Postcards from Australasia #15

We headed from the crazy heat of Port Augusta (our first 43c in Aus) down the coast to Port Lincoln, a lovely little port and cooler being further south and wrapped around by the ocean. From Port Linoln we first visited the National Park of the same name, photographing this 'ephemeral' lake:

Then it was on to Conffin Bay, a wonderful park with coastal landscape, scenery and wildlife.

On our last morning before the long return trip to Adelaide and beyond we walked some of the coastal trail in Port Lincoln, spotting this Blue-breasted Fairy-wren. Port Lincoln proved a cool, relaxing spot on our journey through South Australia.

On the way up the coast popped back in to Arno Bay this time with no school party in sight we saw a Rock Parrot as the folks at the Arid Land gardens has said we might:

We broke our journey to Adelaide staying in a hotel owned by Evlis impersonator Dean Vegas, in Port Pirie, a very industrial coastal town. The next morning we visited Alligator Gorge, marvelling at one of the tumbled-down farm buildings on the entry to the gorge area. This is a common sight in rural Australia, as is decaying farm machinery, generations of vehicles left to rust, etc.

Our next stop was in Port Noarlunga, on the coast South of Adelaide. We walked along the sea front in the sweltering summer heat to the pier. There's a marine sanctuary around the reef at the end. The fishing is prohobited beyond a certain point, so there's a huge amount of fish a little way beyond this. This is a line of fishermen waiting for one to stray...

The sunsets at Port Noarlunga were stunning. I took this one with the air temperature still around 38c

The lack of wind led to a completely still sea as the sun finally set

We'd previously booked four nights in Port Noarlunga but we also looked to be missing out on the Mallee specialist birds, partly due to the extreme summer weather. However a gap with temperatures only in the 30s meant we could book a night in Keith, drive out via the Coorong, this image being one of the seasonal lakes, and then an early morning birding walk in Ngarket National Park before getting back into our air conditioned car as the temperature rose towards the 40's again, around 10am! We did see a lot of specialist birds on this day trip and it proved fun too!

The lady at the Coonawarra winery had recommended we stop at Coonalpyn to see the silo murals there, apparently the town is reviving with passing trade due to this impressive artwork.

Our final stop on our way back to Port Noarlunga was at Laratinga wetlands, a man-made but crucial habitat using reclaimed water. It's a real sanctuary for many species small and large, like this Royal Spoonbill:

After Port Noarlunga our next stop was Victor Harbour from where we visited the Cox Scrub Conservation Area, seeing amongst other species this Elegant Parrot which popped up from ground feeding to check us out. We were in another of the now frequent heatwaves and with a couple of catastrophic fire condition days we mostly laid low.

The next destination up to and including Christmas was Kangaroo Island. We had a bit of a scare the day before we travelled with one third of the island placed under an immediate evacuation order due to a mjor bushfire caused by dry lighnting. We determined however it was safe to go... The first day we visited Cape Willoughby, mostly to avoid the fire and smoke from the bushfires now raging on the North and Centre of the island and climbed Prospect Hill. The next day was the big one, a visit to Flinders Chase National Park. We arrived at Remarkable Rocks early, well ahead of anyone else and so had the place to ourselves. Helen provides scale here...

Next we visited Admiral's Arch, a resting place for the breeding New Zealand Fur Seals (a few in the image in fact), which was a stunnning if somewhat windswept spot

Then on to snake lagoon where we saw the sub-species of the Western Grey Kangaroo, the local pale Echidna, Tiger Snake, and a load of birds too!

I am super-chuffed with this image of a Southern Emu-Wren. This chap was bustling along in the undergrowth as we approached the beach, and popped out briefly in response to my whistling, magic!

On the way back from Flinders Chase we stopped at Seal By, to photograph some slumbering Australia Sealions

On Christmas Eve i enjoyed a swimming with dolphins boat trip that was a great experience and then on Christmas Day Helen and I first did part of the hike at Murray Lagoon, waking up some dozy Koalas, this one warming its hand in the sunshine, before visiting a bay for a paddle and then back to our rental house to pack, for our Boxing Day flight to West Australia!

