And we’re back!

Actually we’ve been back since last wednesday. Shattered doesn’t begin to cover the mental exhaustion caused not only by flogging the car on the roads for three days straight, but also contending with the worst sequence of roadworks I’ve ever seen in any country. On our last day we literally could not go for more than twenty kilometres at any point without being slowed, stopped, or diverted, and all with billboards screaming about accidents and speed cameras. The information overload and the concentration involved damn near killed me.

Anyway, recovered now. After we left Uluru, we did a detour to King’s Canyon, and took a helicopter flight over it. Since the only track up to the top is called ‘Heart Attack Hill’, I’m not sorry about that 🙂 Click to get the pictures at a larger size:

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Then it was southwards, with a stop overnight at Coober Pedy. I was too tired to explore, but Doug went on the obligatory mine tour and came back babbling about the experience, so I think he enjoyed it. Coober Pedy is famous for its original settlers deciding to live (and worship) underground because of the heat. Nowadays, modern airconditioning means there are plenty of buildings above ground.

We bought no opals. I do adore them, but I’m not paying silly money for coloured rock. I’d only worry about losing the damn things.

As I said in the previous post, we made a deliberate effort to stop at the Arid Lands botanic gardens. Had a wonderful lunch but the sun intensity meant I mostly stayed inside to protect these blasted scars, while Doug went wandering. I did see some of the many native birds that hang around there (Tiggy, you must go there for bird watching – it’s sublime!) and some lovely natives such as this one:

It’s actually not that big but the landscaping is excellent

Overlooking the Spencer gulf

And towards the Flinders Ranges

Adelaide was not what I was expecting. Our hotel sucked, which didn’t help, but it’s a rather odd place – both rough and beautiful. It’s also a tiny city, so you can get around by its excellent public transport or by car in very little time provided you don’t get caught up in jams caused by trafffic accidents near your hotel 🙁

Its central shopping precent is the Rundle Mall, and is amazingly comprehensive for such a tiny city and a relative impoverished state. Doug and I were charmed by the pigs.

And by the many remnants of its older architecture

We took a tram ride to the coastal suburb of Glenelg which has a reasonable beach (bloody cold though), and is a pretty nice place for lunch (even if we chose a cafe with rude servers who didn’t know soup is usually served before the main!) It has a long jetty with good views back over the town:

 

This is a memorial to the first (white) settlers

After lunch, Doug wanted to go to the botanic gardens and art gallery, which he enjoyed a lot. I had essential handbag shopping to do, but did peek inside the art gallery before we parted. The dead horses, I did not like. This statue of Buck Angel, I did:

By the time we reached Adelaide, I’d decided that I’d had enough and just wanted to go home. But first, Mt Gambier and the Great Ocean Road, and also lunch at the delightful lakeside town of Meningie where we bought the best vanilla slices ever 🙂

Mt Gambier is famous for its volcanic lakes, which at the end of the year turn bright blue. We were there in non-bright blue time, but they were pretty enough on a grey day:

By Valley Lake I was surprised to see several Purple Water Hens, which I’d previously thought were strictly vegetarian (not so) chowing down enthusiastically on a large dead fish some thoughtful person had left on the grass. Makes me glad the aggressive little fuckers aren’t bigger, really 🙂

On our way from Mt Gambier to Warrnambool, we went via Cape Bridgewater on what they call the Limestone Coast, which was an unexpected delight both in terms of scenery and wildlife. We came across a beautiful rock wallaby on the way to the town of Cape Bridgewater, just emerging from roadside bushes, and again – sitting in the middle of the road – on the way out again. No chance of a photo, but man, it was gorgeous. We think it probably lived in these limestone caves close to where we spotted it:

The town of Cape Bridgewater is very posh, too posh for an actual pub or anything, but it does have surfing and seals, and a place to look for blue whales

 

and this ‘petrified forest’ which is nothing of the sort (actually tubes of limestone worn away by rain water):

We stayed next night in Warrnambool but were a week too early for the southern right whales which are just now beginning to pass Cape Bridgewater. Nice place, will definitely go back because we both want to see right whales.

This is Logan’s Beach which has a viewing platform to watch the whales from:

The Great Ocean Road is like Uluru – one of those clichéd landscapes which still manage to take your breath away. We saw it on a cloudy day with drizzle at times, and think that made it even more beautiful.

It’s a very fragile landscape and while we were at the Twelve Apostles (note, there were never twelve, only nine and now only eight) there were staff measuring the amount by which the cracks in the path had widened since last time. Sometime soon that entire landscape is going to disappear into the sea. Contrast that with Uluru which seems immovable and unchanging (which is a complete illusion of course).

Once you leave the Twelve Apostles section, you head towards the mountainous part of the Ocean Road through the Otways. No photos because it’s (a) bloody impossible to stop and take any and (b) almost impossible to drive. Some people might enjoy narrow winding roads which go up and down constantly, but not me. At least I was driving because if I’d be a passenger….

The forests are gorgeous and now I know they’re there, we can go back for a slower look. But on that day they made for a long, tiring journey I couldn’t really appreciate. We ended in Lorne, which may be a great place to visit, but we unfortunately picked the worst motel in town, with noisy guests and no sound proofing.

We left before dawn, which meant we had to navigate the remainder of the coastal road in the dark. That was fun 🙁 The last three days were flogging it just to get home. We stopped in Gundagai (famed in song) and Taree (another place I could bear to visit) and then at last our own bed 🙂

It was so worth it. But my god, it was fucking tough going.

Our car went in for its complimentary 1000km service just before we left. On Thursday it’s going in for its mandatory 10000km servicing 🙂 It performed like a champ, but after three hours even in its great seats, my back was screaming. Doug also found long driving tiring. This puts plans to drive to Cairns firmly on the back burner because the highway there is a real goat track – and there are 1700kms of the bloody thing.

Next trip is to O’Reillys for our anniversary. Unless we go somewhere else in between 🙂