It’s a Sunday, the end of our second week in Alice Springs, and the beginning of our third. I’ve been remiss in not writing down to record everything which has happened since we left Launceston nearly four weeks ago.

In Melbourne we stayed at the Quality Inn at Mickleham, it’s comfortable, close to Hilary and has a large area to securely park the camper trailer. We spent a lot of time at Hilary’s place, enjoying our time with Isla and Lauren. We took the train into Melbourne CBD so Jennifer could buy some walking sticks and even more importantly have brunch with James. We sat inside at Mr Tucks with the traffic noise beyond the windows and busy pedestrians passed us by.

We had a wonderful afternoon and evening at Oshi and James place, readying the penthouse entertaining area for their engagement party. The function proceeded very well, with Oshi’s parents, Anoop and Richa, my sister Coral with Buzz, Hilary, Michael and the girls, and lots of friends.

We set off from the motel, early in the morning, driving to Ararat for lunch, then to Dimboola. It was overcast and the weather looked threatening as we pulled into the caravan park located next to the Wimmera River. We had to camp that evening. However bad the clouds appeared, there was only a tiny sprinkling of rain. After we arrived and set up, we walked to the Dimboola Hotel for dinner. A charming, classic early 20th century pub which had been built by the Ballarat Brewing Company. A couple now run the hotel. Their small three year old daughter jogged through the lounge, first with wet pants, then no pants at all. Goodness knows where were her trackies were.

From Dimboola, we drove to Adelaide, our destination was the Levi Caravan park to the north east of the CBD. This is a very pleasant caravan park, with easy bus access to the centre of town. The sites are spacious and the park was quiet at night. At the rear of the park, just past the original colonial residence which still remains, is a gate and a short, downward flight of steps to the Torrens river trail. The day after we arrived Jennifer caught a bus while I walked into town. It’s a scenic, easy trail, with cyclists, walkers and dog walkers all enjoying it. River gums and wattles, skirt the rivulet. A painter or two, were doing art at some locations as it really is very pretty. I walked past the zoo, then into town, meeting Jennifer outside the South Australian Gallery. As we climbed the steps to the main entrance, another couple asked if we were going to the Impressionist exhibition. We stated that we were, then they offered us their tickets, as the husband explained, they had been given tickets as part of their accomodation but did not have t8me enough to go. We thanked them, and were soon in the exhibition after having our free but valid tickets scanned at the doorway to the show.

The exhibition is made up of numerous works brought exclusively to Adelaide from the Musee d’Orsay in Paris. The mild numbers of visitors made it possible to enjoy each work without being jostled but in fact to spend as leisurely times as we wanted to admire them. What struck me most was the interest of these artists in the lives and residences and locales of ordinary people. Bar maids clutching pitchers of ale, a farmers wife sitting in an orchard, another painter pausing before his own work, and dark silhouettes of travellers along a river side with Notre Dame in the distance and the grey brown buildings of early industrial Paris. Well worth visiting and for once the catalogue is well done with very faithful colourings in the reproductions. The views of yachts languid in the water, of a well to do man with his pockets thrust into the silvery suit we sort, and the beautiful paintings of flowers, marked by delicacy and an almost translucent light.

The next day was beautiful, a dusting of high clouds, we had breakfast at the caravan park, then walked to the visitor parking area by the front gate. At nine o’clock we met Innes who was our driver and guide for our tour to the Adelaide hills and Hahndorf. Top wine and food tours. We sat in a very comfortable Mercedes van and headed out of town. We stopped to take in some great views, then visited wineries. Not very many. We had a wine and chocolate adventure at Hahndorf Hills winery. Three small serves of wine, three matching serves of speciality chocolate which put the old deep fried mars bar to shame. The wine tends to German varietals and are excellent, very different to our Tasmanian wines. We visited the Berenberg showroom at their factory. I always thought berenberg jams were imported but they are not, there are all made in the Adelaide Hills. We bought some jars of pickle we had not seen before. We had a late lunch at another winery, overlooking their paddocks of grape vines, just turning red and yellow with the hastening of autumn. We spent some time walking and shopping in Hahndorf itself. It is pretty touristy even mid week but on the weekends, well I hate to imagine how busy it would be.

