Australia Week 3 Alice Springs and Uluru

In the MacDonnell range there are a number of chasms or gorges . Often in the bottom of these, waterholes exist where wildlife and the local people gather.

They are used for swimming and other recreational activities.

These Rock Wallabies were seen just outside our motel in Alice Springs. Notice the joey in the pouch.

Alice Springs is also famous for the Flying Doctor Service as seen on television. In real life the service started operating in 1928 but came to Alice Springs in 1939. It provides a life saving service to the Outback.

Every community has to provide a runway for the aircraft to land . Only 4 were tarmac the rest may not even have lights. Car lights or lanterns being used if required at night

In the early days the outback radios were powered by pedal power. Mrs Lockwood trying her feet at an early radio in the museum.

The Alice Springs service operates witha radius of 600km reaching patients within 1.5 hours. Nurses and doctors hold clinics, transport patients, attend accidents and offer advice in the outback areas. It offers an invaluable service.

These Melons are by the side of the road on the Lassetter Highway between Alice Springs and Uluru. They look very inviting but are poisonous and not even the wildlife will eat them in this harsh environment.

This is Uluru (Ayers Rock) a famous Australian landmark.
It was handed back to the Aborigines in 1985 as they are the traditional land owners. It is believed that Aborigines have lived in the area for 20,000 years.

Many of the areas around the site are sacred and photography is not allowed within those areas.
The Aborigines manage the area along with the government preserving the culture and nature of the area.

Many of the lower caves have markings and teachings of the Aborigines.





The walk around the base is 10.6km. This allows a close up view of the many rock features that have formed within this very old rock formation.
The rock was part of a sea bed area millions of years ago.
Many of the formations have been weathered in by wind and rain. Black water streaks are left with algae where waterfalls spring to life during storms.

People travel from all over the world to get photographs of this famous landamark at sunset.


Around the base area there are many interesting and colourful birds like this Rainbow Bee Eater.

In Kings Canyon another significant rock formation in Wataka National Park close to Uluru -Perenties (large lizards as photo), Dingo's Camels were all seen.










Camels were brought into Australia by early exlorers from Afganistan to help transport goods in the late 1800's.

There are several camel farms offering tourist rides but there are also ferrel camels wandering around. There were several sets of camel remains by the roadside.

The desert area can be very barren and harsh but also green and lush especially close to water holes or after rain which often falls in there summer months in thunderstorms. Dry river beds can turn to torrents and several areas are marked on the roads as floodways with depth markers up to 2 metres.

Mrs Lockwood walking in the Outback in the MacDonnell Mountain Range. You have to keep a close look out under foot and make lots of noise and stamp your feet hard if you cannot see clearly past the undergrowth as Australia has many deadly snakes. The worlds most venomous snake the Brown Snake inhabits this central area. Mrs Lockwood was worried as one had killed a lady in Brisbane in her garden a couple of days before.

The only thing that crossed our path was this Perentie which is a form of Monitor Lizard. This one was about a metre long but they are non venomous.
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Keeping your eyes open you may also see Black Legged Rock Wallabies.
They can be seen hiding in the rocks often close to waterholes.








This one was hiding on a ledge out of the sun which can be very hot. It was 38C in the shade.

Wallabies are smaller than the red and grey kangaroos which we haven't seen apart from road kill and on Mr Lockwood's plate one night.

Alice Springs is world famous for School Of The Air. Started in 1951 to meet the needs of children living in remote areas of the Australian Outback it has become a world famous style of education.Many of the children lived on cattle stations, drill rigs, missions and remote national parks.They were so far from any schools they were not educated except by parents or they had to go to boarding schools. Often they had no friends as no other children were at the sites.Basic pedal driven radios were initially used to communicate with children who got their first chance for an hour per day to listen and talk to a teacher.Packs of books were also sent in the post which could take several weeks or even months to arrive.

Advances in technology now enable children to communicate with their teachers and other children within their class via web cams and the internet.Teachers work from a studio using interactive boards and web cams and children can respond directly.Then they still have to work at home with a tutor often a parent for at least 4 hours per day. They still receive packs of work books.

School Of the Air covers an area as shown on the map with each picture showing a child or children. There are currently about 120 children in an area 10 times the size of England and Scotland and Wales together.
Many well known celebrities and government ministers visit the school each year and broadcast to the children. The celebrities traditioanlly sign one of the studio walls since Rolf Harris first drew a picture there.

