The Red Centre

Coober Pedy, Yulara (Uluru) & Kings Canyon

Hello again folks, here is a brief description of our journey tthrough the red centre...

Coober Pedy SA

A 500km radius of absolutely nothing but road kill and burnt out cars along the Stuart Hwy surrounds the bustling metropolis of Coober Pedy. Originally planning to stay 3 nights Nai and I quickly culled back the stopover to 2 nights after driving into town!

Lets just say Coober Pedy is the weirdest place in Australia. A cross between Bangalore Road, Phuket, Thailand and a cheap 80’s film. Neon signs, Opal shops/mines/tours and underground buildings everywhere. And just heaps of seriously strange shit like this.... go figure... that’s what happens if you spend too long in the desert looking for Opals kids.

At least they give you a go at looking for Opals yourself. I reckon I found a little slither of opal but nai shut me down quickly ‘thats not opal’! A lot of work for what I reckon is an ugly gemstone thats worth bugger all anyway!

Some more weird stuff around town! Guess the bloke didn’t know what to do with his 40 rusted cars sitting in his front yard so he decided to chop them up! Of course the Ranger was allowed to pass though...

 

Apart from visiting underground buildings and avoiding falling down the mine shafts Coober Pedy has some spectacular geological features called the ‘Breakaways’ and the underground mine tour we did was very interesting!

Yulara (Uluru) NT

Everyone has seen pics or postcards of Ayers Rock and never thought much of it. But its definitely a must see especially if your travelling through the guts anyway, you’ve come this far!

Up close Uluru is amazing. So many caves, water holes, and rock features. Once inhabited by our native friends. Now a Mecca for Asian and German tourists, oh and the odd Aussie like nai and I.

 Apparently photographing the rock at sunrise from a distance is the done thing... people everywhere! I bet they didn’t drink as many Coopers as I did the night before though!

 

They say you shouldn’t climb the rock and that 35 people have died trying..but yet they give you a chain all the way up to follow! Go figure. Bugger that I’m going for it. I’m the small red spec about halfway up. Thats as far as I made it though, too steep and dangerous. Found out the hard way why they encourage you NOT TO CLIMB.

Probably underrated, The Olgas (Uluru’s little cousin about 50 clicks down the road) is as good if not more impressive than Uluru itself. We did an 8km circuit walk into the Olgas - amazing sights!

Kings Canyon NT

Just a lazy 350km down the road from Uluru is Kings Canyon. There is absolutely bugger all in between apart from the odd roo, camel, dingo or cow, most of which are dead, victims of the road train massacre. Kings Canyon is an amazing oasis in the middle of the desert.

The 6km hike around the canyon rim is not recommended for those who are unfit as it is steep and wearing. The 1 km hike through the creek in the centre of the canyon is recommended for those people. Nai and I did both hikes and the sign at the entrance says that both are as good as each other, i guess to convince those who cant make that they're not missing out. Well sorry guys you missed out big time, the canyon rim walk shits all over the creek walk.

Probably the worst part of Kings Canyon would be the howling dingos at night followed closely by the price of fuel! $2.15 /L! I nearly had a heart attack. Luckily I drink booze for my kicks and don't sniff petrol.

Next.... Alice Springs, The beautiful Tennant Creek hmmm, and Mataranka!

Melrose, Flinders Ranges & Port Augusta

Melrose, Flinders Ranges & Port Augusta

Hello avid blog readers, apologies for the delay in the latest blog however nai and I have been busy clocking up the km’s, some required, some not – I’ll explain later.

Melrose SA

A nice little town nestled at the bottom of Mt Remarkable in the southern Flinders Ranges.

The campfire outside our trailer was a great change, and required for the cool evenings.

1^st pic above: Half way through the 12km return hike up Mount Remarkable – the views were worth the effort, however I nearly blew a poofer valve 1km in when Naomi hit the skids after a friendly snake fell from the adjacent cliff onto the track infront of us. “Stop, don’t move!” she yells “you don’t want to startle it” too late, I had already legged it half way back to the start line! Needless to stay Naomi led the rest of the climb, she’s a good snake watcher!

