Sunday, July 10, 2011
Lake Eyre Flight Tour
Hi All,
I have had an amazing 3 days starting Friday at 530am. Brr. Adelaide was really freezing at that hour! I taxied to airport, from where we flew to Olympic Dam with qantas. A short(!?) delay and we were picked up by Wright Air in 2 Cessnas, there were 8 of us, and after stowing the luggage, 7.5kgs each, we were off into the wide blue yonder heading for Lake Eyre. The plane I ended up in was initially, a plane and pilot from Arkaroola station, a chap named Doug, (must be a good guy!) He was hijacked to fly us part of the way as Wright Air's pilot was caught up somewhere and couldn't make it until later! I was beginning to wonder about this trip? Any way as it happened this Doug was very good value he was informative and flew us around so all could see and take as many photos as we could. There were 4 of us in each plane, and ir was fairly comfortable, at least as far as 1st day goes! We had a long flight to Innaminka for lunch, almost 2pm, and then we were hanging around waiting for the other pilot to arrive so Doug could get back to his own agenda at Arkaroola, he had 60 guests ariving for an astrological experience!
Eventually Gerrard arrived and we swapped our luggage over into his plane, also a 6 seater Cessna, and we set off for Birdsville via moomba gas fields (in the distance). We followed the Coopers Creek, which is what feeds into Lake Eyre, it has not quite reached it yet, although it has reached a point where the flood waters have crossed the "Birdsville Track" and so the "punt" ie. ferry, has to be used to cross the Cooper. It was really amazing flying over this land that you know in your mind should be dry and barren and red and it is actually green and puddled with water in hundreds of pools. The Coopers Creek is just myriad streams of water flowing across the country! Incredible! Then we flew over the Coongie Lakes which were another astonishing sight, (I am running out of decriptions here!) Again hundreds of water filled lakes in all directions!
We had a good night at the iconic Birdsville Hotel, it was packed to the eyeballs with travellers. Their food was really good, and we got into the bar in time for "Happy Hour" so that was a bonus! We didn't have particularly early starts, which was a good thing, and after a hearty cooked brekky (outback sized!) we flew off towards Oodnadatta, I think we also flew over a northerly part of Lake Eyre again, and landed at Oodnadatta. This used to be a siding for the Ghan railway, until they realigned it. Another great outback roadhouse cum pub, this time famous because it is "Pink" the whole premises is painted a bright lolly pink! After some time spent stretching our legs we were back in the aircraft and off to Coober Pedy.
Got some good photos from the air as we came into CP of the underground houses and of the mines and mullock heaps. We were met by a bus for the ride into town and were taken around the area and saw the golf course with "black " greens, a mixture of oil and dirt, ending up at our "underground" motel, Radeka's, We had dinner at a "famous" pizza joint, which was quite good, and we went over to the Desert Cave, for a drink, and then off to early bed. In the morning we had a power failure!! we were underground!! luckily it only lasted for about 30 minutes or so (at least after I woke up), then we had a visit to Umoona underground mine, and opal shop (of course)! At 11 am we were taken out to the airport again and we were off towards Willim Creek, via the Painted Hills. Fantastic sight of many hills with the most amazing colours in them, I wonder if the aboiriginals got any of their ochre and painting colours from there?
One of my fellow passengers, a young man travelling with his 80 something grandfather, was sampling every place's hamburgers! His final decision was William Creek was the winner. Once again we had some rearranging of our planes, and we continued on to Olympic Dam with a 6 seater and a 4 seater Cessna. There were some disappointments on the trip, considering the price paid, but It was still worth while to do. Maybe more homework on the company running it should have been done, the pilots and planes were charted by the company which we booked with, and I am not sure whether the pilots were supposed to be tour guides as well as pilots, or not. I was glad to get home and back to my own bed!
