My first few days in Australia were a time of reunions. Firstly, I met up again with Tamara a friend who coincidentally lives in an area of Sydney called Stanmore, same as the area of London I live in. The following day I managed to track down a university friend of mine, Sophie. Then just a few days later in Melbourne, I met up with Nick, whom I had not seen since we were in Vietnam years ago.
Sydney's most famous landmarks are the Opera house and the bridge. They are nice, though to be honest I think that more fuss is made of them than they necessarily warrant.
The Great Ocean Road between Melbourne and Adelaide has some lovely scenery. To call it the Great Ocean Road is a bit of a misnomer though. It is a pleasant road with a great bit in the middle. The Twelve Apostles and London Bridge are some of the famously attractive coastal formations.
Kangaroo Island was named after the Kangaroos there. The type of Kangaroo on Kangaroo Island, is the Kangaroo Island Kangaroo, which is too many Kangaroos in one sentence.
Seals are another funky furry resident of Kangaroo Island and when I was there, there were lots of cute young pups.
The main reason I went though was to see Koalas. They are often quite difficult to see, though on Kangaroo Island they are present in near epidemic proportions. I saw several and almost tripped over a couple of Tamar Wallabies resting in the shade (photo 1). One of the Koalas was a cute youngster, just a few months old (photos 5-7).
The Remarkable Rocks are certainly nice and some of them appear to have taken the form of a petrified falcon (photo 2).
Much of the drive across the Eyre highway to Western Australia is referred to as the Nullarbor, though in reality it is only a small part that is the real Nullarbor plain. The rest is a slowly changing landscape of Eucalypts and bushes in a an arid environment. The Great Australian Bight, provided respite from the road as well as affording lovely views along the cliffs that span an incredible eight hundred kilometres and are about eighty metres high for most of that distance.
Norseman, is the barely significant town at the end of the road. If it were anywhere else, it wouldn't have been worth stopping, as it was, we had drive thousands of kilometres, so it made a place to at least stretch our legs and look around for a bit. Strangely Norseman was founded by a horse, but in Australia that sort of thing happens. The most picturesque thing in what is really a tin-pot town, are the corrugated camels (photos 1&2). So, after a bit of shopping and a look around off we went to Kalgoorlie, in the heart of the Western Australian Goldfields (photos 3&4). The Salt Flat between the two towns made a nice place to stop the night and watch the sunrise the following morning (photos 5&6).
In the southwest of Australia, near Esperance, Cape Le Grand National Park has some stunningly beautiful beaches and it gave me the opportunity to properly exercise my four wheel drive amongst the pearl white sand dunes.
On the beaches there, there are wallabies that are not too shy, no doubt because of the amount of human traffic coming through.
The Karri Trees (or red tingles) are some of the largest tress on the planet, some have a girth of sixteen metres (bigger than any sumo wrestler) and are up to around sixty metres tall. The walkway is at forty metres and the canopy is till a long way up. Some of these huge trees are being eaten away by termites, which makes standing room for a number of people inside them (which was convenient to hide from the rain).
The Pinnacles is an area with peculiar stone formations north of Perth on Australia's West Coast. Looking across them, they seem a bit like termite mounds, though some seem to be more sculpted. One I thought looks a bit like a strange alien monkey-god in his throne. Might sound like madness, but look at the picture and tell me I'm wrong (photo 5).
Monkey Mia has famously friendly dolphins that come in to the shallows to scrounge a bit of food.
Further up the West Coast, Shell Beach is what it says, a beach of shells. It doesn't seem too odd until you are on it and it exfoliates the feet well. The shells deeper down, with all the pressure and time, make a strange, light weight interesting brick.
Stromatolites have got to be one of peoples favourite things. They may be very little, not really move, not really do very much visibly at all. Yet, these things that were reckoned to be extinct five hundred million years ago are the reason we are all here now. These inhaled the noxious gases that made up the earth's atmosphere and exhaled oxygen. Over hundreds of millions of years, they made this planet capable of supporting life as we know it.
In many parts of Australia, the Termite mounds are often large and are interesting to see in an otherwise repetitive landscape.
Karijini National Park is home to some truly dramatic chasms, picturesque pools and gorgeous gorges.
Broome is famous for its sunsets the one I witnessed there was certainly spectacular and most bizarrely was the fact that just after the sun dipped over the horizon, the sky got brighter for a few minutes, then darkened again.
Near Derby are the Boab trees, bulbous oddly ugly, yet simultaneously attractive. The most famous of these is the Aboriginal Prison Tree that is claimed to have been used to imprison aboriginal slaves.
The Bungle Bungles or Purnululu National Park is an area of outstanding natural beauty. The rock formations are uniquely lovely and evocative at times of either beehives or molten lava.