2nd pic above: Alligator gorge. Spectacular views, however no water. Not surprising in South Australia though.

Our Weaver Drive Laundromat no.1 – does the job!

Flinders Ranges National Park (Wilpena) SA

At the top of one of the highest peaks in the National Park (Mt Ollsen Bagge 923m). Great views at the top! So good that we were almost higher that the scenic charter flights.

View to inside Wilpena Pond from the top of Mt Olsen Bagge. Well worth the steep 6km trek!

The trip to Flinders Ranges wasn’t all roses though. 2 nights out of four we had kangaroo’s inside our tent annex/kitchen at 2.30am in the morning. Lets just say Nai almost had a heart attack...twice, but we got our revenge............

Kangaroo burgers at the Parachilna pub, yum.

Our Weaver Drive Laundromat no.2 – did the job again!

Port Augusta SA

Well, unfortunately theres not many pics of the two nights spent at PA as most of our time was spent making a return trip to the Flinders Ranges to pick up the 5 fishing rods I had left standing next to a tree in our campsite as we were packing up! All good we got them back thanks to ranger Stacey!

We quickly found out that Port Augusta was a hole anyway, hence our caravan site besides the Alysum Seekers detention centre! Slept with one eye open those nights! Note the barbed wire fence to high level in the background – comforting stuff. See ya Port Augusta!

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned folks for our trek to the red centre. Shits gettin real!

Wet & Rainy (KI & Goolwa SA)

Wet & Rainy (KI & Goolwa SA)

Well lets just say the last 2 days spent in KI didn't quite line-up with the first few. Wet and windy! Eskimo conditions down at the pier. I braved the conditions though desperate to catch a King George Whiting so that I didn't look like a completely useless angler! I spent 4 hours in the freezing wind trying to catch the little bastard to your left. Not a monster, but a whiting none the less..

After the return ferry ride from KI we headed to Goolwa (end of the Murray River). We set-up camp at one of the caravan parks planning to stay for 2 nights. We set up in record time... 1hr 20mins. Lets hope we get quicker as the trip progresses. Good little setup though.

Night 1 in Goolwa and it felt like Cyclone Tracy was tearing us a new one! Nai put her ear-plugs in and slept ok, I slept like an absolute robbers dog and reckon i got 2 hrs shut-eye in-between checking if our annex was half way up the Murray Mouth.

Note: 52km/h gusts. Thats gale force my friends!

Having a much needed coffee at the Port Elliot Bakery after hiding in the cyclone bunker! Great bakery though!

Nai captaining the Goolwa version of the Pyap - "Oscar W". Unfortunately the brewery isn't open on a tuesday so that was three strikes for Goolwa and their out. Heading north to Melrose SA tomorrow to get some rays and put away the raincoats.

KANGAROO ISLAND SA

KANGAROO ISLAND SA

 Fishing at Christmas cove - KI! You need some finesse to catch the buggers here which I dont have. Nai seems to have the touch to hook the fish. This one is a small wrasse, apparently tastes like a used sock so threw him back! 

Before kyaking down (and up) the Harriot river KI. Nai looks happy here until we had to fight the wind and current! Easy for her to say when shanks (aka: 25HP yamaha) is doing all the grunt work at the back. Knacked...

 Quick dab of fishing at the kingscote jetty yielded a monster 10cm cod looking fish! Would look cool in a fishtank.

 Remarkable rocks @ Flinders Chase NP - KI. Admittedly I wasnt that keen on seeing a bunch of rocks, but they are called remarkable for a reason - very impressive. Highly recommend going to see if you are ever in KI.

Just down the road is Admirals Arch! Its a mountain cut-away where New Zealand fur seals live and breed. Great views, but stinks like the sale yards!

The Start

After 18 months of saving & planning & getting organised its finally here - still feels a little surreal, but hopefully it wont take long to sink in! 4 months off work.......

Naomi: "Some people think this is more Brenton's holiday than mine as its right up his alley but I'm just as excited & ready (I think!) for what the next 4 months sends our way".

This blog will be used to keep our friends and family up to date with what we're doing, where we're going and how many fish Shanks is catching... jokes. We will endevour to update the blog a couple of times a week with photos and captions!