Australia Week 2 Cairns and Great Barrier Reef

Cairns is in North Queensland It has the oldest rainforest in the world. It is very hot and humid (tropical) with most of the rain falling in their summer months. A lot of house are built on stilts as they are affected by flooding. Its beaches are long sandy and perfect. In some areas the rainforest runs right down to the shoreline. Some of its beaches are inhabitated by crocodiles , box jellyfish and sharks with the warmer waters. All these are highly dangerous. So many beaches are very quiet in the less populated areas and others have protected areas to swim in.

This sign is by the Daintree River Crossing north of Cairns.
It warns of the presence of Crocodiles. A couple of days prior to us travelling on the ferry a large crocodile was seen climbing out of the water with a dog in its mouth. Its thought the croc had killed the dog by drowning it and then storing it for several days under water wedging it in the rocks before bringing it up for a meal.

The Great Barrier Reef runs along the coast of Northern Queensland. It is bery beautiful and popular with tourists. We went snorkelling for the day and had a fantastic time looking for Nemo. The colours of the coralk and fish are out of this world. We also had the opportunity to go out in a submersible to explore the reef.

This is the swimming pool outside are room in one of the resorts we stayed at in the rainforest. It was very beautiful surrounded by trees , lush plants, birds and bats. The only downside was we had to share the room with much of the wildlife including lizards, insects all scuttling up and down the walls.

The engine of this train which runs tourists up to Kuranda, an old Aboriginal rainforest village is decorated with Aboriginal art. The railway runs along a track buolt in 1886 up through dense rainforest crossing many bridges and tunnels past a deep gorge.

These Wallabies live in a field close to the captain Cook highway. So named as he explored much of Australias Eastern coast.

Aborigines are the natives of Australia and own a lot of territory in Northern Queensland which includes much of the rainforest. Some of them earn their living through tourism offering guided walks, tours teaching about their culture and how to live off the land with bush tucker and how to survive and find your way in the rainforest areas. They a unique style of art and play music with digiridoos.

Australia is quite simialr to England in a lot of ways. Tea , pies , sausages, fish and chips are all popular and there are a few pubs. They have shopping centres with the Xmas decs up already, however it is much more expensive than England especially the price of food. Woolworths is alive and well in Australia but as a food supermarket!! Due to the heat school uniforms are much more informal often shorts and t-shirts like Harewood PE kit but all wear a large brimmed hat and flip flops to keep cool.

Australia Sydney Blue Mountains

Sydney Opera House is one of the most famous buildings in the world. Set on the waters edge within the harbour area , the main town is set behind it.








Many torists come by plane, car and cruise ship. These large ships dock within the harbour area.

Other key landmarks close to the opera house include Sydney Harbour Bridge. Many tourists climb the bridge on top of the metal structure while traffic , trains and ships pass beneath them.

Other famous landmarks are Sydneys Botanical Gardens.

Not only is it a beautiful place to walk within the city with many fascinating plants but it also has a lot of birds and other wildlife. The birds often have very loud calls but can be very difficult to spot. Parrots,Sulphur White Cockatoos, Kookaburras (Australian National Bird) , Miner Birds can all be seen within the gardens. Some are quite tame.

Flying Foxbats roost here as well. They fly 50 km to local fruit areas to raid the orchards around Sydney before returning in the morning to hang from the trees. The trees are full of them in the gardens. They can be seen all day despite the fact they are nocturnal creatures.

As they land they open their wings to cool off and move up and down on the branch. They have destroyed several trees within the gardens but they are protected as in England so people have to put up with the damage they cause. Fascinating to watch they make quite a loud call.

Also with Sydeney there are many famous beaches for surfing and swimming.Bondi and Manly beach are the best known around the world.

Manly Beach is reached from ferry downtown and is popular with surfers. Many people surf when the surf is up!!

Close to Sydney about 100km there are the Blue Mountains
. They get there name from the blue haze which is often seen over the area. The main attractions within the area are the massive sandstone escarpments, waterfalls and rainforest around the Katoomba and Leura areas.

This is a popular area for Sydney people to escape to on a weekend to get out of the city. There are many short and long day hikes within the area. The rainforest is alive with the sound of birds. The Sulphur White Cockatoo is easily seen in flight and by waterfalls drinking water.