Postcards from Australasia #14

We explored around the Geelong area and then headed towards the Great Ocean Road proper, visiting Cape Otway as one of our first stops. Helen spotted this Koala snoozing on a tree overhanging the road. I stopped to take a picture and soon a small herd of cars were parked up, everyone trying to use our car as a 'hide' to photograph the bear. Hopefully it wasn't too bothered.

The Great Ocean Road is in fact a road that goes via some stunning scenery, in particular these sections of eroded coastline, which are frankly stunning. The lookouts are well placed and being off peak season accessible. Apparently in the summer it's bumper-to-bumper. Instead we enjoyed the relative quiet and the onshore winds blowing consistently over 50/kmh!

It seems everywhere we go in Australia we're reminded of home. This inlet is called Loch Ard.

Having finished the GOR in a couple of enjoyable days driving, hiking and exploring we settled into Portland, which is a lovely spot. The staff at the visitor centre told us about a Australasian Gannet colony, we rolled with it and ended up spending a wonderful couple of hours getting to within a few metres of a small breeding colony, under the supervision of volunteers, and photographing the birds as the soared in the thermals.

We also visited the Pertified Forest (no such thing, it's actually limestone chimneys that have been through a long and complex geological process) but it is a fascinating place.

We left Victoria and headed into South Australia, stopping at the Brands Laira winery in Coonawarra first, to pay homage as well as to pick up some special stuff for Christmas. Then it was on to Adelaide where we had a rough experience in a hotel in Largs then moved quick-style to a house in a suburb to hide from the unseasonal cold and rain. After Adelaide and frankly some well needed rest on this trip, we drove up to the Flinders Ranges, stopping to refuel in Quorn, the site of a 'heritage' railway and a post-boom town if ever there was one. A nice place though with very friendly people. You get the scale of the drought though, they have huge concentrations of Galah and Corella and are using gas guns to scare the birds that are desperate for food and water. A fairly grim situation as the birds really don't have anywhere else to go. 

We stayed in Wilpena Pound, a story of human greed, ignorance and stupidity if ever there was one. It took just fifteen years for the settlers to completely degrade the land, wipe out more than half a dozen mammal species, and then everything, including almost all the 120,000 sheep they'd been raising, died in drought. Despite repeated attempts the land proved unliveable thereafter. Now the parks service and government are trying to eradicate feral sheep, goats, rabbits and foxes to give the native species some room to bouncebak, all in the teeth of an unseen-before drought. Complicated... We did however really enjoy our visit to the area, seeing lots of Australian Ringneck parrots, this one a sub-species local to this area.

Stubby-tailed Lizard

We got up early each morning to get as much done as possible before the real heat kicked-in. A stunning place to visit and explore.

This is one view of The Flinders Ranges in the Park taken just after sunrise:

The local Western Grey Kangaroos appreciate the morning sun:

Having a morning routine of their own before the heat of the day:

On one drive into some equally gobsmacking gorges we saw a small group of endangered Yellow-footed Rock Wallabies, we think this one had found a bees' nest and was taking honey hence he didn't disappear when we entered the area:

On our way out of Flinders Ranges National Park we took in a trail to some Aboriginal rock art, finding some of the naughty feral goats living on the trail:

We headed down in to Port Augusta, the view here across the plain is of the space-age power station that has replaced two coal-fired plants, this one being a large tower with an array of mirrors pointing sunlight onto a receiver to heat water to steam and generate electicity that way. I remember reading about this as a theoretical power source not so long ago....

On arrival in Port Augusta we immediately visited the Arid Land Botanical Gardens, reputed to be excellent for birding given the reliable water supply and therefore live trees and shrubs, some flowering, etc. I was absolutely chuffed to see this male Crimson Chat, one of a breeding pair, magic! Tomorrow the forecast is 43c, so we're out early to visit the gardens again in the hopes of seeing a few more arid land specialists before hiding from the sun and heat in our eco motel.