Outback-Here we come!!

Up at 5:00 am in order to be ready for pickup at 6:15 to go on our Outback Tour. After 20 minutes, we were at their head office and were put onto a coach with 22 other people. 24 tourists from all over the world and an Aussie driver/guide jammed pretty tightly into this coach. Left the office about 30 minutes late heading for our first stop, Quorn. this was to be our base for two nights. This interesting little town has been the set for many different movies. It truly was a western, outback town.

At one of our short breaks, we came upon this Aussie Mobile Home.
I don't think this is what Greg and Marilyn are looking
to buy this year, but I bet it could be bought for just a few dollars.

This saying became the motto for the next six days, as we walked up
mountains and into valleys and around rock formations.

Here are the movies that were set in the area. My favourite
is Gallipoli.

Up early the next morning, and off to the Flinders Ranges. I don't like
heights and this was quite a climb. I tried to get the perspective in this
picture. It was a safe climb but just a bit unnerving.

Are we there yet????

Look closely and you can see some of the group hidden in
the trees. Another group staying at our motel were up at 4:30
so that they could be at the top for the sunrise. Lucky them?!

Finally, we got to the top.

Our kids would never believe I would do something like this.
But, it was fantastic. Everybody encouraged everyone else to make it
to the top. We had snacks and then, headed back down.

Mats(from Sweden) and I pointing out from where we came and trying to
find the Ranger Station at the bottom.

I took this picture in the gift shop. This is Willopeda Pound,
the mountain that we climbed.

Lunch time after the climb. We were all quite hungry.
On this tour, we prepared, as a group, all the meals.
It was interesting to have barbecue/picnic areas like this
wherever people traveled. There was free propane as well for
cooking. We mostly ate sandwiches and salads for lunch. Evo made
sure that the three vegetarians had enough to eat.

We climbed up this stairway to see some cave drawings done
by the Aboriginals in this area.

While driving on to Coober Pedy, we came across this salt lake.
We stopped and got to walk out and check it out.

The salt is collected and then used. There were piles all around the shoreline.

We managed to make it to Coober Pedy. This town is the site of an opal mine. The temperature when we arrived was 45 degrees and it was very windy. This is normal for this area. Nearly 70 percent of the population live underground. They don't need air conditioning for that reason. The population is around 8,000. Tourists come to this area to see the mines and buy some opals, which we did. There are some hostels and hotels and B&B's here, but most are underground.

This is a view of the downtown area from the hill above our hotel.
The fronts of the houses behind the last street hide the underground
house just bored into the hill. The people who bore out their houses
get to keep whatever opals they find while expanding their homes.
For that reason, some of these underground homes are quite large.

We are on top of some one's house looking over the town.

This was our underground hotel room.

After the long day, some of the group played pool in
the bar area, also underground.

Making lunch on the way to the Olgas. The emu was hungry.
Do you see the lovely fly screens we were forced to wear
in order to keep the flies off our faces. There were a real pain sometimes.

The emu just kept on searching for a piece of bread or some fruit.
He was very persistent. He sneaked up on Jannose and Mathieu
one time and almost grabbed something right off her plate.

We finally arrived to the Olgas. This formation is similar to Ayers Rock, but much smaller.

An interesting night picture from near our campsite near the Olgas.
This was our first camping experience. We slept four to a tent; we shared with a
couple from England. they were a bit older than us, but were experienced
with this type of tour. We were coping, but were realizing
that this type of tour was not really for us.
BUT, THE SCENERY WAS AMAZING. AYERS ROCK WAS NEXT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last few days before the Outback

As I said in the last post, we decided to fly to Adelaide rather than drive. Saved some time and flights are so cheap on their discount airlines. We rented a car and headed off the the Barasso Valley, a large wine area east of Adelaide. We stayed in a small German town called Hahndorf. We had a couple of nice meals here and walked around the town looking at some of the arts and crafts from the area. We visited some small museums and galleries. The people here were very friendly and loved to talk about their town and area. We had a very nice time here but it was very quick.

This was the highway into Hahndorf.

The German Arms Hotel where we had our evening meal.

We went up a mountain outside of Adelaide close to Hahndorf and
had views of Adelaide and a resort town called Glenelg. You can take
a train from Adelaide to get here. It is a very happening place
during the summer. There are some very large hotels/resorts
with a lot of restaurants along the beach.

We headed to the east and visited Victor Harbour and Granite
Island. We walked along this causeway out to the island
and then did a circle walk around the island. Penguins roost
here and come up at night from fishing all day. We weren't able to
stay for that event, but, from the picture below, you can see that
they are the stars of the event.

