Fossils in the Flinders - June 1, 2012

After our second night in the Flinders, we packed up and left the campground.  On our way out we passed a group of adorable baby emus.  Instead of getting off the road like their dad, they all plopped down in a circle and started eating whatever was on the road.

This day was about finding some interesting fossils for Ryan.  Unfortunately, Ryan just asked the visitor centre "So, where are the fossils?" Not realizing that there were super-cool ones (that he wanted to see), and some less-cool ones (where the guy told us to go).  None the wiser, off we went 40km north of the campsite in pursuit of fossils.  As Ryan figured out the discrepancy while looking at his newly-bought geological map of the area, we enjoyed the beautiful scenery.

When we arrived at the Geologic Trail, Ryan confirmed his suspicions that the Ediacaran fossils  were 7km past the point our campervan was able to go.  We decided to drive as far as we could, and tossed up the idea of walking the rest of the way.  On the way though, we passed lots of really fun things.  First, we saw two massive wedge-tailed eagles just off the side of the road.  I've never seen brown ones before (the ones at work are much older and therefore black), and I've never gotten so close.

Next, Ryan gave us a geology lesson and took us on a field trip through a river bed.  I will definitely fail that exam since I was too busy taking pictures.

On that field trip we also found some golden orb spiders and a massive flock of cockatoos, so there was a little something for everyone.

Finally we made it to the end of our road at an obstacle called "Slippery Dip".  As you can imagine, we really weren't eager to take our campervan up and over it since it had been raining (though I swear it looked worse in person).

We pulled over to assess the situation, and I noticed a middle-aged guy checking out the nearby cliffs.  He was super scruffy, but had a hand lens (geology tool) around his neck.  I went up to him, and the conversation went a little like this:

Me: Anything interesting over there?

Him: Nah, nothing special.

Me: Are you a geologist?

Him: No, just interested in that stuff.

Me: Neat.  We're travelling with a geologist.  Are you going to see the fossils?

Him: Yeah

Me: We were hoping to, but I don't think we'll get this beast (point to van) over Slippery Dip.

Him: No, maybe not.

Me: Are you going there and back, or driving the loop?

Him: The loop.

Me: We were gonna walk it, but it's starting to rain now.

Him: How far is it?

Me: Only about 7km.

Him: Let me go talk to my wife, maybe we can give you a ride and drop you back here after.

Me: Oh wow, that's awfully nice of you!

Yeah...I did that.  Meanwhile, the rest of the gang got out of the campervan and walked over to me.  I quickly explained what was going on as the guy came back and said "Oh, I didn't realize there were 4 of you…."  Ryan ran over and quickly told him that we didn't need a ride, but thanks for the offer.  Ryan doesn't get mad at me often, but boy was he mad at me for this!  I guess that's where Wasylyks and Pippys are different.  I thought the guy would have loved to take a geologist with him to explain the fossils!  I certainly didn't care if I went, but Ryan was way to embarrassed and taken by surprise to go.  Oh well!

Since that didn't really work out, we went to see the stromatolites instead.  Once Ryan explained them, they were kind of interesting.  Turns out there are still some living in Shark Bay, Western Australia, so I'm sure we'll go see them before we move back to Canada.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I could care less about geology stuff, but boy do I get to see some beautiful places because of it!

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful.  We stopped in Hawker for some traditional Aussie meat pies and sauce (a.k.a. ketchup), then made our way to Burra to find a campsite for the night.  It was dark when we got there, and when we pulled in, a sketchy guy left his drum fire to come and talk to us.  I was freaking out, but Ryan told me to roll down my window anyways.  Turns out he just wanted to tell us there weren't any powered sites left, so then we promptly left.  Thank goodness!

We drove an extra hour to get to the Clare campsite, ordered some pizza from a chicken shop, bought some treats from the grocery store while we were waiting, and had a delightful evening of board games and wine.  This is the life!

Adventure in the Flinders Ranges - May 30-31, 2012

Early the next morning, Sue and Bryce woke up to strange bird calls.  After I told them that it was the Laughing Kookaburra they could hear, they both eagerly went out with their cameras to see the iconic bird while Ryan and I continued our much needed sleep recovery from work.  Disaster struck not long after when I was trying to cook breakfast and I started a small stove fire and set off the smoke alarm repeatedly, but nothing I couldn't handle! 

