne does not.  The trucks on the road this morning were unbelievable.  Our Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, will have a lot to answer for in 4 years time if the East/West Link does not go through.  Every truck from Gippsland and South Eastern Greater Melbourne is now all fusing onto the Monash at all hours of the day and night and it is DANGEROUS.  They all either go to the ports, head to Geelong or out to the Hume - and it is the only way to go!  The East/West Link will take all this away if they have a more direct route to the ports and the Hume.  The whole of South Eastern Greater Melbourne is being held to ransom by a handful of people who live inner city.  Walk a mile (or Drive a mile) in my shoes everyday and see if you thought patterns change.  Giving us more trains is not going to alleviate the congestion of trucks on the road deliving goods around the country!

 Anyway, enough of my soapbox.
 
Hiccough No 3 - Arrived in Port Campbell. Beautiful spot.  Set up caravan and realised that the garden hose is still in Dandenong North (used it for the front garden) and had no way to fill up the water tank!  Shittybrickety!  Into the town centre. Nup. No garden hoses or hardware store in this town!  Next best is in Timboon, 17 clicks away.  It's 16.00.  On my bike and shoot down the road to the Timboon Home Hardware and get another hose - which will stay in the van now, forever!

Went for a walk to see the ocean and settled in for some nuts and a glass of wine - much needed!  This is really a beautiful place and the caravan park is not full. Amazing for Easter.  I have a great spot backing onto the river, so no neighbours behind me. Yay!  The caravan spaces are very big so you don't feel hemmed in by others.  All in all, the first day was rather eventful, but the end result turned out well.  

Missing Gary so much. It's so unbelievably hard. On the way into Port Campbell, the cemetery is right on the main road. I went in to have a look and some of the gravestones are so old and tell such stories of families' sad stories of loss and so many young ones and people taken too soon from life.  It made Gary's death so poignant and left me so sad and in tears.  I thought of the theme song from Twilight - "I have loved you for a thousand years and I'll love you for a thousand more".

I have Gazza's wetsuit, fins, hat and gloves and a new set of boots, so am intending to do some snorkelling and have Auntie Jean's little fold up bicyle in the boot, so intend to cycle around town and do the walks along the cliffs. Let's see what happens tomorrow!!

 

Kings Canyon – Watarrka National Park

Arrived at Kings Canyon Resort on Tuesday 9th September. Fuel costs have risen and now paying$2.27 for 1 litre of fuel. Everything else in this area is expensive and it costs about $7.00 for just about everything in the store that was 50ml. Very expensive, but it is an outback resort with few resources except tourism and a caravan park and resort.

Lovely pool and  shady (at last) caravan site. Kings Canyon is stunning and we managed the Kings Creek Walk in the afternoon after we arrived planning on the Rim Walk the next day. This walk is very steep and then takes you right across the Canyon and down into the Garden of Eden and then back up to take the last part of the walk back to the starting point. Unfortunately, Nigel got a case of the squitts (ie., Bendigo Belly I’m calling it!) and was quite unwell and spent the day in bed.  The Rim Walk is a walk that you need to do early in the morning and if the temperature is over 36 Deg C, then the rangers close the track as it becomes too hot and treacherous. Nevertheless, it was nice to have a quiet day, catch up on washing, and relax by the pool. Another time in the future for the Rim Walk!

So, it’s off the Alice Springs and Glen Helen Resort tomorrow. It’s a 600+ kms drive, but it is amazing that you can drive long distances up here without realising it. The roads are minimalist for traffic and so it’s basically on “auto pilot” without having to worry about any other living being fighting for your piece of road space.

Port Augusta – “The Big Smoke and Mitre 10”

Port Augusta had two visits from us. One on the way there (3rd Sept) and one on the way back (17 Sept).

On our first visit, we stayed at the Big 4 caravan park which was very nice and had an ensuite which we luxuriated in! So nice to have one's own loo!

We had one day in Port Augusta to do a bit if sight seeing and a place to buy a few items for the caravan. (We might get ourselves organised by the time we get back to Victoria!)

We visited the Australian Arid Lands Botanic Garden and it was fascinating to see all the beautiful desert flowers and trees that we would encounter. Absolutely, fell in love with Sturt Peas. They look like little aliens from outer space with big black eyes.  (Reminds me of the book "Day of the Triffids". Now that's scary!)

We wandered over to the Wadlata Outback Centre with the entrance through a large snakes' mouth - interesting! The centre was very hands on and obviously to keep kids entertained, but it was very well done and we purchased some goodies for the family.

BUT, nothing goes smoothly with this motley crew. Got back to the caravan park and the door of the caravan was wide open.  A near "poo panic" as we both looked at each other in shock.  Dived out of the car and found that nothing had been touched. It seems the door lock had come undone and the door came open due to an old lock that had come loose and also not being locked properly.  Instruction to Nigella on the key to lock the door. I must admit it is not an easy lock and caused further investigation later on. So off to Mitre 10 for a new set of screws and a new coiled wire to tighten the mechanism.  All good. Got everything sorted, screwed in and nail glue applied and then realised we hadn't put the new coil wire in!  A short expletive in the form of "bugger it" and we had a cup of tea.

