Pat Gower Photography Blog

Third Blog From Australia

Our third week in Australia began with the longest drive of the trip, 500km, from Halls Gap to Adelaide. The drive was made even longer by 17 construction zones, although watching a small steam roller flatten the asphalt on a pipeline cut for 10 minutes was quite exciting.

Upon reaching Adelaide we were once again roughing it Kathy style by staying in the Intercontinental Hotel for two nights. (Goodbye to all of my Holiday Inn points) We rushed down to the river to catch the sunset but clouds at the horizon spoiled any opportunities to get a good photo. The best shot of the day is below.

Twilight Rower

The next morning we headed to the botanic gardens and the zoo. The botanic gardens was advertising their Amazon Water Lilly exhibit. We expected to see multiple flowers in bloom and were a little surprised to see only one flower.

The only Amazon Lily Bloom

Sharing the lily pond with the Amazon flower were several nice Blue Lotus of Egypt flowers.

The Adelaide Zoo was the most expensive zoo I have ever visited. $31.50 a person, ouch. It had a wonderful panda exhibit but the rest of the zoo was disappointing. The next morning there was an article in the paper and several editorial comments complaining about the zoo’s cost. Here are a few panda pictures.

Wang Wang, the male, on the prowl

Funi, the female, enjoying some bamboo

Funi

A White Cheeked Gibbons baby playing while mom supervises.

We enjoyed several good meals in Adelaide included one of the best Thai meals I have ever eaten. Haigh chocolates are pretty good too.

After a day and a half in Adelaide we headed to Uluru (Ayers Rock) hoping to capture that iconic shot of a red glowing Uluru against the twilight blue sky. But we didn’t see the sun for almost three days.

Here is a sunset picture from our first night there.

Uluru with no sunshine

The Voyages Resort at Yulara owns all of the hotels outside of the park. This was the first time and I hope last time we spent $240 to stay in a room with bunk beds.

Since it was raining the next morning we took a few pictures of Uluru up close to capture the water falls.

Water cascading down Uluru

There are black stains where the water runs down Uluru

There are quite a few holes in Uluru

After a non-eventful rainy sunrise we headed off to Kings Canyon. During our three hours drive I saw my first road kill camel. We stopped briefly at Curtin Springs in the outback for a short break and a little gasoline. I paid the equivalent of $9/gallon; another first for me.

Since it was cloudy the temperatures were low enough for us to take the Canyon Rim Walk to the Garden of Eden. Here are a few pictures from our walk.

The canyon walls were once sand dunes. Kathy was willing to pause to let the camera man capture a picture after a challenging climb to the rim.

A view from the Rim Walk

Picture of the ripples

Trees and grasses took root in the smallest crevices

The white bark on these trees provided a nice contrast to the red rocks

At the back of the canyon was the Garden of Eden. An area that captures water so it was rich with plant life and quite a few birds.

Swimming hole at the Garden of Eden

We had to climb back up to the rim to make our way out of the canyon

There are a coupe of people in the middle of this picture to help provide scale to these frozen dunes.

We enjoyed our room and dinner at the Kings Canyon resort. Considering that we were in an isolated part of the outback prices were reasonable and the food was great.

The next morning we headed back to Yulara hoping to capture the setting sun on Uluru and to make the Valley of the Winds Walk at Kata Tjuta. (formerly the Olgas) Here are some pictures from our hike.


The rocks are quite different from Kings Canyon. These look like rounded river rocks cemented together by red sand.

A view from one of the lookouts on our 7.4km walk

Kathy is sitting on the trail below hoping I don't fall from the steep incline I climbed to take this shot.

There are plants growing on the top of some of the Kata Tjuta Dunes

The sun actually came out our last morning in Yulara. It was nice to see blue sky.

Uluru Sunrise

Sun on the Kata Tjuta Dunes. Our Valley of the Winds hike took us into the middle of these dunes.

After our sunrise pictures we headed to the airport for our flight to Cairns. We spent one night in Cairns before catching the ferry to Fitzroy Island. We enjoyed our two plus days on Fitzroy Island, a small Barrier Reef island that is primarily a national park. (Our eighth national park to visit) The snorkeling was pretty good just off of the beach. We also completed four hikes on the island, the most difficult being the summit hike. There was supposed to be a 360 degree view from the summit. But after a two hour challenging hike we learned the platform had been destroyed in rains a few weeks ago.