25/10/11 Goulburn to Wodonga

Almost as soon as we had set up camp in the caravan park in Goulburn it started to thunder and storm.
It rained on and off all night and in the morning we had to pack up in the rain.  By the time we reached Albury the weather had cleared.  As we drove into Albury the country side was green and the weir was blue and beautiful. We called into the new Jayco dealership to get a quote and begin the process of getting our camper repaired. Our house looked tidy and attractive. After 3200 km, and 17, 675 photographs, we were safely HOME!!

Thank you God for a safe journey.

23/10/11 Shellharbour, 24/10/11 Jamberoo fun park near Kiama

On Sunday 23/10/11 we travelled to Shellharbour, south of Wollongong. On Monday 24/10/11 we spent the day acting like teenagers and enjoying all the rides at Jamberoo fun park near Kiama.  About 3:30 pm we got onto the highway once again and headed for Goulburn where we planned to spend the final night of the "big trip."

14/10/11 to 22/10/11 Cooranbong with family

We spent a week visiting with our family and enjoying my sister and brother-in-law's hospitality. Thank you! On Saturday afternoon 15/10/11 we drove into the Watagan National Park.  A shower of rain evaporated as rising clouds.  The wild flowers were drenched with water drops and waratahs were blooming along the top of the ridges.

22/10/11 Happy birthday to our son in-law, Martin.

13/10/11 Cobar to Dubbo 14/10/11 Dubbo to Cooranbong

We were married in Dubbo in 1986, so it was a nostalgic return to the town. It was too late to visit the Western Plains Zoo on Thursday and on Friday we decided to travel on to be with our family over the weekend.

We travelled along the Golden Highway along the edge of the Wollomi National Park through the beautiful Upper Hunter Region with its magnificent rocky mountains and spectacular outcrops.  We travelled quickly and I regret not taking the opportunity to photograph the scenery, but we will return.

12/10/11 White Cliffs To Cobar

After we left White Cliffs within 30 km we saw 5 black bearded lizards warming themselves on or beside the road, and then we gave up counting. 

We saw a number of emus and adult emus with juvenile chicks however, the animal that just astounded us in regard to their numbers along the road side were goats. There were hundreds of them!  Their coats varied from white, to brindle, to jet black. While we saw lots of road kill -  emus and kangaroos and even several pigs  - we did not see any evidence of goats having been run over.

11/10/11 Peery Lake, Paroo - Darling National Park

We travelled 53 km to Peery Lake in the Paroo - Darling National Park. The lake is an interesting ochre colour due to the sediment dissolved in it.  Now that the lake has filled it will hold water for about three years. Water birds are finding a new playground.

We saw several beautifully coloured small lizards.

As we travelled a number of emus crossed our path or ran away as we went by. When they run they bob up and down and they look like a huge feather duster with legs.

On the way back to White Cliffs we saw one very large, and one small, black bearded lizard. We stopped to say:  "Hello! Can we take your photograph?"  They put up their spikes and tried to look very fierce. They did not take their eyes off the camera.  

10/10/11 White Cliffs

White Cliffs has a population of 200.  It looks like an area of gigantic ant hills.  We spent the day fossicking on the claim being worked by our friend Hayley and her husband Brad. We found some small chips and enough potch to show back home that we have been out on the field.  Brad showed us down his mine and some opal he had found.  Thank you for inviting us to a delicious evening meal!

White Cliffs has a small solar power station which supplies some of the power needs of the town.

Around the outskirts of the town are patches of beautiful noxious weeds.

9/10/11 Broken Hill To White Cliffs via Wilcania

The most exciting moments on the trip were when we spotted a very large, fat stumpy tail lizard and we stopped to photograph it.

8/10/11 Broken Hill / Silverton

We went to church and stayed for the fellowship lunch.   It was great to catch up with friends and acquaintances from my year in Broken Hill - 1963!  In the afternoon we went for another drive to Silverton.  It was an animal filled afternoon.  We saw camels, lots of goats, kangaroos, lizards and donkeys. A stumpy -tail lizard was the fattest one that we have encountered.  Gerd got prickled by the bearded dragon lizard when he went to pick it up.  The donkeys were wandering down the main street of Silverton and came overt peer into the car.  I think that they wanted some bread, but we didn't have any with us.