Hahndorf is named after Dirk Hahn, he was the ship captain who brought out the poor Lutheran settlers destined for this part of the Adelaide hills. He negotiated for their land and for very favourable borrowings on their behalf to begin their farming. Then it was mainly cereals, grains and only later with the introduction of heavy corporate, highly mechanised farming which made hilly country unsuitable for crops, that they turned to wine, berries and fruit trees. The women of the township would carry their produce, the thirty five kilometres in the market in Adelaide, beginning at three am. Rather than walk back unhindered, they each carried a stone. These stones were used to build their Lutheran church in Hahndorf and it stands in the main street to this day.

We bought some tasty delicacy’s including mushroom pate, crostini and local cheeses in Hahndorf as well as a miniature illustrated beer mug which Jennifer thinks shows an appalling lack of taste. At least I did not buy a cuckoo clock!

We visited a now fixed water wheel in a park on the outskirts of town. It was once the powerhouse for grinding most of the wheat and maize. It’s now a silent but very large feature of a park, with families enjoying picnics and strolls by the river than once drove the wheel

The next day, I again walked into the CBD, and again with the intention of meeting Jennifer for an adventure. I had visited Adelaide Zoo, twenty years ago, and had fond memories of my visit. Well, we were going there together today. The large animals are mostly at a second free range zoo, while only the big cats are still housed here. Most of the animals here at the city zoo, are smaller and happy to inhabit a smaller area. The pandas were in good form, one lolling about on a rock and the other munching bamboo and peering over at us beyond the fence. We visited a sleepy red panda, and anything but sleepy Koala, a sea lion, and a Sumatran tiger sitting then skulking through the jungle. It was a very enjoyable day, but the high point was without doubt the pandas.

The next day we packed up and began our drive north in earnest. The weather reports were pretty awful which only doubled our intentions to be one our way. We drove though heavy rain, through port Augusta, then onto Woomera. Woomera is the worlds largest testing area for rocketry. It’s operations commenced in the late 1940s after being surveyed by the legendary Len Beadell of outback road building fame. The town was established in early 1950. It’s in a time warp. Neatly laid out streets, a mid20thC cinema. And in the Centre a host of rockets. There is a mixture of military and research rockets to look at. Some of them, more than capable of putting a satellite in orbit. The place has an odd affect. Two Olympic size swimming pools. Multiple mess rooms. All this plenty. And Maralinga , not far away. Before the nuclear tests conducted here, rangers went out to warn indigenous people who lived there that they had to move. Well sometimes, this did not happen and Aboriginal people were lethally exposed to radiation and fall out. This is hardly mentioned on the displays for tourists to read and so many would never realise what had happened here in the 1960s, not once but several times. It’s a pity the technology is talked about but not its effects.

Even before we arrived in Woomera, great storm clouds were pursuing us. I phoned ahead, upgrading our camp site to a cabin. I’m glad we did, overnight it poured. A lightning strike took out a nearby service stations electronics. A third of the annual rainfall in one night.

The next day, after exploring Woomera, we carried on north to Coober Pedy. We had booked an underground motel. Yep, a motel room, dug out of the rock. Our next door neighbours were noisy, till Jennifer asked them to be quiet. Middle aged bikers heading up to Katherine for the cross Tanami motorbike ride. After that we fell asleep. Very wary of banging our heads. Limestone is much less forgiving then a timber wall.

In the morning we detoured to the Breakaways, taking some wonderful photographs of the fascinating geology hereabouts.

Then we carried on to Erldunda, at the beginning of the Lassiter Highway. This was out take off spot to Yulara. We had booked a campsite at Yulara, and were delighted with the size of it. It was a large site, double in area compared to many other camping grounds in NT. We were on the edge of the camp, and looked over orange red hills spotted with spinifex mounds, buffet and scrappy acacias. The next morning we drove to Uluru and because we have both been carrying injuries decided to walk sections of the rock. The first thing that impressed me was how bloody big it is. It’s really enormous. It actually extends down another six kilometres. It like Kuta Juta nearby, is the rock formed by compression under ancient seas then twisted upwards by the movements of the Australian plate. It has many interesting features, it’s not just smooth rock. There are areas of cracking, caves, water carved dry waterfalls, creeks, mutated rock such as the brain. The brain looks consulted and ridged, just like a brain in fact. We spent a few hours taking photos and taking in the sights. In the evening we booked the Uluru field of lights. There was a chance to take sunset shots of Uluru, a wonderful dinner under the stars, an introduction to southern astronomy then a concluding walk through the field of lights. This vast display of LED lights was very beautiful, it’s colours changing from blue to red to pink. Well worth seeing.