Unfortunately deliberately started bush fires have damaged large areas . This one was started 2 weeks ago but already new life has started to show.

Besides the birds there are also other creatures within the Blue Mountains. Within the rainforest there are many large brightly coloured lizards.

Not all the blue mountains are rainforest . Around Oberon the area is very simialr to Derbyshire with rolling hills, green fields and wooded areas. The difference is that Kangaroos, Koala Bears and Parrots can all be seen round here. Unfortunately many are killed on the roads. We saw at least 10 Kangaroos and 1 Koala Bear dead on the road within a very small area.

Home Again

Travelling home from San Francisco after nearly 5 weeks away. In all 3920 miles by car around mainly California with a small amount of time in Nevada and Oregon.
Enjoyed every minute of the USA.

USA Week 5 Final Week

Pumpkin Patch near San Rafael. Americans are mad about halloween the shops are stuffed full of halloween products especially costumes. Adults as well as children enjoy dressing up. We have seen lots of gardens decorated with pumpkins and witches and there is still 2 weeks to go. Farmers grow the pumpkins and then lay them out in a field for customers to walk round and choose one.There wasn't many left in this field. Many Americans now believe that Halloween is being celebrated more than Thanksgiving .










Lighthouse at Point Reyes has 300 steps down to it. They are numbered so you can count down on the way back up.













Point Reyes National Seashore Park near San Francisco. Park has many miles of beaches, bird areas, whale watching for grey whales at certian time of the year. In addition they have Northern Elephant Seals and Tule Elk.



They are noisy and can be heard from half a mile away.









Roosevelt Elk seen in Elk Meadow on the journey back south to San Francisco. Allegedly there are large herds in this area of Prairie Creek State Park but we only saw small groups. Elk can be very dangerous oif approached especially during calving or the rut which is August to October.

Crescent City is a good place to stop for the Redwood National Parks. We stopped for 3 nights but it is also the biggest Tsunami area in mainland USA. Since 1933 there have been 31 recorded Tsunamis in Crescent city the worst being in 1964 following a 9.2 earthquake in Alaska . This Tsunami resulted in 11 deaths within Crescent City and large amounts of the town being damaged. The most recent Tsunami to hit Crescent City was in March this year following the Japanese earthquake.

The Picture shows the harbour which is situated just round the corner from our hotel with large groups of sea lions which are common on this area of coast. Compare this picture with the You Tube video clip of the March 2011 Tsunami in the harbour. Mr Lockwood had a Tsunami escape plan under his pillow!!! There are signs all round the city warning you are in a Tsunami area and the visitor centre has advice leaflets on what to do in the event of an earthquake/tsunami warning . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ltLkvZYnxQ&feature=related

Turkey Vultures are frequently seen soaring high in the sky above trees which grow right down to the beach and cliff edges.

Other large birds seen along the coast paths are brown pelicans which are very graceful in flight before plummeting into the sea after fish.

Other common sights particularly round the Klamath River Estuary are Gray Whales which can be clearly seen from the cliff tops. Gray Whales are about 14m long and migrate from Alaska to Mexico in Novemeber and back to Alaska in March. However round the Klamath River there is a resident pod of about 20 which we saw regularly each day we were in the area.

The Gray Whale feeds on Crustaceans and is itself often covered with barnacles. The first sign whales are about is often the sight of the water spout as the whales first surface.

Other sights on the coast path and parks are snakes. Mr Lockwood saw 3 including a whipsnake and a racer. All the snakes were non venomous and moved very quickly away. Too quick to photograph.

Woodpeckers, deer, salamander were also seen. No humans were seen for 9 miles!! They were all in their cars!!!

The beaches around Crescent City are good for surfing and barbeques as there is alot of driftwood on some of the beaches.

These are the California Redwood trees the tallest trees in the world. They are taller and thinner than the Sequoia trees earlier. Their habitat is wetter and more rainforest jungle like to walk in. The fog of the California coast helps the trees to stay healthy.

These are in the Jedediah State Park where we also saw a bear.

Mrs Lockwood walking a trail in Prairie Creek Redwood Park.

Stopped at Mt Shasta on way from Lassen Volcanic to California Coast. Mt Shasta (14,179ft) is also known as the white mountain and is an active volcano within the Cascade Range which last erupted 200 years ago. Native Indians believe it to be a spiritual mountain.

Mrs Lockwood in Lassen Volcanic is keeping in practice making the tea!