Straddie fun

 

A few weeks ago Corinne and I flew back to Qld for a week of fun and Beach at Stradbroke island, off the Qld coast.  We were spending the week there with our good friends, Anthony and Olivia and Shannon and Myles.  We were all going to a wedding at the end of the week on the Island – Liv and Magnus.

We rented a great 3 bedroom house right near the beach with verandas and decks and lots of space to express ourselves through alcohol. 

So, what do you think we did all week.  Have a look at the pics below.  I went through my photos and suddenly realised that the new smart phones (i-phones vs Android phones) really amused us, a lot.  Though there are no pics of Anthony on his phone, rest assured he spent a lot of time with his phone.  Liv is probably over represented in the pics too, oh well.

I too spent  lot of time on my phone, a Brilliant Android, Motorola Defy.  However since i took these photos, there are no pics of me, just in case anyone complains.

Myles, thrilled with his over priced, hyped up, easily smashed I-phone 4.  They do have some good qualities i am told.  Shannon – Pissed, or just bad pic.

Corinne looking very sexy, Android Defy in her hand, an amazingly good phone running the most popular mobile operating system in the world.

Liv, using Downy’s armoured I-phone, very happy with herself.

Myles, holding up his I-phone, probably trying to get it to work, either that or taking a photo.

Myles, with Liv in the background, concentrating on her I-phone

OMG, liv again, staring at the I-phone.

Myles, concerned for Liv’s mental health after spending 3 days straight staring at the I-phone

Liv, happy or maybe crazy, way too much I-phone time

Myles, looking at the I-phone, hoping someone will ring him, or maybe buying a useless app, that scans barcodes and then doesn’t tell you how much they are and where you can’t buy them.

Liv, once more.

Straddie fun

Owen Springs Camping Adventure

A few weeks back Corinne and I finally went camping at Owen Springs Reserve.  We have tried twice before but have always been rained out and the reserve has been closed.  We planned to go again and the weather still wasn’t on our side but we managed it. 

We ended up asking a few workmates to come with us and before we new it we had 2 cars, 6 people, swags galore, a lot of food and a river of Grog.  We were luckily able to borrow the work Crusier which was very helpful as Owen springs is 4WD, especially when it rains all the time.

So we packed Amo, Steph, Kazza, Chris, Corinne and I into the cars and headed off into the rain towards a very grey looking Owen Springs. 

We explored the Reserve which is home to the first station in central Australia.  We looked at the old house ruins and some fencing and cattle yards.  All fairly run down and old (cause its old). 

We drove through the Lawrence gorge which the dry Hugh river runs through.  We drove back and forth for quite a while looking for a good spot to park the esky.  Eventually with the help of a semi metaphysical urge from Kazza we got bogged in the deep river sand.  We dropped the pressure on the tyres and debogged easily.  A few hundred metres down the river and a lot of deep sound, we found our campsite.  The site was in an island in the river bed and was high up and in more deep sand under some cool trees.

We managed to set up our 4 tents and the beer tent and we got underway, drinking. 

The afternoon and night were long and drink filled.  We managed some afternoon gorging, some dinner of burgers and a lot more drinks.  We also built a huge bonfire (not a national park) and burnt a lot of good dry wood.

We all had a brilliant night with steph winning the prize for the longest time before first urination – well done steph.  Chris climbed a big tree and drank his Jack Daniels up there.  Amo, small, well spoken Brit, drank her whole bottle of Vodka, what a trooper. 

Next day of course it was raining so we packed up, a little quietly and drove back to Alice for a Burger King run – essential after a heavy night.

Owen Springs, a huge reserve west of Alice Springs

3 gorgeous girls in front of the very old house ruins.

The beer tent, early in the day, nicely setup with esky and chairs.

The camp site, tents, cars and lots of sand

The beer tent, like Oktoberfest but with less people and not in Munich.

The general surrounds were quite pleasant and very private.

A gorgeous sun set which we all flocked to briefly between drinks.

The fire, soon to get much bigger

A bunch of Sheilas in front of the fire, getting hot, and Chris at the end, looking a bit strange, possibly at the end of the bladder holding competition.

The fire getting big. 

Owen Springs Camping Adventure

Chain of Ponds Walk–The forgotten Video

I uploaded a small video of a particularly nice pond on our walk near Trephina Gorge.  Have a look at it.  Its always interesting to see the water moving and hear the wind blowing.  A Truly beautiful spot.

Chain of Ponds Walk–The forgotten Video

Trephina Gorge 3–The Bluffs

After we finished our walk through the Chain of Ponds Gorge we packed up our campsite and drove towards Trephina Gorge.  The country changed and became even more beautiful.  We drove past and checked out what is supposed to be the largest Ghost gum in central Australia.  We started seeing more water, small creeks and rivers which we had to cross.  We crossed a particularly nice, river bed lined with river red gums, lush green grass and was flowing with crystal clear water.  We hoped we could at least come and swim in the river or camp near it.