I will maybe have a rest over the next week as I will be going over places I have already been, I expect to leave Loxton next Sunday and head off up to Brisbane keep well and know I think of you all often.
love vicki
I have had an amazing 3 days starting Friday at 530am. Brr. Adelaide was really freezing at that hour! I taxied to airport, from where we flew to Olympic Dam with qantas. A short(!?) delay and we were picked up by Wright Air in 2 Cessnas, there were 8 of us, and after stowing the luggage, 7.5kgs each, we were off into the wide blue yonder heading for Lake Eyre. The plane I ended up in was initially, a plane and pilot from Arkaroola station, a chap named Doug, (must be a good guy!) He was hijacked to fly us part of the way as Wright Air's pilot was caught up somewhere and couldn't make it until later! I was beginning to wonder about this trip? Any way as it happened this Doug was very good value he was informative and flew us around so all could see and take as many photos as we could. There were 4 of us in each plane, and ir was fairly comfortable, at least as far as 1st day goes! We had a long flight to Innaminka for lunch, almost 2pm, and then we were hanging around waiting for the other pilot to arrive so Doug could get back to his own agenda at Arkaroola, he had 60 guests ariving for an astrological experience!
Eventually Gerrard arrived and we swapped our luggage over into his plane, also a 6 seater Cessna, and we set off for Birdsville via moomba gas fields (in the distance). We followed the Coopers Creek, which is what feeds into Lake Eyre, it has not quite reached it yet, although it has reached a point where the flood waters have crossed the "Birdsville Track" and so the "punt" ie. ferry, has to be used to cross the Cooper. It was really amazing flying over this land that you know in your mind should be dry and barren and red and it is actually green and puddled with water in hundreds of pools. The Coopers Creek is just myriad streams of water flowing across the country! Incredible! Then we flew over the Coongie Lakes which were another astonishing sight, (I am running out of decriptions here!) Again hundreds of water filled lakes in all directions!
We had a good night at the iconic Birdsville Hotel, it was packed to the eyeballs with travellers. Their food was really good, and we got into the bar in time for "Happy Hour" so that was a bonus! We didn't have particularly early starts, which was a good thing, and after a hearty cooked brekky (outback sized!) we flew off towards Oodnadatta, I think we also flew over a northerly part of Lake Eyre again, and landed at Oodnadatta. This used to be a siding for the Ghan railway, until they realigned it. Another great outback roadhouse cum pub, this time famous because it is "Pink" the whole premises is painted a bright lolly pink! After some time spent stretching our legs we were back in the aircraft and off to Coober Pedy.
Got some good photos from the air as we came into CP of the underground houses and of the mines and mullock heaps. We were met by a bus for the ride into town and were taken around the area and saw the golf course with "black " greens, a mixture of oil and dirt, ending up at our "underground" motel, Radeka's, We had dinner at a "famous" pizza joint, which was quite good, and we went over to the Desert Cave, for a drink, and then off to early bed. In the morning we had a power failure!! we were underground!! luckily it only lasted for about 30 minutes or so (at least after I woke up), then we had a visit to Umoona underground mine, and opal shop (of course)! At 11 am we were taken out to the airport again and we were off towards Willim Creek, via the Painted Hills. Fantastic sight of many hills with the most amazing colours in them, I wonder if the aboiriginals got any of their ochre and painting colours from there?
One of my fellow passengers, a young man travelling with his 80 something grandfather, was sampling every place's hamburgers! His final decision was William Creek was the winner. Once again we had some rearranging of our planes, and we continued on to Olympic Dam with a 6 seater and a 4 seater Cessna. There were some disappointments on the trip, considering the price paid, but It was still worth while to do. Maybe more homework on the company running it should have been done, the pilots and planes were charted by the company which we booked with, and I am not sure whether the pilots were supposed to be tour guides as well as pilots, or not. I was glad to get home and back to my own bed!
I will maybe have a rest over the next week as I will be going over places I have already been, I expect to leave Loxton next Sunday and head off up to Brisbane keep well and know I think of you all often.
love vicki
Monday, July 4, 2011
Outback Adventure
Hi Everyone,Once again I am not running to schedule! I have been having some fun with my photos, and suddenly relisd I hadn't sent my blog off. So before I did some damage with my photos I thought I had better settle down and send this off.
Anne and I had a great trip up to Uluru and back and these are some more photos of that jaunt.
The camel and a younger one, just walked out of the scrub on the side of the road and blithely stepped out and across in front of me!
We made good time to Uluru and checked into the "resort" aka caravan park, very spacious and quite reasonably priced.(probably the only thing at Uluru that is!)
