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Ken and Jeannette Sellars |
Note: dates are the date of the email and not necessarily the actual date of the event
It is half past midday Wednesday 12th May, and we have set up in a Caravan Park we have stayed at many times in Alice Springs, the "Red Centre" of Australia. But only for overnight. The Wintersun Caravan Park .http://www.uluru-to-kakadu.com/alice-springs-history.php
We have purchased a minimum $20.00 (Aust) worth of groceries, that gave us a 8cents per litre discount when we refueled with Auto Gas (LPG) and as we took 150 litres so that was a little saving. So that job done in we came to the Caravan Park, unhitched, which I didn't wish to do, but no option. Emptied toilet waste, refilled water tanks. So those jobs are done and now as we have wireless broadband signal here, checked emails. Haven't had signal since our previous email to you. After lunch Jeanette will do a load of washing, and put it through the dryers so it can all go straight back in wardrobes and drawers. Then because we are unhitched, we will take a few more photos to send to you.
Lets take a few lines to describe some aspects of the country we have travelled through to date;
Donald is generally flat open cereal cropping country, and after going North from there to Ouyen we were going through an area of the Victorian desert country referred to as "The Mallee!" The vegetation is known as "Mallee Scrub" which describes low tuberous eucalyptus trees (grow no more than thirty feet) The leaves contain a very flammable oil when subjected to fire, but the same oil can be boiled from the leaves and sold as eucalyptus oil which is used to rub on ones chest to inhale the vapour to clear sinus, or to remove tar stains fro off the paintwork of the car, very versatile.
There are also "Mallee Fowl", and bird about the size of a bantam hen, that build an incubator mound from humus and tends it until the chicks hatch from the eggs buried in the mound. The male bird being the guardian of the mound. http://www.australianfauna.com/malleefowl.php
In Australian deserts the dunes generally run East/West, and the principal roads North/South, so from Mildura is the North Western city of Victoria and the original fruit growing area, located on the banks of the Murray River which is also the boundary between New South Wales and Victoria.
From 50km out travelers cannot carry fruit or vegetables through the "Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone" of Mildura.
After Mildura is the South Australian border and ALL of South Australia is a "Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone" so any fruit or vegetables the inexperienced traveler may have purchased in Mildura, must now be confiscated!
Burra is hilly including some steep hilly country of cereal cropping, and sheep for wool and meat. http://www.burrahistory.info/
Rainfall is a bit unpredictable. The early settlers many of Lutheran heritage, tend to build substantial structures often in stone, and from a practical aspect often utilizing local stone and materials. This has left a significant area of South Australia with remnants of their buildings, such as the abandoned farm house near our overnight camp at Burra Creek Gorge.
At that camp the gully (valley) had the "River Red Gums" a solid Australian eucalypt tree used for stumps to build houses on, railway sleepers and other uses in contact with soil as it resists rot better than other timbers.
We were awoken the morning there by the Magpies calling to each other from their "Territory" in various River Red Gums.
The township of Burra 10 km away also has an historic Copper mine and is well preserved in the same type of building as the farm house.
Similar country the rest of the way West to Port Augusta where we did that ninety degree turn right onto the Stuart Highway, (also known as the North South Road??) There is a photo on our "Travel Australia " site about 2007 of a semi-trailer in a Dust Storm at that same intersection! No more cereal growing country. Stony, saltbush, with very little vegetation until past Woomera Rocket Range.http://homepage.powerup.com.au/~woomera/history.htm
Lake Hart http://maps.bonzle.com/c/a?a=p&p=165301&cmd=sp
However these arid areas which had not had significant rain for years did recently, and so there is green where last October there was nothing but gravel and dust.
http://www.cooberpedy.sa.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=215
Coober Pedy though is still a place with everything covered in fine white dust from the unknown number of mines stretching 50km or more around the township, such as that is. The movie Mad Max was made here, and somehow that fits!
We left Alice Springs at 9.45am this morning and began the climb up out of what is like a huge basin that Alice Springs nestles in, and a necessary refuel at Tea Tree at about 12.15pm. (95 cents a litre for LPG)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Springs,_Northern_Territory
From Alice Springs we have begun to be in termite mound country, although by the time we reached Tennant Creek at 4.45pm the mounds are now up to about four feet high and they will progressively become taller the further North we travel.
http://en.travelnt.com/explore/tennant-creek.aspx
The termite mounds get larger where it is hotter as they are insulated mounds that protect the termites from overheating.
The roadsides have been lush with new growth from the rains and the variety of reeds and grasses creates more variations of green and yellow than any artists pallet could duplicate. For the 100km prior to reaching Tennant Creek the roadsides have been lined with hibiscus out in mauve flowers, then wattles (acacias) up to about twelve feet high covered in golden yellow flowers. The trees are washed and the foliage is new and healthy, due to receiving an intake of moisture.
Jeanette has attempted to photograph aspects she believed may interest you and your club members, while we kept driving, a challenge to say the least, however, she has produced an effect as though you are actually sitting up in the front seat of the Scout traveling with us, so they are included, I think she has done an excellent job,see what you think!.
However Diane,if you are "freeloading" along with us, it might be nice if you pulled your weight, and at least cleaned off the remains of the four inch grasshoppers from the headlights etc, before we start the days travel????????????
