All posts tagged Landscape

Donnybrook
Growing Vines
Collie
Wave Rock

Hyden

It rained through the night last night at Margaret River and it was fairly heavy. So naturally got woken up this morning by the sound of the rain. I wasn’t going to any vineyards because I couldn’t really taste much wine (have to drive) and it was too wet anyway; so decided to drive inland a bit to see this Wave Rock near Hyden. The rock itself was a bit disappointing. It definitely looked more impressive in photos than the real thing. I guess many places are this way so no big deal. I took some pictures of it anyway.

What I actually like was the drive up. I drove through some pretty stunning countryside like Donnybrook, Collie and many other small towns. There were many fruit farms on the way and of course vineyards. I took as many pictures as I could when I could. The rain was just bucketing down throughout the day. It finally stopped by late afternoon and that’s when I went in to see Wave Rock.

I am slowly working my way to South Australia from tomorrow. I hope the Nullarbor is not as bad as many people told me.

John @ Lake Grace, W.A.

Images: 1. Donnybrook; 2. Growing Vines; 3. Collie; 4. Wave Rock
13 years ago /  Tagged: , , , , 1 0
Rainbow Valley
Self Portrait at Rainbow Valley
Sunset at Rainbow Valley

Day 29: Rainbow Valley

What can I say about Rainbow Valley? It’s OK. It must be because I have visited and seen some truly amazing rock formations and mountain ranges in the past week. Especially after Chambers Pillar yesterday. There was just not much to this place for me.

The rock is interesting enough as it looks like someone had a bite off of it. I believe it looks a bit different during the wet season or just right after. There is this rather big dried ‘lake’ looking thing in front of the rock. It would make the place come alive I think.

Waited around for the sunset, took the shots I wanted and decided to drive back to Alice as it was only under 2 hours of driving. Reason being that journey to the centre of Australia finally is over for me and I must start heading north tomorrow.

Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Kings Canyon and Chambers Pillar are definitely my favourite places so far as in history and culture concerns. There are just something magical about these places.

See you at the Top End..

John @ Alice Springs, N.T.

Images: 1. Rainbow Valley by Day; 2. Self Portrait; 3. Rainbow Valley Sunset
13 years ago /  Tagged: , , , , 0 0
Chambers Pillar
Me at Chambers Pillar
Sunset at Chambers Pillar

Day 28: Chambers Pillar

I had my first planned camp-out in the middle of nowhere last night. I went to this place called the Chambers Pillar. It is only accessible by 4WD and the road was rough. It took about 4 hours for me to get there and you can tell that you are driving toward the desert. The road is much more sandier than any other road that I’ve been on so far in the journey. This probably is the closest I get to Simpson Desert. Would love to cross it one day but definitely not attempting it ‘alone’.

From a distance, the pillar looked like a little match among all the rock formations around it. I kind of thought…. really? However, it looks totally different when you get near it. A sandstone column stands 50m tall eroded by wind and rain over millions of year.

John McDouall Stuart was the first European to see the pillar in 1870. He named the pillar after one of his sponsors, James Chambers. It is hard to even imagine anyone getting here at the first place. It was hard enough driving to it… let alone riding on a camel.

I wasn’t going to come back to Alice today. My destination today was Rainbow Valley. The road I wanted to take has one of the gates padlocked after half way in so couldn’t get passed. The only other way is to pretty much head back to Alice way and turn off just 11km outside of it. So I thought might as well come in to town to grab a coffee and also give me a little time to blog.

I will be leaving for Rainbow Valley about 2pm. The place is famous for it’s sunset. Looking forward to see what is it all about in a few hours. I will probably camp out there tonight again.

xox

John @ Alice Springs, NT

Images: 1. Chambers Pillar in Day; 2. Me at Chambers Pillars; Chambers Pillar at Dusk
13 years ago /  Tagged: , , , , , 0 1
Dunes in Kings Canyon
Me on Edge
Sun Burst
Survivor

Day 25: A Day of Rest

I’ve done nothing today… just wanted to have a rest from all the driving and hunting for photo opportunities. Instead, just wandered around the streets of Alice Springs. It was freezing this morning when I got up. I believe it was 1 degree or something like that. It warmed up as the sun went higher up in the sky.