We were on the road by 9am for a beautiful drive north.  After a few missed turns, we ended up detouring through the Clare Valley (another main wine region of South Australia) which was gorgeous at this time of year.  I never expected Australia to have fall colours like we do in Canada, but some trees here do change colours and the wine vines definitely change.  After lunch in Peterborough, Sue took over the driving for a few hours before our arrival in Wilpena at 3:30pm.  Wilpena is the "town" in the Flinders Ranges National Park, but it's basically just a resort and an amazing campground.  After gathering information from the visitor centre, we drove to our campsite which was full of emus.  Their poop is really disgusting, but actually quite hilarious!

Eager to walk around a bit, we went for a nice walk until dark.  We didn't get very far, but we had fun playing around with cameras and watching out for birds and kangaroos.

The walk back went something like this:

Bryce: Did you hear that?  It sounded like a chicken.

Steph: Hmm, I heard it too...sounds like a goat.

Ryan or Bryce: Yeah! Let's go look!

Steph (sarcastically): Right, like there will be goats in the Outback.

One of us:  Look, there's a goat!

Sure enough, there were goats on the cliffs nearby.  Proved me wrong!

That evening for dinner we had a delicious grilled kangaroo salad with shiraz sauce, pears, and walnuts - so yummy!  We also finally got around to cracking open some wine and board games, and spent the evening as it was meant to be spent.

After much debate the night before, we decided to do the Mount Ohlssen Bagge hike.  It was meant to be a 4 hour, 6km, mountain trail, and it didn't disappoint.  For the length of the hike, we got some beautiful views of Wilpena Pound and a good amount of exercise.  We sort of had a photo contest going on, so I'm going to try and pick what I thought were everyone's best shots of the day (while still showing a variety of subjects).

Bryce - Part of the walk was victim to a forest fire, so the burnt branches and new undergrowth were beautiful.

Ryan - Damn him and his wonderful polarizer lens!  We walked to the top of these cliffs.

Sue  - Just before the bad weather came in, we had this beautiful view from half way up.

Steph - I loved the colours and the interesting plants on the path.

Overall the hike was super fun and an excellent way to see the area, though we didn't see any of the birds or lizards that we were hoping for.  Our timing was great because just as we got to the bottom it started to rain.

After the hike we spent a little while just relaxing.  Sue and I did some watercolour painting, while Bryce and Ryan did their own thing.  We played a round of SmallWorlds with wine before cooking mouth-watering lamb meatballs with zucchini "pasta" and mint pesto, followed by more games, wine, and chocolate.

Food, Wine, Family, and Friends - May 28-29, 2012

After spending 12 days at work, Ryan and I were really looking forward to our break last week because it meant the arrival of Ryan's mom Susan and his brother Bryce.  One year into our stay in Australia, it was amazing to see some more friendly faces.  Susan and Bryce had already spent a week in Australia, so they were over their jet lag and settled in pretty well.  I arrived home first at 6pm, and spent the next hour catching up and waiting for Ryan to get home.  By 7:30pm when he arrived, we were all peering out the window eagerly watching for his taxi.  A few hugs later, we promptly headed to Justin and Kelsey's for dinner.

As usual, dinner with them was amazing.  They always outdo themselves with the food, wine, and company, and this time was no exception.  Picture an entrée of pork belly and crackling, a main of Spanish paella filled with mussels, shrimp, pork, veggies, and a million other things, and homemade macaroons for dessert.  All of this accompanied by various wines from South Australia.  How are we so lucky to have friends like this?!  Content, we all stumbled home at 11:30pm.

The next morning I was happy to be back in my own kitchen and got right into cooking a delicious breakfast of blueberry muffins, beef fillets, eggs, grilled veggies, and fresh fruit.  (For those of you aware of our new food philosophy, breakfast is by far the best improvement!)  I also managed to get a short skype chat in with my family, and quickly packed for our camping adventure.  Susan and Bryce were interested in seeing the Australian Outback, so we decided to take them to the Flinders Ranges.  They're about a 6 hour drive north of Adelaide, through 2 wine regions, and we hadn't been there before, so we thought it would be the perfect 5-day trip.