7/10/11 Broken Hill - Silverton

Silverton is where the "Mad Max" films, starring Mel Gibson, were made.  It flourished during the railway / mining heydays but now has only a pub, some art studios and a small number of local residents homes  and some historic old buildings in various stages of disrepair.

The overflow water from the Umberumberka Reservoir during last big rains has carved out the river banks and left heaps of stones along the river bed.  

6/10/11 From Port Augusta to Broken Hill

We decided that inland might be drier than the coast, so we set off for Broken Hill.  On the way we stopped to see the giant gum tree at the southern entrance to Orroroo.  It is 10.89 metres in circumference.

We liked the new street decoration in Orroroo, depicting horses pulling a plough, and commemorating the pioneer farmers .

Along the road side we saw many emus.

4th to 5/10/11 Port Augusta

We tried to escape the windy, damp weather by travelling to Port Augusta. We left the wind behind but the dampness  came with us, only clearing for a little while in the late afternoon.  It was a good day to hire a couple of videos and stay indoors.

3/10/11 Murphy's Haystack, Talia Caves and Venus Bay

Murphy's Haystacks are pink granite inselbergs.  Local legend says that a Scottish agricultural expert passing by in the mail coach said:  "That farmer must harrow, look at all the hay he has saved."

Talia caves are a geological wonder.  The Woolshed is a long cave hollowed out by wave and wind action  into the cliff face.  Gerd's hat blew off his head into the channel.  He wanted to strip off and jump in and retrieve it and had to be verbally restrained!

The Tub at Talia Caves is a spectacular sink hole.  At high tide the sea whooshes up the cliff face and enters the bottom of the Tub through a large washed-out arch.

In the afternoon the weather changed and it started to rain. We drove to Venus Bay and gazed down  from the top of the dangerous, broken and undercut cliffs at some dolphins.  

2/10/11 Point Labatt near Streaky Bay

Point Labatt, south of Streaky Bay, is a sea lion colony.  You can stand on the cliff above the colony and watch them lolling on the rocks far below.

Today, as we travelled we saw 27 stumpy tail lizards crossing our track.  We got out of the car and had a close encounter of the camera kind with most of them.  They tried to put on their most aggressive face and hissed loudly to frighten these interfering humans away.  

There was a noticeable difference in colour between what we assume were the male and female lizards.  The males were much blacker and the females were more green and yellow like the surrounding countryside.

We also saw a small ornate dragon which dug itself into the sand to hide from the terrifying camera lens . That was the first time we had observed this behaviour.

At the end of the day, because we had bright sunshine, we returned to The Granites on the Westall Way Loop to take some extra photos of the rocks with their orange-red lichen colouring.

1/10/11 Westall Way Loop near Streaky Bay

We drove around the Westall Way Loop, near Streaky Bay.  The coastline varied from gigantic sand hills and  sandy bays,  to broken rocky edges eaten by rolling waves, to high cliffs beaten by the enormous swells which break at their base.  In some areas the southern facing granite rocks were decorated with orange-red lichen.  It was a dull day until late in the afternoon when the sun finally broke through and added some sparkle to the scenery.

  

29/9/11 and 30/9/11 Streaky Bay

Streaky Bay was named by Matthew Flinders. The light reflecting from the sand and the seaweed in the water causes the colour which gave the bay its name.

We travelled around the Cape Bauer Loop. We came across a cute stumpy tail lizard who probably didn't enjoy being made into a film star.

Cape Bauer is a spectacular landscape of huge broken cliffs and sand dunes with low coastal vegetation. 

A special point of interest are the blow holes and whistling cliffs.  When the waves surge in they force the air in the under ground passages worn in the cliffs to escape through narrow holes at the surface with  a great whoosh and a steams-like spray, like the sound and vapour of an enormous whistling kettle . 

The pelicans sit in the bay near the caravan park waiting to be photographed (and fed).

28/9/11 Ceduna

This was the worst day and night so far on the trip. Midmorning the sky turned greeny black and it started to rain. This was accompanied by a strong gusty wind that battered our camper backwards and forwards all afternoon and night. Even the birds sat around seeking shelter.

A battered looking salt freighter was loading at the wharf .