Anyway one other aspect, watched the news on TV and the highest temperature for the Northern Territory today was at Daly River Mango Farm (were we are going, 35 C,)
We learnt last evening that some tourists have been complaining that they came to see the "Red Centre", and instead it is "wall to wall grass"
One big difference is we are not finding the usual overnight "roadkill", so the meat eating birds are not on the roads. Jeanette has nursed her Fuji camera for hundreds of km trying to be ready to get some shots of the big Wedge Tailed Eagles taking off in the immediate front of the Scout, but it only happens after she packs the camera away in frustration!!!!
Too warm last night for the doona, in fact did not need the one sheet and one blanket. But we will have to acclimatize over the next couple of days. But back home in Victoria, (but not we hope in Geelong) some of your weather, snow! and we are advised from family members, freezing cold.
A turbo propeller fixed wing going overhead just above the tree tops at 6.15am was a rough awakening, and the whole park seemed to get up after and begin banging around. Jeanette & I stubbornly stayed in bed another hour, but the noises outside were persistent.
Some years ago when we were in Tennant Creek there was a push on to have aboriginal children taught their own language in schools. But what highlighted the problem to be overcome here was that in the combined aboriginal community there are eight different aboriginal languages spoken. In fact English is the only common language!
Well Diane there is no doubt we all enjoyed yesterday as we moved from the dry arid Tennant Creek and progressed into the sub -tropical with the subtle changes in roadside vegetation and the increase and diversity of the birdlife.We decided to take a little detour 5km off the highway to Daly Waters, which is often confused by tourists with Daly River!! We only stopped long enough for me to duck into the pub and take the photos for you, then off again as it was hot, and we wanted to get o Gorrie WW 2 Airfield to bush camp (airfield camp???) for the night.Gorrie WW 2 Airfield is located a few km North of Larimer and the reason it was constructed at that location is because at the time there was a narrow gauge railway from Darwin to Larimer, and, it was just out of range of the Japanese bombers, that only managed to penetrate far enough inland to bomb Katherine (where we are tonight) SO, Gorrie was established as a repair depot for aircraft that could be flown there,from the active bases at Fenton, Mc Donald, and Long. (A lot of Americans where involved in this!)
As trip leaders Jeanette and I brought our club members into Gorrie in 2005, to camp overnight, and they all camped on the sides of the strip, none were game enough to camp in the middle just in case they got "landed on"! But we did have a long, long, "Happy Hour", such that we made the decision that there-in after, they were to be referred to at "Group Therapy Sessions" as we were unable to retain them at one hour only!!!!!
Now I have to apologies to you Diane for the bad language I was using this morning at Goorie, I hope you didn't hear it!!!!!. BUT laying on that HOT, bitumen airstrip, for over three hours twisting my body into positions it was never meant to be shaped into, in order to change the bottom radiator hose on the Scout that we discovered was leaking when we stopped on Friday night was difficult, and I did swear a lot, fortunately you were not close by at the time!!!!!!!
However you may have heard the similar language when we pulled into this Caravan Park (the Red Gum) in Katherine tonight and STRANGE NOISES came from the front left hand wheel area, during several full right hand turns. The only thing I found was loose U-bolts on that front spring, that had allowed a "camber wedge" to come forward. Fingers crossed!!!!!!!!!!!
A lot of "roadkill" from Gorrie on, and the black wild pig would had have made a mess of whatever vehicle hit it. Plenty of dead kangaroos that we had to swerve around, but the wild buffalo standing near the edge of the road was scary, and unexpected South of Katherine. They cause fatalities when they charge and ram vehicles up here.
To answer the question you asked; From above Tennant Creek we moved into a simple "Wet Season, or Dry Season" situation, with this being the beginning of the "Dry Season". The only variation within this system is the dreaded "Buildup" during which people go "Troppo" due to the humidity. The "Buildup" is a time of domestic and general violence.
When we are set up at Mango Farm (3rd day at highest NT Temperature) we will fill in a number of gaps in our journey, in more detail.
Your friends as well as your brother are going to believe you have gone "Troppo", going on this trip with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Last night we left the air-conditioner on the van going all night! What was a daytime maximum back in Geelong when our correspondence began, is now up here at present, the overnight lowest temperature, 25 degrees Celsius. But that is a bit higher than normal for this time of year.
The humidity had the under dashboard duct of the air-conditioner in the Scout dripping with condensation yesterday, a sure sign we are entering the tropical North. In the ablutions block here in the van park, overhead fans are spinning at top speed thrashing the air to keep it moving.
But anyway, we are breaking camp now to head off shortly, and at Hayes Creek will turn off the Stuart Highway and use a bumpy but bitumen surfaced road to head towards Daly River.
The unseasonal humidity is causing a lot of perspiration and setting up camp is slow due to the exhaustion caused by such high humidity, but it has also caused large numbers of butterflies to hatch out. Also, again due to the humidity the mosquitoes are savage and not resting during the main daylight hours. So it is currently impractical to be outdoors without a solid coating of repellent.
We tried sleeping last night with out the air-conditioner going at first, but had to give in and turn it on to get some sleep. There are mosquitoes coils burning in the bathrooms, but we also take a can of insect killer in to squirt into the shower stall before stepping in.
But at 5.30pm it is BYO drinks and nibbles down at the camp kitchen, which also serves the purpose of a "meet & greet" new arrivals. Great social activity that allows the owners Gary & Rhonda to enjoy being with their guests without doing all the work.
Back to Ken and Jeannette's main page travelogue
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