Australasia – Page 3

All About Alice

May 4, 2017

To say that the more than 500,000 square miles of the Northern Territory of Australia is sparsely settled is a bit of an understatement. Evenly distributed, each inhabitant would have more than 2 square miles to roam without encountering another human. Alice Springs, the third largest town in the Northern Territory, is the definition of remote. With about 27,000 inhabitants, Alice is situated roughly in Australia’s geographic center. It is the largest settlement between Darwin to the north and Adelaide to the south, each approximately equidistant at about 1,500 km (930 miles) away.

As part of the Red Centre (see my previous blog On the Road to Alice), this country is rich with mountain ranges, waterholes and gorges, which create a variety of natural habitats. The following photos summarize a series of day hikes I took from Alice, where my brother and I stayed for a week. All hikes except Trephina Gorge were in the West McDonnell Ranges to the West of Alice, easily the most scenic landscape in the Red Centre.

A Sturt Desert Rose at Ormsiton Gorge along section 8 of the Larapinta Track. At 223 km, the Larapinta is one of the most famous long distance tracks in Australia. On that day we were only on it a short distance before diverging onto the Ormiston Pound Walk loop.

Ormiston Gorge Water Hole. After the recent rains, we needed to wade across the stream in crotch-high water to complete the Pound Loop walk.

Panorama Trail view at Trephina Gorge Nature Park, the East McDonnell Ranges, in the early morning. Hot days necessitated early starts.

A remarkable Ghost Gum at Trephina Gorge Nature Park (composite photo)

Our 4wd Mitsubishi Pajero at Palm Valley trail-head, Finke Gorge National Park. A “serious” 4 wheel drive road of about 20 km had to be navigated to reach the trail-heads for our two hikes that day.

Clifford at Kalarranga Lookout, Finke Gorge

Morning vista from Kalarranga Lookout, Finke Gorge

A Ghost Gum along the Mpulunkinya Trail at Finke Gorge National Park

The Vagabond Hiker celebrating his birthday on a boulder amongst the Red Cabbage Palms at Finke Gorge National Park

Early morning shot of the West McDonnell Ranges from the road to Standley Chasm, starting point of section 4 of the Larapinta Track

The ridge to Brinkley Bluff summit on section 4 of the Larapinta Track

The view South from Brinkley Bluff summit. 360 degree views were on offer from this local high point on the Larapinta Track. It is a popular dry camping site halfway through this section of the track, though I encountered only one other group that day.

The Vagabond Hiker on the Brinkley Bluff ridge-line high above the surrounding land

Despite the title of this blog, it would be remiss of me not to at least mention in passing our 2,700 km road trip odyssey from Alice back to Sydney for our departure flights from Australia. Most of those three days were naturally consumed by driving and sleeping (fortunately, not at the same time!) but we did manage two early morning walks. Below is one photo taken from each. Quite a contrast to the Red Centre.

Pastoral view from the southern flanks of Mt Remarkable, Melrose, South Australia

Morning reflections on the Murrumbidgee, Hay, New South Wales (photo courtesy of Clifford). A major tributary of the Murray, the Murrumbidgee is the 2nd longest river in Australia.

The Road to Alice

April 26, 2017

The road trip my brother and I made from Eden, New South Wales to Alice Springs in the Northern Territories covered more than 3,600 km (2,200 miles) and took seven days. With this much time to drive into and appreciate the Outback, we were able to stop and enjoy some of the most interesting sights on the way, including kayaking the Kings Billabong along the Murray River in northern Victoria, going on a sunrise hike to Wilpena Pound in Flinders National Park in South Australia, seeing Uluru (Ayers Rock) and the Kata Tjuta rock formations in the rain, and hiking the iconic Kings Canyon National Park rim walk (also in the rain!) in the Northern Territories. The photos below highlight some of these adventures.

Clifford and a rotted tree creating an interesting sculpture at the Kings Billabong, off of the Murray River in northern Victoria

Pelicans on the Kings Billabong. Billabongs are isolated ponds left behind after a river changes course. This one was engineered into a reservoir in the late 1800’s to irrigate the fields in the nearby arid lands.

Wilpena Pound in the early morning light, Flinders Ranges National Park, South Australia. Pounds, a term I had not previously heard, are relatively flat areas surrounded by mountains.

The Vagabond Hiker at Arkaroo Rock, Flinders National Park. Still recovering from a several day bout of gout.