About 1 km down the road we found the Bluffs campsite.  The site is right on the same creek we had driven through (Trephina Creek) and we found a site which was about a metre from the edge of the river bed.  We setup camp alone in the whole site and placed our chairs so we could watch the courting budgies in the red gums and listen to the quiet trickle of crystal clear water. 

We actually spent most of our time lying in the stream and have a few cold bevvies.  Very relaxing and cooling on a hot day.  We checked out the actual Trephina gorge which was alright but unexciting compared to our gorge walk earlier that day.  Our time was spent relaxing and enjoying the peaceful serenity and beauty of the area. 

The bluffs campsite at Trephina gorge would definitely rate as a top 3 campsite ever.

The Bluffs, the campsite is named after, early morning

Budgies, very green

3 Spinifex pigeons

1 Spinifex pigeon, unsure, do i run or do i fly.

I think this is a long nosed water dragon

The tent next tot the river, very green, shady, relaxing

Walking along the river near Trephina Gorge

River red gum

Dipping in and out of the river in our walk along the Gorge

The clean waters at our campsite

The campsite, very idealic

Sunset, The bluffs.

Trephina Gorge 3–The Bluffs

Trephina Gorge Camping - 2

Next morning we woke up early and explored the John Hayes rock hole which was about 100 metres from our campsite.  There was a little swim involved, with little swimwear.  The water was a nice temperature, and we swam over to the other side of the gorge without any fish bites on the naughty bits.

We decided after this to do the Chain of Ponds walk whilst it was still cool and then pack up our camp and move on to the Bluffs campsite near the actual Trephina Gorge.

The chain of ponds walk is an amazingly beautiful walk that takes you up and over some ridges through dry rocky land so that you can enter a gorge system and walk through the gorge back down to the rock hole.  Once we got into the gorge the scenery changed and we were surrounded by high rocky walls peppered with caves and ghost gums growing straight out of the rock.  The large amounts of rain had filled lots of the ponds and the water was running through the gorge, though mostly only in small amounts.

As we travelled along the gorge the amount of water increased and the ponds grew larger until we started coming to small lakes that were quite deep and inviting in the already warm day.

We eventually had to climb the cliffs to get past a few large ponds and even started to come across waterfalls.

The final part of the gorge became so full of water and our track disappeared and we had to climb up out of the gorge via a wallaby track and walk over the ridges and through the very sharp spinifex back down to the rock hole and our campsite.

Young Ghost gum growing straight out of the rocks

The gorge behind Corinne, we walked back to the camp on the other side of the forge on the way back.

Corinne in front of a cave.  We looked into this cave and were unpleasantly surprised by a black footed rock wallaby that darted past and nearly ruptured our hearts from the fright.

Clear cool pond in the gorge

Fairy Martin mud nests under the cliff overhangs.  These guys are like little swallows and they migrate to the area and breed in spring.

Water falling into one of the largest ponds we came across

One of the spots we had to climb up and around the cliffs to get past the water.

Large pond

Panorama of the gorge

Looking down into the gorge from above at the start of the walk.

Trephina Gorge Camping - 2

Trephina Gorge Camping trip - 1

A few weeks ago we had a few days off.  We packed up the car and drove off into the East MacDonald Ranges straight after work at 5pm.  The East Macs are not as popular with tourists and so are a bit quieter but equally beautiful.

We were heading for Trephina Gorge which is about 80 kms from Alice.  The road was quiet and we saw very little traffic.  The birds however were all out and about and had very little road sense.  We have never had so many birds fly out in front of us and unfortunately I think we probably hit about 15-20 little fellas.  There was a huge variety of suicidal birds, like budgies, diamond doves, zebra finches and crested pigeons. 

There are 3 camp sites at Trephina and I had decided to spend our first night at John Hayes rock hole.  There was a dirt road off the highway and then a 4wd track to the rock hole.  One of the vets at work had mentioned that the track was quite rough and she was right.  This was the roughest track we have been on so far and was a combination of huge rocks, logs, holes, mud sand etc.  So it took us quite a while to get to the camp site.  When we did arrive just on dusk we found a very sad, rocky site with little there to recommend it.  You are near a waterhole but you can’t see it and there is just a lot of rock about, a lot.

We set up though and cooked up our 900 gram T-bone steak that we bought from Milner Meats in Alice.  A beautiful grass fed wopper of a steak.  In the end we had to dissect it from the bone and cut it in half a few times so we could cook it.  Delicious.

The T-bone from Millner Meats in Alice.  An amazing butcher shop, has everything and all great quality.

The campsite, what a spot

Dawn

Our campsite and Corinne just after dawn, ready to check out the rock hole.

Corinne looking cute next to a river gum

Early morning moon

Spinifex pigeon, very cool little brown pigeons.  Act like quails, running about on the ground and only flying if the have to.

Peaceful Dove

Budgie pair, courting at a nest site

Flower

Trephina Gorge Camping trip - 1