The South Australian architecture always has me enthralled. The beautiful old sandstone buildings with the lined pointing is just fascinating.  A trick to it all is to mortar the rocks to form walls and then render with concrete. After that the concrete is scored with lines and then the lines are painted in white to look like mortar and perfect brick work.  Veeeery clever.

An interesting feature of Port Augusta is that it is a plastic bag free town.  No plastic bags, so if you don't bring your green bags to the supermarket, you will have to buy more!  Good plan though, 'cos no-one arrives without the green bags, except, you guessed it  us!

Also there is no alcohol in any public place, or anywhere for that matter. Alcohol is obviously a real issue in SA and NT. To purchase alcohol has restrictions depending where you live.  Cooper Pedy is one bottle of wine per day and you need to have your driver's licence to prove your identity and be checked for any alcohol related crimes.  In Alice Springs, you can have one bottle of wine and a six pack of beer per day. I was taken by surprise but it seems to work as the crime due to alcohol related issues has dropped and certainly the streets are not as noisy with screaming, drunken behaviour that I remember from 20+ years ago.

Anyway, after Port Augusta, a 5.30 hour drive to Coober Pedy

Lovely sandstone buildings

Sturt Peas or the "little aliens!"

 

 

 

Apologies!!!

Sorry that this is a bit disjointed, but having no reception on wireless or dial-up has left me making notes and then waiting for reception.  So enjoy the jumble. Will get to it when I can!!

How to Describe West MacDonnell Ranges?

Thursday 12th September

On the first day of arriving at Glen Helen Homestead Lodge (previously Glen Helen Gorge Resort) , we were surprised that it was so low key and thought, hmmm, doesn’t look much of a resort. Very wrong. It is very low key and the setting has not been spoiled and it had everything that you could want but not “resort” style like Yulara.   

The more you spend time here, the more you love it because it is so unspoiled and you get to experience the magnificent beauty of the West MacDonnell Ranges the way it should be seen.

We set up camp and met our next door neighbours in the caravan section of the facilities. They were nice people from Adelaide, but seemed to be very negative about everything. But we took this with a grain of salt and went on our way. After seeing the sights we decided that they were just negative people and that it didn’t matter what they saw, it was never up to their standard. So boring. 

We then proceeded to book the things we wanted to see and do and also the lovely restaurant. It has won the Golden Plate Award for 2012 and 2013. Not bad for an outback establishment….and I can tell you, the food was superb.  Real NT wild Barramundi served with Cauliflower Puree and Celery, Walnut and Apple Salsa with Truffled Potato Gratin.  Oooh yumm! Finished with Chocolate Chilli Cheesecake and Coulis. Even more yummmmmm!

On the first full day, we travelled to Ormiston Gorge, where I had to have a swim in the waters. It was heavenly, though Nigella was overcome when I stripped to bra and knickers and dived in. Too much for his sensibilities! Though he did laugh when I ended up with a wet bum in my shorts but the knickers got removed on a lonely bush track to a lookout and then my shorts dried off! Did not tell N this bit as he would have had a total hissy fit! This waterhole has been used in many movies including The Alice among others.

We then proceeded to the Ochre Pits where the Arrernte people get their powder for making ceremonial pastes to paint on themselves during traditional ceremonies. You cannot remove any of this as it is tribal land and the fine is $5000. Best to take a photo!

We then moved on to the Serpentine Gorge which was absolutely and unbelievably stunning as the photos will show. All the gorges are narrow and shaded and this creates the most beautiful cool breeze. I can understand why these were popular places with indigenous communities. Apparently, they only used these permanent waterholes when severe drought was upon them as they were highly valued places and very sacred.  We are very fortunate that they allow us tourists to view these sites. 

Today is our last day in Glen Helen so at 10.00 we did a Chopper flight over the McDonnell Ranges to Glen Helen Gorge, Ormiston Gorge and Mt Sonder, one of the highest mountains in NT. Nigel and I both believe that from the mountain strata this was originally a glacier.  Annnd, what a great place for gliding; updraft upon thermal upon updraft and Mt. Sonder is a glider pilot's dream and a chopper pilot's nightmare!!

After the chopper ride which is on movie attached, we did a morning trek down the Two Mile Beach to the Keyhole and took lots of photos.  I spent the afternoon lolling in the beautiful cool waters of the Glen Helen Gorge whilst Nigel had a “Nanna Nap”.  I want to live here forever!  Tomorrow we move on to Alice Springs for the night and hope to see the Telegraph Station and the Ewaninga Rock Carvings before we head back on the return journey.

So far, the Merc has been purring. I think she likes the long drives! I hope she continues to purrrrr!

Viv at Two Mile Beach, Glen Helen

Viv at Glen Helen Gorge - great peaceful place to swim

The Ochre Pits

Strip off and.........

......and in the water!

Wet and wild!

Serpentine Gorge - stunningly beautiful

Viv and Sam the helicopter pilot at Glen Helen

Dr Livingstone, I presume?! No just Madge!

Bush architecture....