A Mallee Ringneck Parrot at Pound Gap in Flinders

An atmospheric Kata Tjuta overlook panorama, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. Kata Tjuta means ‘many heads’ in the local Aboriginal language.

A misty landscape at Kata Tjuta’s Valley of the Winds

A rare cascade at Kata Tjuta. Unlike the sandstone of Uluru, the rock formations at Kata Tjuta are conglomerate.

Uluru (fka Ayers Rock), the 2nd largest monolith in the world

The Kitchen Cave, Uluru. The site is sacred to the local Aboriginals who do not want visitors to climb The Rock. Due to rains, it was officially closed anyway the day we were there.

Rarely seen Uluru cascades. The rainiest weather I have experienced in two months in Australia was in the desert in the Northern Territories.

The Uluru base track at the point we turned back. Although it was flooded out, the trail had not yet been closed.

A geologist enjoying the rock strata at Kings Canyon National Park

A Ring Tailed Dragon showing his camouflage along the path at Kings Canyon creek

Kings Canyon from the trail up to the rim

Kings Canyon rock textures and vista from along the Watarrka Rim Walk

Perhaps a Mains Frog at Kings Canyon brought out by the rain

The Garden of Eden, Kings Canyon, featuring relict cycads. Note the rain drops on the pool.

A temporary pool on Kings Canyon South rim. It rained almost continuously for more than two hours while we were hiking along the rim.

Not quail, these are Spinifex Pigeons at Kings Canyon

Panorama of Kings Canyon South Wall vista

Next week my travels will take me to Vancouver Island in Canada. I will do one more short post from my latest hiking photos of the Alice Springs area, possibly later this week during a 2,700 km road trip odyssey back to Sydney. Meanwhile,

Happy trails,

The Vagabond Hiker

Sydney to Eden, New South Wales

April 21, 2017

The charms of Sydney were utterly lost on me. A delayed flight, a long wait in the rain for the shuttle bus, an (unsuccessful) attempt to charge me 250% of the agreed price for the car rental, massive rush-hour traffic jams, even more heavy rain as we crawled out of the metropolis, all combined to reinforce my prior decision to avoid the number one tourist destination in Oz.

Fortunately, things looked up almost immediately. A visit to The National Botanical Gardens in Canberra provided a more fitting introduction to mainland Australia. The several photos below give a good representation of what my brother and I saw; although most of the flowers were not in bloom since it was Austral autumn, the green oasis set amid the park-like city of Canberra deserved more time than we could spare from our itinerary.

A late-blooming Aster at the National Botanical Garden in Canberra

A Bottle Tree at the NationalA Grivellea blooming at the National Botanic Garden

A Grivellea blooming at the National Botanic Garden

The same Grivellea up close with a pollinating bee

Crimson Rosella at the National Botanical Garden

Leaving Canberra after a tasty and filling Lebanese lunch, we continued South and West to Jindabyne, which provided a convenient base for the ascent of Mount Kosciuszko. The “climb” was in fact nothing more than an overly-long, though scenic, walk up a dirt track to the summit. With an early start from Charlotte Pass, we avoided most of the crowds that start from the top of the ski lift from Thredbo later in the morning, an even less-deserving manner to claim the high point in Australia. Indeed, a far more interesting summit was the nearby Mount Townsend, accessed from a use trail off the Main Ranges Track, faint at times, to the second highest point in Australia, at 2,209 meters, a mere 19 meters lower than its far more famous neighbor. The Vagabond Hiker managed to miss the use trail altogether and consequently ended up bushwhacking up a nearby mountain completely unnecessary to accomplishing the objective. Whereas several hundred or more ascend Kossie daily, only five of us summitted Mt. Townsend that day. Fortunately, a couple was on the summit when I arrived, so I was spared the indignity of having to take a selfie (my brother skipped this optional extension).

The Vagabond Hiker on Mt. Townsend summit, Mt. Kosciuzsko National Park. Kossie is the round blob over my shoulder.

Most of our time in New South Wales was spent on the far south coast, also known as the Sapphire Coast. My brother and I based our day trips from an AirBnB cottage in the small coastal town of Eden, set on the picturesque Twofold Bay and boasting (at least according to its tourist literature) the third deepest natural harbor in the southern hemisphere. Coastal hikes in Eden and in Ben Boyd National Park directly to the south, a visit to a local wild animal park and nature reserve, and a cardio hike up nearby Mt. Imlay provided highlights for our week in Eden.