Sunday May 25

Quick update before we go down to Willunga in lovely McClaren Vale tomorrow.

Arrived here in Port Augusta yesterday after a quick, but fascinating, trip from Yulara. Wasn’t long after leaving Yulara on Thursday that we spied Mt Connor to the south and we reflected on how famous it would be if it hadn’t had to compete with Uluru just up the road!

The rain that this whole area has obviously enjoyed of late meant that there is a carpet of green overlaying much of the landscape and all but the rockiest areas look quite verdant. There was lots of water along the roadsides all the way across to the Stuart Highway and as we travelled south across the NT/SA border the cloud banks ahead were looking ever more threatening. We had decided to stop for the night at the Marryat Creek Roadside Stop and as we got closer, the weather was looking really exciting - what a superb sky

Happily the worst of it passed by to the east so we made it safely to our stop where we had a lovely evening chatting around the fire (number two for the trip!) to Rod and Tania from Traralgon and Bob and Bev from Lamaroo in SA, all of whom were travelling north.

On Friday we continued south, through Marla and Coober Pedy. Since we last passed by here in 2009 the opal mining areas have grown enormously, not entirely surprisingly and there are huge mounds across the landscape – looks like giant moles have been at work. It would seem that there is not much of a requirement for restoration of the areas after mining.

Great clouds and incredible green vegetation - more beautiful colours!

Spent Friday night at another roadside stop just out of Coober Pedy and enjoyed yet another fire, which kept us warm as we revelled in the joys of the horizon to horizon star-filled sky.

No clouds on Friday night - just this gorgeous sunset

South of Glendambo we began to see some of the many salt lakes of the Lake Eyre Basin, one of the largest internally draining systems in the world. Lake Hart was a huge surprise and we are not certain whether it had water because of the rain or not, but it is huge and quite a surprise in the middle of this vast arid, but now green, area.

This is only a fraction of Lake Hart - it went much further to the east

Murray checking out the salt

The salt was in huge crystals and had bleached the twigs lying around.
The red dust which has blown in adds to the effect

The pink areas are, we presume, due to the red algae which grows in
salt lakes such as this

Island Lagoon, another amazing salt lake south of Pimba

As we neared Port Augusta the Flinders Ranges loomed to the east and as always when we see them, we marvelled at their incredible, stark silhouette against the sky. Every time we see them I want to go there!

Green, purple, blue and more beautiful clouds!

We have enjoyed a very pleasant day here in Port Augusta and again visited one of our favourite places – the Arid Land Botanic Gardens. The Eremophilas (from a Greek word meaning ‘desert loving’) were in full flower and I managed to show a great deal of restraint and bought only three plants to take home! Many Eucalypts and other plants were also flowering so there were vast numbers of butterflies fluttering around, collecting nectar from the plants with the more open flowers. Not sure what these two were – will have to wait until I get home and can consult my ‘Butterflies of Australia’ book.

What a gorgeous spotted body!

We are looking forward to catching up with our friends in Willunga and the Adelaide Hills over the next couple of days and then it will be off towards home on Thursday. I will do my very best to do one final post once we get back on Friday, just to sign off on the trip properly!

Wednesday May 21

Our last post had us at Tjukayirla Roadhouse on the Great Central Road, some 300km from Laverton, but with few details of our journey there because finalising the post there hadn’t been part of the plan!

We left Laverton in the rain last Friday, but happily it had largely stopped by the time we reached The Pines parking bay, 120 km east. The road had been corrugated in spots for the first 84km to Cosmo Newberry, but after that it was pretty good most of the time and often very good for an unsealed road and the rain at least meant that there was no dust!

A raindrop-spattered view of the Black Oaks (Casuarina pauper) at The Pines -
not really pines at all!

After leaving The Pines we had some sunshine, which was most enjoyable and also dried the car so we could stop and duct tape the expensive cardboard anti-stone barrier to the back windscreen and let some air out of the tyres to lessen the chance of punctures from sharp rocks. Not that there were large rocks on the road – the gravel was quite small and benign.

Marble Gums and spinifex

We were already in the Great Victoria Desert and were yet again surprised by the amount of vegetation  - mulga, spinifex, Marble Gums and the odd Desert Kurrajong. In areas which had been burnt, Native Poplars, lovely slender trees with light green leaves and white trunks were in abundance.