The adventure began with picking up our MASSIVE campervan at 10:30am. 

This beast had 3 double beds, 2 eating areas, tons of storage space, a 3 burner stove, a bathroom (that technically had a shower), and even had a kitchen sink.  It was so complicated that we had to watch a half hour video before we could leave the rental office.  The only downside was that it was a standard, not automatic, which made for an interesting start to the trip.  I opted to drive since I get quite carsick, but I felt sorry for the passengers in the back.  It was pretty scary to drive it through town to the grocery store and back to the house, but once we got it packed up and got on the highway it wasn't that bad. 

Since we didn't leave town until about 2:30 we decided to spend the night in the Barossa Valley, only one hour north of Adelaide.  Lucky for us it is a wonderful wine region!  We stopped first at Charles Melton - a winery known for red wine.  It was beautiful with a nice hot fireplace and two quiet Dalmatians, but Ryan and Susan fell in love with their delicious wines.  They each ended up buying a Grains of Paradise 2009 Shiraz, which was the most expensive wine we've ever bought.  I of course didn't try it since I was the driver, but I still managed to back us into a ditch on the way out.  Without hitting any vines (though it was too close for comfort), and with lots of guidance, I eventually got us unstuck.

Next, we drove 500m down the road to Rockfords.  I had been there before with Justin, but it was a first for Ryan.  It's a nice old place, also with a fireplace, and of course the wine there is also awesome.

Collectively we managed to buy a case of delicious wine and a few mustards and jams, and then we were on our way to our campsite in Nuriootpa.  Our campsite was nothing fancy, but we were excited to set up the van, crack open the wine, and play some board games.  After a delicious stir-fry for dinner though, everyone was so exhausted and wined-out that we all gladly went to bed early.

The Red Centre - Alice Springs

On our first morning in Alice Springs we had a relaxing buffet breakfast, then quickly went to pick up some groceries to make lunch before we met Leanna and Daniel for our local tour of the area at 11am.  It was great to see Leanna (friend from my last synchro team) for the second time while in Australia.

Our first stop of the day was Ellery Creek Big Hole, about an hour west of Alice in the Macdonnell mountain ranges.  I had been really excited about going for a swim in the outback, until we got in the water and it was freezing cold!  Despite that I was determined, so off we went through the cliffs for a beautiful private swim.  Our timing was perfect because once we got out the sky got cloudy and about 15 people showed up.

My first international double ballet leg!  Thanks Leanna!

Next we went to Simpson Gap, which looked similar to Ellery Creek Big Hole but had almost no water.

In the later afternoon we walked up a hill in Alice near Daniel's house in search of kangaroos.  We had no luck with that which was unusual, but the views were beautiful.

Our last stop was to feed the rock wallabies at 5pm.  They were wild, but quite tame and knew they would always get fed at sunset so they come off the rocks and entertain the tourists.  Quite a few of them had joeys in their pouches, so we got a few glimpses of the babies.

Not feeling too adventurous, we decided to eat another amazing dinner at the hotel because we knew it would be great.  Not surprisingly we had another early night, but our excuse was that Daniel had planned a sunrise hike for us.

The alarm went off at 5am the next morning and we headed down for breakfast at 5:30.  Unfortunately we misread the time and it didn't open until 6am.  We also forgot our key in our room, and the hike got cancelled because of lightning.  We waited for breakfast to open since we were already awake, then went back to bed until 10am in hopes that a second try at the day would be more successful.

Ryan and I did some window shopping at the Todd Street pedestrian mall, and I think now we both have a better understanding and appreciation for some aboriginal art.  I always love going to art galleries with Ryan because it's fun to compare our favourite pieces and see what we both like.  After a much needed cup of tea on a rainy day we met Leanna and Daniel for lunch at a nice pub (that Daniel used to work at...oops).