We spent the night in Glenelg and went down to the beach to
take a sunset picture on the southwest coast of Australia. This
was probably the best of the 12 pictures that we took.

The next day, we headed off to Adelaide. Marilyn had told us about this castle/home built in Adelaide. It is called Carrick Hill. The very rich owner of the home had it built for him and his wife from the bricks and interior panels and wood staircases, etc. from a castle that was being demolished in England. They visited the castle while on their year-long honeymoon and loved it so much that they had them take most of the items from the castle and ship everything to Adelaide. It took most of two years to build it. We had a personal tour of the castle. Unfortunately, pictures cannot be taken inside. We had to be content with pictures of the grounds.

So, now, we're in Adelaide. We had to check in to our hotel and then return the rental car. We picked a hotel close to downtown because our Outback Tour pickup needed to be from downtown. Did I say that I hated driving in big cities? What a crazy time!!!

Once we got rid of the car, we went walking. A small shopping
centre in downtown Adelaide.

We went for a long walk and came upon a pedestrian mall near our
hotel. Had to take a picture of this sculpture and Jannose's
favourite animal.

We visited the University downtown and went into the Public Library.
The three levels here are filled with little nooks and crannies with
old and new volumes on shelves all the way to the ceiling.
Pictures with my camera don't do it justice.

We took this picture just before the Fringe Parade. You can see people sitting
by the side of the road, waiting. Notice the walking billboard in the crosswalk.
We stayed for the parade and saw some quite interesting characters.
Then, it was off to our hotel for a relatively early evening as
we were then off to the Outback.

Back in Melbourne

Marilyn picked us up at the airport and we went back to our B&B&L&D at their house in Berwick, a suburb of Melbourne. It was so nice to be able to sit and relax in one place for a while. Of course, there were plans to go south to a national park and see penguins and other things. Unfortunately, the fires were now down in that area and it was closed to all traffic. So, we decided to do some touring around Melbourne and go down the Great Ocean Road.

Greg and Marilyn's home. Note how dry everything is. The
drought conditions sure helped bring about the wildfires.

One of the greatest things about touring around the area was that we
did it in Greg's Mustang convertible. No wind problems in the
front seats, but the people in the back got a bit wind-blown.
We drew a lot of looks as we cruised around and many pictures were
taken by a lot of others. Greg's car has appeared in commercials throughout
Australia.

We traveled down to the harbour entrance to look at
the fortifications built for protection during the wars.

Home for rent. Great views! Quiet tenants downstairs.

This is the entrance to the Great Ocean Road. it was built
by the soldiers who returned from the First World War.

Many tourists drive on this road. This was the very first
time we ever saw reminders as to which side of the road to drive.

We stopped at a Caravan Park to see the parrots and Koalas.

This was probably the closest we ever got to one.

This is some of the Western Coast of Australia. The Great Ocean
Road follows along for many miles and the views are breathtaking.
My pictures do not do the views justice.

We climbed up a small mountain/hill near Appollo Bay for these views.
Heath went here the next weekend for a bike touring race.

Here are a couple of views of the Twelve Apostles, some rock formations off
the coast.

Then, we were off to an area called the Grampions. There had been fires in this area about 6 years ago. Before our climb, we stopped at a small coffee shop which also sold Port and souvenirs.

Would you drink this stuff? Read the label closely.

A couple of views from Boroka Lookout and the Grampion Mountains.

Back in Melbourne, we did a day tour of the Market and the downtown area.
It's a good thing that Greg was driving.

Old and New. The original train station, still in use today and
the skyscrapers behind. This is the view from Federation Square.

Some of the buildings we saw during our drive and of course, the Ute.
(Australia's answer to Alberta's pickups)

On our last Sunday in Melbourne, Greg and Marilyn set up a tour for us to go to the wine area and to see the devestation caused by the fires. We traveled with four other couples. People in the wineries were very happy to start seeing tourists as the fires had stopped many visitors from showing up and buying their products. Some of the pictures below show a bit of the damage caused by the fires. Of course, some of the vinters had not picked their grapes yet and were a bit worried as to whether or not, the wine would have a smoky smell/taste. They wouldn't know until the next year.

Jannose saw this in one of the winery shops.
She made me take a picture of it.

Because Greg had already driven us down the Ocean Road, we decided that we could fly to Adelaide rather than drive. We would then rent a car for a few days and then catch up with our tour to the Outback. On our way to the airport, Marilyn brought us to a new Botanical Garden devoted totally to Indigenous plants of Australia. Below are a couple of the pictures that I took.










Then, on to a plane and off to Adelaide and then the Outback.