Native Poplar (Codonocarpus cotinifolius)

As we came closer to Tjukayirla, the rain started again – not a great surprise as the clouds ahead had been looking threatening for a while. We were now into country with sand dunes with only Black Oaks growing on them and they looked terrific.

As the rain was making things quite dark and time was getting on, we decided to spend the night at the Tjukayirla campground and it was quite an exciting time as Murray was able to light his first fire of our whole trip! He was so thrilled he actually lit two fires – one in the fire pit and another in his nifty little gas bottle ‘fireplace’ on which a plough disc makes a wonderful barbeque plate!

The perfect place to enjoy a glass of wine!

We had a few spits of rain overnight and left on Saturday morning with the sky still grey. Wasn’t long before we stopped to admire this beautiful big Desert Kurrajong. These trees are well adapted for the desert – as dry conditions set in they gradually loose leaves, stop setting fruit and seeds and the roots store water and were an important water source for Aboriginal people.

The road ahead

We were not underway again for long before we were brought to a halt by a bull camel and his harem of ten in the middle of the road. Apparently they often camp on the road at night! Even though they are a very destructive feral pest, it was quite exciting to see them.

I hope that droopy lip of the bull camel on the right does not indicate he is
unhappy with his family!

Sadly the drizzle started again after lunch, which made it impossible to see and appreciate the vastness of the landscape. We were able to enjoy the close up things though, like this gnamma, or rock hole on the side of the road. These holes in granite outcrops act like natural water tanks, holding water which is replenished from stores in the underground rock. The small surface area minimises evaporation, so they remain a vital source of water.

The landscape changed quite dramatically as we got closer to the Warburton Roadhouse, which is about half way between Laverton and Uluru and moved into the Gibson Desert with its red sand dunes. I had been keen to visit the Tjulyuru Regional Gallery which displays art work from surrounding communities, but discovered that it is only open Monday to Friday and as we had kept moving along faster than we had expected because of the rain, our timing was well out!

Approaching Warburton Roadhouse

Nothing for it but to keep going and as we left the community we were into the Warburton Ranges, with their beautiful dark red rocks. The rain meant that the light was not much good for photos, but I persisted nevertheless!

Towards the east!

Warburton Ranges 

Travelled another 90km to Yarla Kutjara campground, where we spent night all alone and laughed about having seen only two cars and one motorbike on the road all day. The persistent drizzle ruled out exploring the surrounding sand dunes, so we just enjoyed hearing the dingos howling all around – this is such an evocative sound.

What is left of one of the tractors used to make the Great Central Road, parked
for eternity at Yarla Kutjara

Another beautiful tree - Desert Bloodwood

Despite our fervent hopes for better weather, Sunday dawned as grey and cloudy as Saturday had ended. We again saw a herd of camels on the road early on – more on-road campers? We pressed on towards Warakurna Roadhouse and enjoyed dappled views of the Rawlinson Ranges as we came closer. Topped up with fuel here, checked out some Tjulyuru art work which was on display, offsetting some of my disappointment of yesterday and continued our trek east.

Passed two graders which were towing all the gear they must need to camp out in these remote areas whilst they take care of the roads – caravan, fuel tank, 4x4 vehicle. Looked pretty amazing.

The approaching 'grader-train'

We were now getting into even more interesting country and came across our first grove of Desert Oaks (Allocasuarina decaisneana), which look stunning against the red sand and spinifex.

A hunt for a suitable place to pull off the road for a coffee (these are few and far between) ended very well indeed – quite coincidentally we stopped by a tall Ghost Gum, which turned out to be the one on which the Len Beadell Plaque, commemorating the 1960 construction of the Sandy Blight Junction Road by the Gunbarrel Road Construction Party, is located. Even more importantly though, it was hosting lots of superb green and yellow budgies, some of which were checking out prospective nesting hollows. We were thrilled – the first budgies of our trip and we could have a good look at them, as they are usually seen as a flash of yellow and green as the flock whirls past.

Is this one any good?

The nearby range

We were soon approaching the NT border and the surroundings were changing yet again – ranges all around and it was hard not to make comparisons with the Pentecost Range in the Kimberly.

Don't you just love these colours?