The Echidna Chasm within the park is very nice and I managed to spot this little frog in the dark. Knowing Australia, I was probably lucky to escape with my life before the thing poisoned me, stabbed me or did something else equally grizzly, because everything in Australia can kill you somehow.
The domes are what the Bungle Bungles are most famous for. In amongst them is a natural amphitheatre carved into a cliff face (photo 9).
Kakadu National Park is Australia's largest and is home to various distinct natural environments, a range of wildlife and also many areas of aboriginal cultural significance.
The rock formations in parts are very special.
The river is not a safe place for a swim, being home to a very large number of estuarine (saltwater) crocodiles, of which I only saw one, though not close enough to get a decent picture. Again, the rocks are interestingly formed and one bit looks like Robocop's head.
The swamp area is home to a diverse range of flowers, birdlife, spiders and insects.
From the air, Kakadu is very flat, bordered on one side by the Arnhemland plateau. I took to the air to see the Jim Jim (photo 4) and Twin Falls (photo 5), that were still unreachable by road.
Ubirr is a fascinating site as it has numerous interesting rock paintings, many of which are thousands of years old. It is also a very popular location for sunset viewing. The majority of the people though were watching the sun set over the plains, the interesting bit was to the side where the rocks were changing colour as the hues of the sky varied.
Edith falls (photo 1) is a great spot for a swim in picturesque setting, as are the various pools of the Litchfield National Park (photo 2).
The Devil's Marbles are a nice brief stop-off on the long road between Katherine and Alice Springs. The rocks are particularly picturesque at sunrise.
Uluru, known for some time as Ayer's Rock is a very special place. It is a holy site to the aboriginal people of the area and there are numerous sacred sites around the rock. It is claimed to be the world's largest monolith, though how that is defined I don't know and it seems a little spurious. There is something special about the place that even a cynic can find almost inspiring. More than this are the interesting formations, rock paintings and so forth.
Uluru is famous for its changing colours, the rock does seem to radiate its own personality, all the pictures below were taken on the same day and most within the space of a couple of hours around sunset. The sunrise near the rock was undramatic when I was there, though from afar, it looked very special (photo 10).
Whilst the rock was changing colours in front the sunset behind looked almost as though the sky was on fire.
My first view of Kata Tjuta (also known as the Olgas) was during the sunrise near Uluru, where they could be seen in the distance (photo 1). The formations at Kata Tjuta are larger and more varied than Uluru, one of them seems a bit like a cartoon submarine (photo 5).
Mount McConnell is near Uluru and apparently sometimes confused for The Rock.
The Breakaways are some nice looking rocks near Coober Pedy. The sunrise there was pleasant if not dramatic.
Coober Pedy is a bit of a strange place. The town has been built on the opal mining industry and as a result, there are holes everywhere, so one really has to watch ones step.
The Coober Pedy churches are underground, tunnelled into the rock. Some of them are quite plain, others like the Serbian church are quite splendidly carved, though unassuming on the surface (photos 3-7).
The museum in Coober Pedy is a former mine / home. The homes in many parts of town are still underground and there are underground hotels too.
I was reliably informed that Port Douglas is one of the better jumping off points for viewing the Great Barrier Reef. Better than the tacky sprawl of Cairns, just down the coast. Whilst there I got to do some nice dives and also chill out on an island, as well as meeting up with Shantel a friend of mine who is a marine biologist there. The Daintree rainforest is reckoned to be the world's oldest and is just up the road (photo 4)
The town of 1770 is the only one I know that has a number for a name. When I got there, it coincided with the founding festivities, which included dancing from various groups, including aboriginals (photos 1&2) and a re-enactment of James Cook landing on the beach May 23rd 1770 (photos 3-5). It began quite orderly but in no time the throng of onlookers were crowding Cookie and his comrades (photo 5).
Fraser Island is the largest sand island in the world. Much of it is covered in rainforest and apparently there is enough fresh water under it to fill Sydney harbour four times over. Seventy-five mile beach along one side is a highway, with the associated regulations, more than this, it is not seventy-five miles long at all (photos 1 & 2).
On the island are a number of picturesque lakes, the most attractive is Lake McKenzie (photos 3-5). Lake Wabby has a nice sand bank alongside it (photos 6-8) and Lake Allom is home to a number of long-necked turtles (photo 9).
Along the highway / eastern beach, there are several picturesque spots. The Maheno, a wreck, lapped by the surf (photos 10-12) and the pinnacles, with its coloured sand (photos 13 & 14) are particularly photogenic. Apparently the jellyfish washed up along the shore are not dangerous (photo 15), though if that is true it would probably be the only animal that wasn't.