Next morning it was off to Alice Springs. We went via the Ernest Giles track. This is a reasonably rough road but it was worth it to get away from the caravans sprawled along the Stuart. We met a herd of camels who watched us for a while before heading off north into the scrub.

We arrived in Alice mid afternoon on Friday and spent the weekend getting cleaned up. On Monday I drove to Yuelamu and Jen flew to Lake Nash.

In the afternoons after work I drive to explore some rock formations near the community. The orange stone and ghost gums wee beautiful in the fading light particular poised against an azure sky. There was hardly any wind or dust until passing vehicles threw up the brown cloud over and beyond the road. I watched for snakes in the undergrowth and kept good track of my bearings. It does not pay to get lost here. Jason McBride is the painter I asked to do a portrait of a rainbow bee- eater, actually two. The first is finished, it’s stunningly beautiful, absolutely faithful colours. The other will come, probably in August. It’s a portrait of the same bird, but in flight. Not a demure gazing over a contoured shoulder but a sudden leaping and wrenching into the air, one static and the other dynamic to the n-Th degree.

On Thursday afternoon I drove back along the Tanami Highway to Alice Springs. Friday was spent at the office reading and attending an afternoon meeting. This one was on midwifery care in the centre. A great chance to discuss this vital aspect of women’s care.

On the weekend, a long weekend thanks to our Queen, we booked a stay at Hale Homestead. It’s about 140km from Alice, and not far from Arltunga. We arrived Saturday morning, and met Sophie and her new baby, Cooper. Sophie showed us to a powered site. Under the gum trees, beneath the birds that nested and hunted and rested in its branches. I have a a bird guide beside me so I will try and work out what they were. Well I know the silly wagtail. There was a plump butcher bird. And the guide is very helpful here, a pair of masked wood swallows ( I think!). Quiet, relaxing, a great place to chill out. We had dinner at the camping kitchen, Sophie, Lynne ( her Mum, who still looks younger than me!) and staff cooked up hamburgers and with salads, chips and onions. Yummy. We chatted to Katie who helps look after David, Sophie’s older boy. After wards we tried to use our telescope but it was somewhat frustrating. Ditto Saturday night, but I have worked out what was wrong. Principally I could not control it due to a software conflict between two rival programs on my iPad. Well now that sorted. None the less, I had terrific views of Saturn and Jupiter, including four of its moons.

We slept very soundly in the camper trailer and on the next day, after breakfast, we drove to Arltunga. This is one of the most interesting places in the Centre. It’s full of the tragic stories of remote mining, of disease and of enormous effort for inadequate return. This gold mining area was so lacking in water, new technology using air blowers to waft away the lighter rock and dust and leave the gold, was developed. We visited the government works where there has been restoration work done on the buildings left behind. It was eerie and beautiful walking around this little township. Supporting this community was a big reason for the establishment of Alice Springs. We spent the afternoon relaxing and reading back at the station before a wonderful roast dinner. I talked with Colin who is from Launceston and very much involved in supporting men in the community. It’s called “ men connect” and it’s a venue for men to make acquaintances and maybe friends in the launceston region. It’s great meeting people.

The next morning after a chat with Sophie we headed back to Alice Springs, this time by the shorter route into the east McDonnell’s. What tremendous views!

Last week I was at Finke. Gee, it was a busy week. Jennifer was at Willowra.

I flew back on Friday afternoon by Cessna. The geology and views between Finke and Alice are magnificent. Some areas are very like the painted desert near Kulgera, with a rich palette of golds and whites falling away from the mesas, the well forested Finke River, the ancient through which the river has passed for forty million years. A spectacular flight to end the week.

This weekend, we have been relaxing and went out for breakfast this morning after a short five kilometres walk around the Todd river. Next week I’m driving to Kings Canyon while Jennifer is going to Ali Curung.