How tough and adaptable Grass Trees must be 

As soon as we crossed the border the road deteriorated significantly – it was quickly evident that the NT government is not as interested as is the WA government in maintaining this as an important tourist route. We stopped for lunch at Kaltukatjara (Docker River) Campground, which was surrounded on all four sides by stunning ranges.

More beautiful Desert Oaks

Hopes that the road might improve were soon dashed and we spent the ensuing 150km to Kata Tjuta (The Olgas) cussing and jiggling as Murray picked his way through the corrugations in a never-ending quest to find that magic speed which is just right to deal with the problem without wrecking the van. Stopped a couple of times to check inside said van, as visions of cupboards crashing to the floor were hard to keep at bay!

Sadly this van did suffer a terrible fate! Hope those towing it were not hurt

Happily no such disasters occurred – our faith in the quality of our Evernew caravan was not even dented and we finally drove on to the sealed road at Kata Tjuta with a great sense of relief and travelled the 50km to Yulara feeling like we were driving on cotton wool! 

Views of Kata Tjuta confirmed the end of the corrugations was nigh!

Set ourselves up in the campground and then spent a bit of time getting rid of the worst of the dust that had managed to infiltrate through fridge and battery vents. Still, it is small price to pay for being able to explore these interesting places and we are glad we decided to come back along the Great Central Road, but will probably not feel the need to do it again, even in really fine sunny weather! We thought that we would take longer to get to Uluru and that there would be more opportunities to stop and enjoy some walks, but it was more a 'road trip'.

We have had a terrific three days here, enjoying Uluru, Kata Tjuta and the ‘resort’ itself. There has been a fair bit of cloud coming and going, which has not allowed for the beautiful sunrises and sunsets everyone hopes for, but that is OK. As I sit writing this tonight, there are intermittent showers, thunder and lightning so tomorrow seems like the perfect time to continue our journey south. We plan to be in Port Augusta by Saturday, so will put some photos of our time here on the blog then.

Friday May 16

For those of you who have stayed tuned, we have just had two nights in Leonora and have moved on to Laverton today to start our trip east on the Great Central Road. It already seems ages since we left the coast and despite our initial sadness we are now well and truly back into the swing of loving these inland landscapes with their varied vegetation and environments.

As planned, we left Coral Bay last Sunday morning and on reaching the road south were horrified to see that the Minilya-Exmouth Road was still closed because of water across the road further south. ‘Rats!’ we said (it was really much more expressive than that!) as the need to go north to Burkett Road, then across to the NW Coastal Highway before turning south added 160km to our journey. The drive across to the Coastal Highway did, however, provide an opportunity to marvel once again at and, in reality, remember, the incredible red sand hills that cover the area. We were very impressed with the amount of water on the sides of the road and the number of floodways. Once we were on the highway, there was even more water alongside the road, so no wonder the recent rain had caused so much havoc.

Another advantage of the detour was that we were able to stop and check out the Lyndon River – the very waterway which had covered the Minilya-Exmouth Road a little further west and caused said detour! The river was still flowing quite quickly and it was very obvious that it had been considerably higher than it now was.

This Galah was keeping a very close eye on me from its River Red Gum perch

Finally made it to Minilya Roadhouse and felt that we were truly underway. We spent Sunday night at a roadside stop between Carnarvon and Geraldton and went in to ‘Gerro’ on Monday morning to stock up for the journey home. Monday night’s camp was at the Milroy Nature Reserve near Mullewa and it gave us a magnificent chance to familiarise ourselves with the huge grain and ore trains of the region, as the railway line ran right by the side of this very small reserve!

Milroy Nature Reserve

On Tuesday we travelled further east, with water all along the sides of the road, through Yalgoo and then on to Mount Magnet, the oldest operating gold mining settlement in WA - alluvial gold was discovered here in 1891 by a bloke looking for a lost swag. We spent the afternoon enjoying the 37km Tourist Trail, which allowed us to see the remains of the goldrush era, current gold mining operations (from a distance only!) and the amazing breakaways at The Granites.

Open cut gold mine

Amphitheatre breakaway

The Granites breakaway - the harder red granite has eroded to expose
the soft white granite

As above!

The moon over the breakaway

What great curly bark this acacia has!