Our indoor entertainment for the afternoon was the little local reptile museum, which was far cooler than we expected it to be.  We got up close to a massive crocodile, then we got kisses from a blue-tongued skink, hugs from a python, and had fun with Jessie the bearded dragon.

It really did give kisses, but no matter how hard I tried, or how many kisses it gave Ryan, I couldn't get the blue tongue in the picture.

We said goodbye to Leanna (who is visiting us in Adelaide again this week) and went back to the hotel for another glorious dinner.  We knew the menu back to front by this time, so this was the ultimate meal.  In yet another food coma we watched a documentary about the Big Bang theory, and they kept showing clips from the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, which was both neat and nostalgic.

For our last buffet breakfast I was really looking forward to indulging in some pancakes, but as it turned out they only had those on weekends.  I was very disappointed and had to gorge on chocolate mini muffins instead.  What a shame!

Before our flight we went back to the Todd Street mall to see some stores that were closed the day before, then headed to the airport to conclude a wonderful trip to Australia's Red Centre.

The Red Centre - King's Canyon

The next day started out slow, but somehow we packed up and made it to the Mount Connor lookout for breakfast a little over an hour away.  The lookout was okay, but the exciting thing was the dead camel we saw on the side of the road.  We were on the lookout for a wild one and keeping our fingers crossed that it would be alive.

After a long, uneventful drive, we managed to arrive at King's Canyon at 11am, which was unfortunately the peak heat of the day.  You'd think that we would have figured that out by now, but because of that we were unable to do the supposedly spectacular, 4 hour ridge walk around the canyon.  It was 34 degrees when we arrived, and we definitely didn't have enough water carrying capacity to do a 4 hour hike in the heat.  Instead, we did the lazy tourist thing and booked a hotel room at the resort and I bird watched from our balcony.  Later on we went to the campground to cook our salmon and veggies as a delicious "pre-dinner".

We were still hungry after that and could hardly wait until 6:00 when the restaurant opened for dinner.  As usual, we were the first and only ones in the restaurant for awhile.  Our second dinner was delicious (scallop salad and stuffed chicken), and we were early to bed again.  One night of partying was enough for us!

After a good night seep we packed up so we could do our short King's Creek walk by 9am.  Unfortunately, when we got to the trail I realized I had left my camera at the restaurant the night before, so we had to go back to get it.  UsuallyI would think that all signs were telling us not to do the hike, but we saw a wild dingo on our way to the hike for the third time so it was all worth it!

The hike was really easy and we regretted not planning more time for the longer ridge walk, but oh well.  The gorge was beautiful and I spent some time looking for a Mistletoe Bird without any luck.

I was "off the path" trying to track down the bird in the mistletoe bush with no luck.  Ryan found it hilarious.

Back in the car, we started our very long drive to Alice Springs.  The only noteworthy part of the drive was the wild camel we saw!  You've gotta love that just like in Canada the best way to spot wildlife is by watching for other cars that are pulled over on the side of the road!

We didn't get to Alice until 4pm that afternoon, so we checked right into our beautiful hotel, The Chiefly Alice Springs Resort.  It was actually a lot like a resort with palm trees and a pool with a (closed) swim-up bar, so we decided to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant.  Man, it was good!  We had braised rabbit and pumpkin (aka, squash) soup for our appetizers, then a kangaroo fillet and macadamia crusted barramundi (fish) on ratatouille, and we shared panacotta and ice cream for dessert.  My mouth is watering again just thinking about it!

After dinner we re-entered our food comas, so I fell asleep during whatever movie Ryan was watching.

The Red Centre - Sounds of Silence Dinner

Out of all of our plans for the trip, we were looking forward to our Sounds of Silence dinner the most.  It was a fancy dinner in the outback, located between Uluru and the Olgas, including sunset canapés and a dinner under the stars.

We were picked up by bus from our campground, and then went to all of the other hotels to pick up the rest of the group.  When we arrived at the site (only 5 minutes down the road), we were herded out to this small patio and served sparkling wine and yummy snacks.  During that time there was a man playing the digiridoo, and everyone was taking pictures of the setting sun.  We were a but disappointed because this part was very touristy and annoying, but we made the best of it and enjoyed our wine and music.