The price of diesel was $1.83, but at Eldunda, (the turn off) it was $1.90, and when we got to Kings Canyon, it was $2.20! We spent the rest of out arrival day just resting, reading, drinking
, you know the type of thing! The next morning we took off to the Olgas, there are 36 domes, but you cant get any where to photograph more than a few at a time, except from the air perhaps. Any way it was latish in the afternoon and not very spectacular for colour, at least not with my camera! By the time we returned it was time to go to the sunset viewing area for Uluru. (it is about a 96 km round trip!)So we settled in with our ground sheet (cos we didn't think of chairs!) but at least we had our nibbles and glases and champagne!
86 photos later I have quite a range of colours of the Rock, but nothing like the professionals get! I thought I wouldn't put them all on the blog! Here I am looking sufficiently outbackish I thought! The next photo shows greater colour differences
. It really does look magnificent. The final photo was one of many I took at Kings
Canyon, another 300 kms from Uluru and again we had to backtrack over the same roads to get back to the Stuart Highway. We did the short walk, about 1.5 kms along the creek bed, it was quite relaxing, and Anne (who is a very keen photographer), enjoyed taking lots of photos of the scenery and other things. I even got quite excited over some pretty wildflowers and took lot of photos of the magnificent rivergums in the creek bed.There are also Coolibah trees (from Waltzing Matilda fame growing there too) but we could not identify which ones they were! Oh well you can't be perfect! I can sing the song though!We retraced our steps down the Stuart Highway, but stayed overnight at a couple of different spots, (somewhat fewer mice!) But went back into Coober Pedy, and also repeated Lake Hart. As we came into Port Augusta, we stopped off for a farewell lunch at the Arid Lands Botanical Gardens and there we parted. Me to come on back to Clare and Anne to return to Port Lincoln, her home. I found it a wonderful experience and we were very compatible (on my part any way), and hope we get a chance to join up again for another jaunt when Anne is free of time. I took a beautiful photo of some Dessert Peas but am not sure what happened to them. I am currently trying to put my photos onto a data stick! So anything could happen to them!!
Anyway I must get some sleep and so Good Luck and Good Night to you all
until next week, vicki
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Great Outback
Hi all, Sorry this is a bit late! I had to collect my photos and then there was no service! So here we are! The first photo is near Lake Hart and is Island Lagoon We stayed near here for the night It was just so amazing! I have forgotten how the outback is so interesting. Some people think it is boring but I have always found it always changing. You get these little hills and of course, at the moment, there is water around, which is unusual.We went into Pimba and then on to Woomera, which is only another 10 kms. there was a really interesting park with lots of rockets and old planes etc from when woomera was launching these things in the sixties
I am currently travelling with a lady i met through the solo cmca group internet. She is from Port Lincoln, and was widowed last year or so, she bought a motorhome and is warming up to 
travelling. She has a 3 children all grown up of course, we are much the same age, and have similar interests, wine, wine and more wine! The countryside we are driving through is very bare i am not the best of photograpers as you know, but I do my best. We went into Coober Pedy. Stayed the night and went and saw the underground bar! naturally, played the pokies, in the undergound pokie parlour!
Went and looked through the underground catholic church. It had beautiful stained glass
window. then as the 4th photo shows went into an underground house "Faye's" house, a single lady with help from a couple of lady friends built it over a 10 year period while also working at mining for opal and polishing. It was much better than Turkey's houses in Cappadoccia, there was not the wetsmoke smell in coober pedy like there was in Turkey. I think that is because Turkey"s underground houses are built from volcanic rock. Faye has also built a swimming pool, 3 bedrooms and "partyroom" she evidently did a lot of fundraising for the town. She has retired to Qld but has difficulty getting around now. On our way out of town we saw a mine in action and managed to get a snap as we drove past of a truck in action at a site blasting away "hopefuly" opal ore.We camped out at Agnes Creek, which was quite pretty, except!!! It was overrun with mice! they are totally fearless, run over your feet, dived into some neighboring folks camp oven (it was empty of food, just soaking in water), ran all around the ground ugh!! We were very careful to keep hatches and doors closed.
Every roadhouse we passed through had them running around the floors! And they all smelt terrible! (the roadhouses I mean) I don't know how they get on in their kitchens?
