Vacation day 9. Mount Remarkable National Park (Flinders Ranges)

After a little rest at home we went north to Finders Ranges. This is a really huge territory and we saw just a tiny peace of it, but still it’s something.

For the great joy of Reda we found this female grasshopper laying the eggs. How does she manage to dig a hole in such a hard ground?

Very cosy birds – White-browed Babblers (lat. Pomatostomus superciliosus) – always hanging out in gangs and making funny noise.

No, this is not the same noisy miner we see in the city. That’s a Yellow-throated Miner (lat. Manorina flavigula).

Reda the explorer and a very promising sign.

I’m not the expert of kangaroos, but I think that’s two different species.

Sacred Kingfisher (lot. Todiramphus sanctus).

I went to the shower at night and event winced. For a second I thought that’s a really big moth. But that’s a welcome swallow, well, occupied swallow, in this case.

Road Trip: Adelaide – Melbourne. Day 6.

We packed our stuff and went further.

When it’s time to leave the Sun is shining. Nothing new.

Our hostel with the bar that is always empty. Every time you pass, waiters looked at you with hope, that you stop for a drink.

Here we are still in Melbourne. And here we are in the middle of nowhere.

We passed a giant koala protecting little shop and a mini zoo. Though the road is between large cities, it doesn’t look like there are a lot of visitors. Everything is old and a bit abandoned.

In the afternoon we reached the Little Dessert National Park. We placed a ten in the middle of a huge camping site with only one camper van in it.

We watched kangaroos.

All sorts of birds.

Flies.

Little birds.

And bigger ones.

Later we were preparing dinner. When you don’t have a can opener you need to improvise.

Our block.

Mom with the crazy red eyes and her always hungry kid.

Did I mentioned, that we went north where it supposed to be warmer. It was really nice in the daytime. At night we sat in the tent looking our photos. And then the fun started. Something was scratching around in the dry leaves. Then something big passed just next to our tent and we heard the sound of emu.

Then we went out to enjoy the stars and to have some fun.

Our auras.

The fight of the creatures.

Our ride.

Kangaroo-Luka.

Reda and her imaginary friend.

Laurius and his bike.

Reda catching the wave.

Luka showing of in her new princess dress.

Road Trip: Adelaide – Melbourne. Day 5.

On our first day at Melbourne we were sent very far (to the other side of the Earth).
“Go back to your fuckin’ country” – cried the local tramp. As we were ignoring that he was trying to shout something in Spanish. Something new, because since then everyone was trying to talk to us in German 😀

In the morning we got up early and went for a walk in Melbourne again.

The laundry of our hostel – just on the stairs. Batman street.

We were walking with the hope to find breakfast and coffee.

The city form the hostel window looked promising.

Of course, if you were looking in the right direction.

So we went to the district of cafes and little shops. Nice windows, nit trees… It’s started to rain. Then we realized that everything opens at about 12. We had to hide from the rain in the shop of weird clothes.

While waiting we took photos of the closed shops and galleries. It’s strange, isn’t it? Everything opens early in the morning in Adelaide, and closes at 5. And they say Adelaide is more relaxed 🙂 Sleep in!

Doesn’t it remind of the Camden Town int London?

Window residents.

This dog amazed us with it’s charm!

Laurius is staring at the potential breakfast place.

Finally we got our breakfast. One moment it was raining, and then the Sun was shining.

Frankly speaking, Melbourne looked like a quite green city.

Maybe it is rain that makes everything to be green.

We tried something Asian… Something.

Local China Town. I must admit, I like China Town in Adelaide more, though, it’s much smaller. In Melbourne everything is made more for tourists.

After a walk in the city, we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Just look at those eyes!

Local bully.

We left Reda in the flower garden…

Very proud hen.

And really hilarious her chicks.

Road Trip: Adelaide – Melbourne. Day 4.

One more freezing morning came. We stayed at a free camp site full of people with kayaks. They were living in huge tens of which some served as a kindergarten. Nearly a small town.

In the morning we met three kookaburras who were demanding food from everybody. After they got a piece of raw meat they flew to the tree and were killing the meet while smashing it, like it was a lizard or other creature.

Kookaburras often take care of a nest in a company of three – the parents and the elder child.

We spent a night next to the river where we were bitten by sand flies. If you think that mosquitoes are bad, than you probably haven’t faced these creatures.

Totally Australian scenery.

Crimson Rosella. They are more orange around Adelaide. But when you come closer to Melbourne, they become red.

Australians really like horses.

That’s the proper way of travelling.

Australia!

The road was winding along the ocean.

Passing through little touristy surfing towns.

We stopped for a walk in one of them

Warning in the cafe.

Laurius is waiting for the fresh juice.

You can really feel that the closer you get to Melbourne, the more tourists there are. Road signs designated for them.

We were still worried about the weather as it was cool and rainy.

And finally we’re in Melbourne. We were lucky to get a room near the CBD, even though, it was the Melbourne Cup that day. The city was full of high-heeled and hatted ladies.

It was really busier compared to Adelaide.

It’s just more of everything. It reminds of London somehow.

 

Local contrast – old and new, demolished and new construction, tall and small.

It gets dark instantly in Australia.

The city became empty.

We found this in the window.

After wandering a while we went back to our hostel.

Where we could finally enjoy warm night.

Road Trip: Adelaide – Melbourne. Day 2.

It is not so important what happened each day of our trip, but it is easier to remember and write about it day by day.
So, the first night was… freezing (naive us – we had no idea that it can be worse).

Even avocetes were freezing in the morning.

I always wanted to have a picture with huge creatures and objects like this. Like in American movies. You can imagine how we all shouted and break when we saw this lobster!

We also stopped to take pictures of much smaller creatures.

One batman (a scientist who is interested in bats) told us about Naracoorte caves. On our way we passed few little towns with signs saying something like “The Tidiest town of Australia 1993”. But we didn’t see any person there. Actually in Australia you can feel lonely or just alone almost all the time. Not so many cars in roads. Empty little towns. No people in trails. Not so many people live in Australia. And probably most of them just stay at home and watch TV. That would be the easiest explanation about emptiness everywhere.

OK, Naracoorte. They found some fossils in caves here. Seems like giant creatures used to live in Australia many many years ago. Like this giant wombat (it’s a real size sculpture!)  – what a beast!

Claustrophobic feeling – a little cave for museum visitors.

This is one of my favourites – a stylised creature from stone age or something.

Plush koala-kangaroo and some other creature.

In the cave.

It is still pretty cool. Even honeyeater seems like feeling cold.

As soon as we stopped to take pics of this one, I didn’t see none of them: Reda, Laurius and mr. Egret.

Mount Gambier – town with the blue lake. Very very blue.

So blue!
We stayed in a nice expensive camping where we had hot shower, a little kitchen where we could get warm. And crows were making funny noise.