Next we were called to the dining area where we were seated in tables of 10.  At first we were upset because we were hoping to enjoy the dinner without making small talk, but it turned out to be so much fun.  At our table we had 4 French Canadians, one Dutch guy, 2 Scots, us, and only one real Australian.  I got to practice my French a little bit, and had some fun with the old Dutch guy sitting next to me.  We were definitely the rowdiest table of the night, and we didn't stop laughing the entire time.  Instead of the typical small talk of "where are you from, what do you do, why are you in Australia…." it was more about everyone's recent travel adventures.

In amongst the wine was also a lot of delicious food.  This should be prefaced by saying that Ryan and I have completely changed our diets and are very strict about what we eat now, but we had decided that this entire night was a freebie. (Brett, if you're reading this, stop now!)  With that in mind, we almost cried when we ate the white dinner rolls with butter while we were waiting for dinner!  Dinner was served buffet style, and I had some of everything: crocodile caesar salad, kangaroo satay, lamb, barramundi (fish), etc.  Dessert was to die for, including a deadly brownie and cheesecake combo, carrot cake, bread and butter pudding, wattleseed crisp, and more.  It was the ultimate in indulgence!  Oh, and then I finished off with another bread roll….

After dinner and dessert they turned off all of the lights/candles and a guy did a star talk, pointing out different constellations and telling Australian astrology stories.  They had a telescope set up as well, so later we went and looked at Mars and even saw the rings around Saturn.  It was the perfect way to end off a memorable night.  In the end, the experience was more touristy than we were expecting, but it really was amazing.

The bus ride home was quite rowdy and a bit woozy, but surprisingly camping after that much wine wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  It must have been the food coma we were in!

The Red Centre - Ayers Rock and The Olgas

Last week Ryan and I hopped on a plane and headed to the Alice Springs area for 6 nights. 

Point "A" on the map is Ayers Rock.

My friend Leanna (who was on my synchro team in Waterloo) lives there with her boyfriend, and I wanted to visit her before she leaves in a few months.  We spent the first 3 days driving in the desert seeing Ayers Rock and King's Canyon, then Leanna took us around Alice Springs for the last few days.

Our flight to Alice was about an hour late, so we arrived around 1pm.  We got groceries and bought a cooler as quickly as we could, and then left town.  Unfortunately the map of Alice that we were using had North pointing down on the map, so my navigator (I won't mention any names) took us the wrong direction out of town.  Luckily there was a sign telling us that Darwin was 1600km away, so we quickly got the hint.  By about 3pm we were finally heading out of Alice Springs in the correct direction - towards Uluru/Ayers Rock.

Despite the speed limit of 130km/h, we still managed to get further delayed by giving a boost to some French girls stranded in an old car at a gas station.  The highlight of the long drive, though, was some graffiti on the back of a road sign that said "hello banana nose".  Seriously, it kept us entertained for days!  As it got dark Ryan took over the driving, and instead of watching out for the usual kangaroos, we really had to watch out for the cows on the road.    460km later we finally arrived at our campsite and set up our tent in the dark under the watchful eyes of dozens of rabbits.

The next morning we slept in until 7am (delightful, considering how early we get up at work), and had a delicious barbeque breakfast of lamb sausages and grilled veggies.  We also made our picnic lunch and got to the national park by 10am.  Ayers Rock is massive, and it of course dominates the landscape in the flat desert.  The morning light was perfect, and we enjoyed a few photo stops as we approached it.  It's obviously much harder to photograph from up close.

We were surprised how lush the landscape was in the area.  In many places along the drive there were actually large trees and shrubs, which didn't seem right.  As it turns out, the harshest Outback is actually near where I work.  Go figure!

After a quick stop at the visitor centre we did the short walk to the watering hole on the edge of Ayers Rock, since to walk around the entire thing would have taken 4.5 hours in the 36 degree heat.  The closer you get to the rock, the more massive it seems and the more you can see that it just goes straight up.  I honestly don't know how people climb it (even though you're not supposed to since it's a sacred site).

The heart-shaped erosion in the side of the rock entertained us for awhile, but none of the crazy pictures of me blowing "heart kisses" turned out very well.