Nimbin is a hangover from the sixties and the hippy generation. Many of the shops have psychedelic signage (photo 1) and there is a hemp museum, hemp bar and weed is freely available. There were constantly people asking me whether I wanted to buy some weed from them. Amusingly the majority of this business takes place in the parade between the courthouse and the police station. The map of the locality is very pretty, though entirely useless (photo 2). In the estate agents window I looked at the description of several properties. There was generally a reference to a good yield or good crop from the garden. I have a suspicion that it was not referring to a vegetable garden.
Canberra is the capital of Australia, stuck part way between the two major cities, Sydney and Melbourne. It is a planned city. Designed to be a showpiece in the same vein as Brasilia, Washington D.C. or Islamabad. The parliament building is peculiar in so far as that it sits on and in a hill. The architect decided that the hill on which it sits would also look good sitting on it, so the roof is turfed (photos 1 & 2). The senate chamber takes its red colour from the House of Lords in London (photo 3). The lower house is green, like the House of Commons, though in both cases the shades are supposed to reflect native Australian colours and native materials were used in abundance.
The Aboriginal community has an embassy in front of the old parliament building, petitioning for a greater voice in Australian affairs. The people there seemed to be taking it easy when I saw them though.
The Australian War Memorial is a memorial museum (photos 1 & 3). There are statues of Australian leaders and soldiers, the favourite probably being that of Simpson and his donkey. A man who famously would rescue the wounded during the Gallipoli campaign (photo 2). The War Memorial is at the end of Anzac parade, which is lined with memorials to the various expeditions Australia has been involved in and the branches that make up Australia's armed forces (photo 4).
Roadtrains are part of driving around outback Australia. These are up to fifty-six metres long in some places, hauling anything from cattle to cars across the country. Sometimes a roadtrain heading in the other direction would suck so much air as it shot past, the car would veer and the doors felt like they were about to be pulled off. Overtaking them can be tricky, especially when taking a photo at the same time.
There are numerous big things around Australia. The Big Croc (photo 1), Big Gala (photo 2), Big Merino (photo 3), Big Prawn (photo 4) , Big Pineapple (photo 5) all pale in fame next to the Big Banana of Coff's Harbour (photo 6). All of these obscenely outsized reproductions of local produce or fauna. The only contradiction being the whale, which was actually much smaller than life size (photo 7).
The Ettamogah pub near Nambour is the most photographed pub in Australia. Based on a series of cartoons, supposedly representing Australian life. I did not find them the slightest bit funny.
This Open-Air Cathedral is the only one I am aware of. I first thought it just to be a novelty, but on visiting the place, I did find there to be a sense of serenity and peace to the place, artfully constructed with minimal materials.
In one area, the eucalypts trunks are unable to stand up to the fierce winds, though they seem to have little problem growing pushed on their side.
There are also just random things one sees driving around, like the bottle tree (photo 1), tyre tree (photo 2) or just a pointless traffic light (photo 3). The roadhouses which provide succour on the long roads can also be a bit of an event in themselves. One in Balladonia houses a reasonable museum (with parts of the Skylab satellite which crashed nearby as part of its display), in the middle of nowhere and another at Wycliffe Well claims to be the UFO centre of Australia and is appropriately painted with aliens etc. (photos 4&5).
Just by driving around Australia, one can see some of its endemic fauna, blue tongues (photos 1&2), dingoes (photos 3&4), monitor lizards (photo 5), snakes (photo ), galas (photo 7), mohawked pigeons (photo 8), flying foxes (photo 9), spiders and insects (photos 10-12). The majority of Australian mammals though are nocturnal, which makes getting pictures of wallabies and kangaroos more difficult to spot and photograph. They are also notoriously shy and flighty (photo 14).
Looking at roadkill, is the easiest way to see many wild animals. It is also a constant them of driving around outback Australia.
Cars would also often get trashed on the roads and then left there. The first photo was from a quite recent event, when a cow and a car collided to dramatic effect. Other cars get buried on impact and some just seem to be left to die slowly.
Signs are one of the distractions on what can be a rather monotonous bit of road. I have an idea to have books published along the side of the road in outback Australia, if they are interesting enough, they should educate the people and keep them awake too. Some people make their own signs, like the cattle rancher who has obviously lost some of his cows to traffic (photo 8).
My trusty four wheel drive took me twenty four thousand kilometres around Australia. Through different environments, past bushfires, through sand, scrub, rocks and river, it did me proud.
The roads in outback Australia are invariably long with little traffic. That made it all the stranger when we came across a Zebra crossing in the middle of nowhere. It is actually the end of an emergency runway for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, where the road has additional markings and is a bit wider and totally straight, in order to accept their aircraft (photo 1).
Incredibly, this is the same creek, facing one way from a bridge over a creek and then the other. The aridity starts almost immediately.
I don't know what this was supposed to be a picture of, but I kind of like the way it turned out anyway.
