The Other Pound

We walked up a steep and long hill called Mount Ohlssen Bagge. It is 430 m high from the start at Wilpena. We saw a couple of other bushwalkers, but no other party had people as young and as old as us, bushwalking with Mum and Dad and both grandparents. After 2:30 hours uphill, we arrived at the summit from where we had a beautiful view of Wilpena Pound. In the background we could still see the salt lake Lake Torrens. What a contrast, from dead salt plains with no life at all to the beautiful trees of Wilpena Pound and the Flinders Ranges.

Back at camp, we had kangaroos around our camp site, and six emus walking by and checking us out.

 

At the summit of Mount Ohlssen Bagge

Another summit photo with Wilpena Pound in the backdrop

Part of the track

Big Red River gum trees in the dry rivers

After the bush walk

Wild emus next to our tent

More Outback

We are in South Australia now. There is more outback to look at. There are even fewer trees or bushes than in Northern Territory. It is a real challenge to do a "bush wee" out here. Not that there are a lot of other travellers, but it is hard to find a bush for cover!
It has been weeks since we have last pegged in our tent for the night. The "soil" is still solid rock. The pegless tent is holding up fine in good weather, but when it gets windy, Mum and Dad get nervous about it. We have taken the "Fuel, Food" photo at a roadhouse in the way from Marla to Coober Pedy. They mention two important things about life in the outback, but what about water?
In Coober Pedy there are warning signs everywhere about holes in the ground and active mining. The white hills of the excavated earth are everywhere, but I haven't seen a single hole in the ground yet. Still: Don't run and don't walk backwards!

The essence of life in the outback: Fuel and food - where is water?

Our neighbours at camp (from Campbelltown/Sydney) pass us on the Ooodnadatta Track

Whatever you do: Don't walk backwards!

A very old river

We have a free camp spot along Stuart Highway at Finke River. The toilets are clean, there is water (though not drinking water), fire pits and a nearly always dry Finke River. Finke River is one of the oldest rivers on earth, perhaps more than 400 million years old. It stopped carrying permanent water some 40 million years ago. These days, water that comes into the river from the occasional rain never reaches the ocean: it dries up in the Simpson Desert or it goes underground to replenish the ground water. I walk on this old river. What a cool place!

Walk at Ormiston Pound

We are back into the Red Centre of our country. The nights are cool, the days are hot. No flies yet, and no mosquitoes either. Very nice indeed. After a supply stop at Alice Springs, we are now camped at Ormiston Gorge in the West MacDonnell Ranges. Our camp spot is in National Parks, with a full moon. I have just seen a dingo walking past our tent at night!
Mum and Dad got us up early this morning and had the backpacks full of water bottles and food. We set out to do our longest bush walk yet, to Ormiston Pound. A pound seems to be a big hole in the ground such as a crater hole. The walk takes us over a hill and through stoney terrain, up a pass and further up a peak. There, quite unexpectedly, we arrive at the most amazing lookout: The valley below us is fully enclosed in mountainous regions. Not a single trace of humans or animals to be seen. No roads, no track (well, the track that we walk is hidden from view). Just sheer expanse of beautiful nature in all its glory!

 
It takes us another 3 hours to make our way through the pound and back onto the river. The rivers here are dry, sandy and rocky creeks that you can easily walk. The day finishes with a long rock scramble through Ormiston Gorge back to camp. What a beautiful day!

Crocs-A-Plenty

Yesterday we went onto a sunset croc tour at Yellow Water, Kakadu National Park. First, we saw a dead catfish. The tour guide said that if you see a dead catfish, there is nearly always a croc nearby, as they kill them as bait to attract more fish, especially barramundi, to eat. Sure as can be, there was a croc! Next we turned left at a corner until the guide shouted over the roaring motor: “Try and find some kingfishers!" or so. Well, I was the first to spot one :-)

There were crocs absolutely everywhere: in the billabong, on the river banks, quietly diving under our boat, or basking in the sun with open jaws. Small yellow crocs that have only just come into the freshwaters, or bigger black crocs that have been in the billabongs for long enough to get a black skin. Alpha, the biggest one in these waters swam so close that our tour guide slightly panicked and reversed the boat to get away from him.

After a dream free night, we got up at 6 o’clock and went to the bus stop to find that we  were having our sunrise croc tour with the same guide as yesterday afternoon. This time, the sun was just rising. There was a thick layer of fog over the water and the light looked very mysterious.

We also saw: Rajah shellducks, Jabirus (yellow eyes: female; black eyes: male),

spoonbills, whistling ducks, whistling kites, white bellied sea eagles, cormorants, Australian darters,

several species of egrets, rufous night herons - also flying, brolgas - also dancing, magpie geese, forest kingfishers, pelicans, rainbow bee eaters, crested jacanas (they walk on lilies), white necked heron, wild horses (brumbies), water buffaloes, feral pigs, wild cattle, wallabies,  small crocs, medium crocs, big crocs, one huge alpha croc!

Ubirr - our turn around point for the trip

We are now in Kakadu, where it is hot hot hot. At night after 9:00 pm the temperatures drop to very nice, but during the day we sweat! We have had lots of ranger talks yesterday and today and have learned lots about Aboriginal culture.

We went to Ubirr today, our northernmost point for the whole trip. We looked at many rock paintings in ochre of what they refer to as "x-ray-style": barramundi, freshwater turtles, mullets, all things to eat. Ranger Ben said lots of interesting things.

We then went to Cahills Crossing to look at all the saltwater crocodiles waiting for barramundi. I have never seen that many crocodiles in one spot! There were at least 10 of them right next to were I was standing! But I only looked for 10 minutes, before I tripped and injured my fingernail badly. Mum and Dad took me to the health centre for the rest of the day. I look just like Destiny, Lily or Kobe now, with a big bandage around my hand. Typing is still fine, but there might not be any hand writing for a few days.

Murky waters

It all started when we went down to the river. We met some people at the carpark who were leaning out of the window. We asked them about platypus sightings. They directed us to the bridge and said “If you wait for some bubbles, you will see one!” — and there he was. A tiny small furry creature, diving and coming back up and happily paddling around.