I noticed today that one of the back tyres looking a bit flat and thought it would probably be a puncture from the rough road coming back from Kings Canyon last night. It was rough and little rocks were all over the road. I did think it would happened. Took the car into K-Mart Tyres here for a check-up and, sure thing, there was a puncture. They fixed the tyre and did a wheel alignment… hopefully this will be good for another 10000km.

In my free time today, looked at some of the places or tracks for my journey beyond Alice Springs. It looks like a lot of dirt road and no communications again. So you know I have no internet if you don’t see me posting in the coming days.

Time is 4:30pm and I am just having a rest in the car, sorting through some of the pictures taken yesterday (too many of them) and staring at the Desert Park in front of me. It is a peaceful and beautiful day in Alice indeed…

John @ Alice Springs, NT

Images: 1. Rock Domes in Kings Canyon; 2. Me Sitting on the Edge; 3. I Love Sunburst; 4. Still Surviving
13 years ago /  Tagged: , , , 0 0
Valley of the Winds
Sunset over Kata Tjuta

Day 23: Uluru and Kata Tjuta

Wow.. I love this place… it’s totally up my alley. I can easily spend a week or two here just doing all the tracks. Did one today and it’s called ‘Valley of the Winds’ in Kata Tjuta. I loved it. To be honest, I like Kata Tjuta better than Uluru because there are so much more landscape to see. It was quite spectacular. I made a little time lapse of it as well and will post it later on.

After the hike, came back to the camp ground and had a shower. Then went to supermarket bought myself some needed healthy food… lentils and chickpea salad + a punnet of cherry tomatoes. Took that to my planned destination for my last sunset shots attempt. As usual, took heaps just in case. I am going to be very busy when I get back to Sydney to process them properly. Some may even be good enough to print 🙂

Tomorrow heading to Kings Canyon and that should be just as good if not better.

Luv y’all

John @ Uluru, NT

Images: 1. Second Lookout at Valley of the Winds; 2. Sun setting behind Kata Tjuta
13 years ago /  Tagged: , , , , 0 2
Ayers Rock
The Climb

Day 22: Uluru

Finally arrived at Uluru after 3 weeks and over 10000km travelled. There is something really spiritual about this place. I first arrived at the bottom of “The Climb”. It is a climb if you dare kind of thing. I am considering it but is unlikely 🙂 The picture was just the top part of it.

Drove around the rock for a hour or so looking for all the picture taking spots. Took some during the day and at sunset. Will try again tomorrow. There are also many walks that I want to do around the rock so I guess some exercise for me tomorrow. I can see it is easy to spend days here. Hopefully I will get the pictures that I want tomorrow then I can go to Kings canyon on Thursday. Can’t wait for that one neither.

Ok folks… am gonna get some sleep now. Have to get up for some sunrise shots.

xox

John @ Uluru, NT

Images: 1. Ayers Rock; 2. The Climb
13 years ago /  Tagged: , , , 0 6

Day 17: Atherton

Today was the least distance travelled since the beginning of this trip. Came to Atherton in the morning and I ‘like’ this town. It has a little city centre, neighbouring farms and mountains; and Cairns is only about 80km away. The town apparently won the ‘Tidiest Town in Queensland” back in 2004 (whatever that really means!)

Also, spent a couple of hours at the Herberton Historic Village today. It was a nice place to travel back in time.

My journey in Queensland is about to come to an end. Next, I will be travelling towards the ‘Red’ centre. There will probably be a few more stops before crossing the border. It looks like a lot of driving is coming again….

John @ Atherton, QLD

Today’s image: Atherton Countryside
13 years ago /  Tagged: , , , , 1 3