Any way we kept on driving and here we are at Ayers Rock, oops, beg
your pardon, Uluru/Yulara. paid $1.90 per litre for diesel at Erldunda, but it is 0ver $2. here at Yulara. The caravan Park is quite reasonable though.Any way must go big day tomorrow which will get posted next week! Hope you are all keeping well. I am!
Love vicki
Monday, June 13, 2011
Happy Trip to Clare Valley
Hi Everyone! Here I am at Burra, near Clare in SA. I travelled over from Loxton last friday to my friends Yvone and Ken, in Clare. They have been running me around the Clare sights and tastes! They have a lovely new home just on the outskirts of Clare, on about 2 acres, really lovely outlook. ((the photo is not of their backyard!)We drove over to Burra to look at this lovely old town, with lots of old shop frontages, some antique shops and nice galleries. It was previously a copper mining town. We are standing in front of the open cut and on the far hill is two buildings related to copper mining, I forget which! Any way Burra is famously freezing cold in winter and it was! But we warmed up in a pub with a fabulously warm fire and had some lunch and then continued on our merry way.
It is a public holday in Sa on Monday so Yvonne and I gave Ken a rest fom sightseeing and we hit the nearby little villages and did (I) some wine tasting. Clare Valley has verry nice reislings, among other wines! Here I am at Mintaro in a maze that is there, making a wish for a peaceful world. Mintaro has a world class slate quarry, where you can get pieces big enough for billiard tables! (you learn something new every day). We also went to Sevenhills where there is a monastery run by the jesuits and they make a large proportion of the catholic worlds' altar wines. Also some verry nice fortified wines for the likes of you and me!! All in all a nice little run around for me, but a dry one for Yvonne, who not only was driving, but was also on antibiotics and being very good about not drinking!On the way over from Loxton, I had to drop into Renmark to have somebody look at my fridge (again), this time the fellow decided that the wiring was wrong, as when the fridge is on gas, if the bottle runs out it won't restart when the new bottle is connected. (I have had this problem at least 4 times now, about $50-100 a time) I have written down exactly what to do this time, and hopefully that is the end of it. I must admit I felt a bit foolish as i closed off the gas after he had got it sorted, to discover that i hadn't flicked the lever over!! and it was just using the last bit in the old bottle! whoops!! I didn't tell him that! I just drove off quietly down the road!
I stopped at Overland Corner, on my way to Morgan for the night , as when I came through before it was closed. I had a drink before a roaring fire and had a chat to a couple from Bunbury, didn't say their name, but he was wearing a dockers cap! (And hey we won again!!) Also a most interesting "young" man who was doing the Murray river in a tinnie (a dinghy for the uninitiated). He had been down to the mouth and was returning to Dalby (I think) in Qld. But he had spent 4 years living in UK and a couple of years driving all over the USA and Canada, but he had some great stories to tell. (If only I was 20 years younger!!) Naa. Too late now!! All in all a very enjoyable stop.
So here I am in Clare and trying to work out where I am going to next, but I will keep you posted!
Keep well and I will live to blog another day! Love
Vicki
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Yorke Kimono
Hi Everyone, I have put another beautiful sunset from Yorke Peninsula, If only I could tak the photos better! This is looking towards Adelaide from Ardrossan, It really is beautiful. I wish I was a fisherman, as that is what seems to be the winner at most of these little seaside places.I came across a group of patchworkers in Port Vincent and spent some time with them at their "sit and sew", and managed to get most of my Kimono quilted. I drove over to Elizabeth where I connected with a packet of my mail, sent over by my sister. Now that is a problem, trying to work out where I'll be ahead of time so I can get my mail! So far it is working!
So I came back to Levi Park, my third visit! and Saturday I went off to my Kimono class. Where I almost managed to finish it. Just a hem to put on it and the loops for the tie belt!
I hope you like it. I am going to make another one as I got bit carried away,with making sure it was big enough, and now it is a little large, or "cosy"! The colours don't show up as well as it really is. When we finished the class Julie, the teacher, gave us another pattern for a jacket as well. I might make that too. Now I am driving up to the Riverland to my cousin Paulines' and then across to Clare to my friend Yvonne's.
Just a short message to you all this week.
Love Vicki
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