Wednesday’s travel took us further east to Sandstone, listed as one of WA’s most picturesque towns. Gold was discovered here in 1894 and its heyday before World War One saw the streets busy with horse-drawn wagons and donkey and camel trains and some 6,000 – 8,000 people. The current population of 42 must be very proud of their town, as it is beautifully looked after and we enjoyed wandering around looking at the historic buildings and the Gold and Wool Interpretive Park.

The National Hotel - has operated continually since opening in 1907

As we drove to Sandstone we noticed an occasional rounded, bright green tree which stood out vividly from the surrounding grey Mulga and had to stop to check it out as it looked so out of place in this dry environment. When Murray showed the lovely lady in the Visitor Centre and Museum a leaf we had souvenired, she told us it was a Desert Kurrajong.

Just out of Sandstone is London Bridge (how many places have a London Bridge and I bet there is a beautiful Aboriginal name for this place!), a remarkable 350 million year old weathered basalt formation which is part of a larger breakaway. More magnificent colours.

Between Sandstone and Leinster we had a great time identifying some of the trees we were seeing along the way using the little 'Trees of the Goldfields' book I bought at the Visitors Centre. Because of the recent rain, things were looking quite green and we were surprised at the amount of vegetation.

Marble Gum - the signature tree of the desert and the largest eucalypt
found in WA's deserts

Marble Gums with a swathe of epicormic shoots after a fire

From Leinster we drove south to Leonora, our goal for the day and the last ‘big’ town before Laverton and the Outback Way.

On Thursday we fulfilled a dream I have harboured since our last trip to WA and did a 300km round trip south to Lake Ballard, 51km west of the northern Goldfields town of Menzies, to see the 'Inside Australia' art installation. British artist Antony Gormley used 3D scans of the inhabitants of Menzies to create 51 sculptures cast in a stainless steel alloy containing iron, chromium, nickel and trace elements of vanadium and titanium oxide from Lake Ballard. These materials are all found in the Achaean rock of WA.

The sculptures are spread over 10 square kilometres in Lake Ballard, a large and usually dry salt lake. It was just amazing – the sculptures themselves were fantastic, but the setting made it truly stunning and worth every centimetre of the drive. The recent rain meant that were was water in some parts of the lake, which added enormously to the beauty of the installation.

Lake Ballard

Another wonderful native tree - the inland weeping form of Native Willow
(Pittosporum angustifolium)

The gorgeous orange fruit of the Native Willow

On our way back to Leonora we were excited to see a Wedge-tailed Eagle feeding on a dead kangaroo by the side of the road. When we turned around and went back so I could try for a photos, it took off but luckily landed in a nearby tree, from where it gave every appearance of glaring at us for disturbing its meal.

A lucky shot as it got sick of being stared at and decided to swap trees 

We called in to the Gwalia historic site just south of Leonora, the residents of which were immigrant workers who came to Australia from Italy and Yugoslavia in search of a better life. It became a ghost town virtually overnight when the ‘Sons of Gwalia’ gold mine, the first manager of which was Herbert Hoover (later to become 31^st President of the USA) closed in 1963. We wandered through the old miners’ cottages, taking lots of photos to share with our neighbour Laurie, who lived in Gwalia as a kid. It was amazing to think about this as we walked around.

Open cut mine at Gwalia

Lots of people lost their beds to make this fence!

On Thursday evening we were a bit nervous as the weather forecast during the day was for storms and rain, which could muck up all our plans. It did rain a little overnight and when we left Leonora this morning things did look a little ominous. We were very positive though that it would all be fine by the time we reached Laverton, where I had planned to take one last photo of us by a sign for the Great Central Road, stick it on this post and publish it, as I had loaded everything else last night.

Trouble was, it rained off and on most of the way to Laverton and by the time we had organised our permits for the WA and the Northern Territory sections of the trip at the Visitors Centre, fuelled up and had a coffee it was raining much more heavily, so we just took off and I forgot all about my blog update! We have travelled 303 kilometres along the route, the rain stopped after about 120km, the road conditions improved greatly at the same time (although they had not been too terrible) and we are spending the night at Tjukayirla Roadhouse, where I have bought some WIFI so I can publish this update.

Whew - will do a much better description of this part of our trip next time and add some photos, but will get this finished and published before I run out of time!!!!!