Next we drove a little ways down the road to see The Olgas.

Ryan was surprised that they weren't sandstone like Ayers Rock, so then I learned about clasts, brecchia, and the matrix (not the movie kind).  We took another short walk in between two of the cones through a gorge, which was very hard to photograph but also very cool.  The mounds were going straight up on either side of us, and we were in a lush passageway between them.

We managed to time our walk in between two tour busses, so we had a peaceful moment to do some admiring and bird watching without a crowd.

I'm going to do a separate post later about the critters we saw on the trip, but this was a major highlight so I'm going to add it here.  We saw a Thorny Devil lizard!  It was just hanging out on the road, so of course I pulled over and we chased it off of the road so we could take pictures.  He's super hard to see, which obviously means he's doing his job.  He also wasn't very big either - only about the size of your hand.

We had a bit of spare time that afternoon, so we briefly checked out the facilities that the resort had to offer, including a supermarket, shopping plaza, and camels.  Oh, didn't I mention that Australia has one of the last remaining wild camel populations in the world?  No?  Supposedly the camels here are of such pure lineage that we export them overseas to the Middle East!  Crazy, right?!  Anyways, I got it in my head that I wanted to ride one, but unfortunately all of the camels were out on a long trek so I couldn't.  Instead we got to play with the babies that were left behind!

I think Ryan really misses his dog, because this camel got a whole lotta love from him.  Just as we were leaving, all of the riding camels came back so we got to hang out with them for a bit too.

After playing with the camels, we went back to the campsite to wash up for our Sounds of Silence dinner under the stars.  To be continued!

Coober Pedy Opal Festival - April 7, 2012

On Easter Saturday a few people from my team at work were asked to help out at the Coober Pedy Opal Festival.   This event was partially sponsored by OzMinerals, so 12 of us got on a mini bus and drove 2 hours from site to Coober Pedy to represent the company.

Now for some fun facts about the town!  80% of all opals worldwide come from Coober Pedy, and I believe they're lighter in colour than the other opals.  Also, parts of the town are built underground and many of the houses are built into the sides of hills.  Other than that, it is a very rough and basic town in the middle of the desert.

Our day started with a stop at the local pizza shop, which is exciting because that's the main craving people get when they work on a mine site.  While my pizza was cooking I ducked into the underground opal shop/museum.

By "underground" they mean "in a hill."

After lunch I also quickly checked out one of the underground hotels, which seemed like a major scam.  Some of the rooms were actually underground, but the rest of it just had fake rock walls.

To kick off the festivities we watched the Easter/Opal Festival parade.  It started with a guy running and carrying a fist-sized opal that they had found in the past 12 months.  This is an annual tradition.  Next came a wide variety of floats, including a mermaid/under the sea one and a tribute to Michael Jackson float.

Our crew was giving the kids on the floats OzMinerals balloons, which they seemed to enjoy.

Many kids in the parade were throwing chocolate eggs, so I got my Easter treats after all!

After the parade we went to the OzMinerals Oval (yes, we sponsored that too) where the festivities were taking place.  Throughout the day we helped with many of the competitions.  My favourite one of the day (that we didn't help with) was the kids boxcar races.  I cannot explain how cute they all were, so here are some pictures.

The kid on the far right decorated his boxcar as a redback spider - legs and all! 

Why wasn't I this cute as a child?!  I certainly don't think I ever had a matching hat with my mom.  She's almost as cute as my sister, and that's saying a lot!

Later we helped with some regular races, a tug of war, a throwing contest, and the "sack of opals" competitions.  The group had to hold the sack straight out in front of them for as long as possible.  It was super fun to watch and cheer them on, and it was much harder than you would expect.

The guy second from the left won.  You should have seen their biceps trembling!

I know it looks like we're playing soccer, but we're actually retrieving/marking distances as the competitors throw "sticks of dynamite" at us.  I don't look nearly as silly as I usually do when I run!

The final event of the day was a hilarious obstacle course, and the winners were crowned Opal King and Queen.

After a great day of "helping" a local community, we rode home exhausted from all of the fun.  Is there really any better way to spend a day at work?