Road Trip to the outback

southern bigfoot · Mar 17, 2008

Posted this on the Aussie forum thought you guys might be interested, Nay my partner and I had some time off, so we drove 3,500 km (2174 miles) to have a look a a part of oz we hadn't seen yet. We started in Melbourne and headed off checking out the great ocean road, but seeing as we'd seen most of it we went inland and then cut to the coast at Port Campbell, saw the hoards (international tourists) taking photos of the 12 Apostles, snapped a couple of shots and headed for the beach where we found this guy

He's a Little Penguin, quite literally!

Then we shot across to the Otways and saw the otway fly and the redwoods. The otways is one of the highlights of the trip.

To pull up at a picnic area and see that after seeing native beech and eucalypt forest then going thru pine plantations this is in the middle of it all, a North American redwood grove, really odd in a good way.

Me at the creek that runs thru, even thought I saw a platypus.

pics of the otway fly, a walk 25 m. above ground level thru tree tops.

Looking up at the walking platform from below

There was a lot of this stuff littered on the side of the roads, I think it's called native fauna...

Poor little bugger got hit not long before we got there. It's called and echidna can be seen alive here

Beer, salt...where's the lime.

Strange salt lakes near the Coorong in South Australia.

To be cont.

southern bigfoot · Mar 17, 2008

Headed for the outback and on route found this monster (me for scale, I'm 6'4")

Heaps of ruins from old homesteads and their out-buildings the roofing timber has not lasted as well as the stonework.

Drought, what drought. Standing in the middle of the creek-bed. At this point not a drop of H2O anywhere outside of the plastic bottles we carried.

The sheep station we stayed at, and yes it had air-con. This property is only 100 square miles, carries 3,000 sheep, in a good season it'd have 8,000 and a few hundred cattle.

Thats their creek, or what remains of it near the homestead.

Why we came this way, Wilpena pound, you sort of have to see it all to take in the scale. Went for a short walk Nat. Parks had closed part of the park, (We had initially been told all of the park was closed. No one seemed to know what was what when we were driving thru the towns before Wilpena, I had planned to walk to the top of St Mary's peak but didn't think we would be able to with the park closed. Turns out I could have but with the mercury hitting 40 deg we would have had to start at 6 am. What a balls up.)

The reason for the closure of the park. Feral goats we being shot by guys in choppers. We heard not one shot the whole time we were there. Saw lots of goats though, and if they'd given me a rifle I could of got a couple!

More goats, this one is not in good shape.

Neither is this roo (kangaroo), which were everywhere (alive).

Trail walking to the lookout.

We got tons of pics but I don't want to bore you all senseless. Had a great time and saw most of what we wanted, should have taken a month off to spent some time in a couple of places, thanks everyone for the suggestions before we left.

We got back to find a package from JDee in the letterbox and one from the states, so it was extra good to come home.

To make sure this is in keeping with the W&S theme, drinkable water was a concern out there and it has made me think long and hard about travelling in the dry outback without serious backup water filtration and storage. A walk in the daytime over a length of 6 hours you could easily consume 6 litres. It was 104 F in the shade and next to no natural water around. To tell you the truth it gets you edgy.

Thanks for looking.

Jules

TWBryan · Mar 17, 2008

Thanks for the great pics!

Haze · Mar 17, 2008

southern bigfoot said:

I like this pic :thumbup:

Looks like you had a good trip, im hoping to head back to OZ near the end of the year for some exploring

southern bigfoot · Mar 17, 2008

Thanks guys.

Haze, hopefully it wont be so dry when you're over being post winter. This drought is a real kick in the B#lls for our primary producers. Not to mention lowly landscapers.

apsilon · Mar 17, 2008

Nice pics mate. Really gets the idea across on how dry it is. I didn't go as far past the Otways as you did as you know (but then I started a little further away) but seems I got lucky with the temps. It'd been hot before I went down then great mid 20s while I was there and now back up high again.

kgd · Mar 17, 2008

Great sites and excellent pictures! 40oC is tough to walk in, how did you keep so much water on hand - even in the car?

pict · Mar 17, 2008

Great photos. I will go there someday. I can't imagine the hardships of the first people to explore that area.

Goats are amazing animals, the very fact that they can infest an area like that is evidence of their amazing ability to adapt and survive on just about anything. I own a goat, she would try to eat a nylon poncho and go back for seconds. Mac

mymindisamob · Mar 17, 2008

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

Darbyfett · Mar 17, 2008

Very cool pictures!

mtnfolk mike · Mar 17, 2008

man.. those are some great pics.....:thumbup: you aussie's have some beautiful country....

tknife · Mar 17, 2008

Those are great pics man, excellent scenery! I had no idea you had redwoods down there, very cool.

baldtaco-II · Mar 17, 2008

I could mill about on that Otway Fly all day and not be bored. I can't see battalions of garishly clad tourists. Ideal.

TemplarKnight21c · Mar 17, 2008

That walkway was awesome. Is that the only one, or are there more?

xinel · Mar 17, 2008

We have a walkway in Western Australia in Walpole. Its pretty cool but not as good as this one.

southern bigfoot · Mar 17, 2008

kgd said:
Great sites and excellent pictures! 40oC is tough to walk in, how did you keep so much water on hand - even in the car?

We had a 12 litre container in the boot and 4 x 1.25 litre bottles in the car. When we went for the walk thru the Pound, camelbak + bottles in pack + bottles in hand.

Am now looking at the camelbak 6 litre Omega Beast or something like that.

Made me think a lot about water.

Not hard to take great pics when that kind of country is laid out before you.

Thanks for all your comments.

Cheers

Jules

apsilon · Mar 17, 2008

TemplarKnight21c said:
That walkway was awesome. Is that the only one, or are there more?

There's something like 600m of walkway like that plus a tower that's about 45m high. It's short but so worth the admission. I particularly enjoyed the cantaliver arm. It moved a *lot*. Was like being on a boat. I think there's 3 similar walks in the world, all in Australia. That one in VIC, the one in WA xinel mentioned and I can't recall where the third is.

southern bigfoot · Mar 19, 2008

It was very funny a couple of older gentlemen who climbed to the top of the 45 metre tower reached the top sucking wind and then complained there were no seats to rest on before they made there way down. I'm mid 30's sorta fit, was it that much of a climb, Apsilon?
The other one is in tassie called the Tahune Airwalk.

The views are pretty good however you get there.

Sorry about the phone photos, at the time the good camera was in the hands of the good photographer!!

apsilon · Mar 19, 2008

Not much of a climb at all (mid 30s here also and not as fit as I should be) but I heard the same sorts of comments from a few people. Worst part was getting down while other people were coming up. They could've made the spiral stairs just a little wider. I had my pack on as I had my DSLR, lenses and accessories and ran into a couple with baby carriers on their backs and that was a tight fit.

southern bigfoot · Mar 20, 2008

Yeah, stupid really. Made it more dangerous than it needed to be, a few people were nervous passing on the outside, I was just giving them the hand rail.