Eastern Water Dragon & Litoria Littlejohni

Living beside a National Park means that we share the property with many native species, wallabies, snakes, spiders and lizards are regular visitors. About two years ago the first water dragon appeared, we now seem to have two or three and they have grown a lot since the first sighting. They become very tame and enjoy a swim in our pool on hot days, the one in the following photo was resting in a staghorn near our kitchen, another favourite spot is under the cover of the BBQ. I think this one is female and is probably about two years old, they can grow to 50cms, males slightly larger than that.

Another recent arrival is this small frog, must have been named after one of our former prime ministers as there is a strong family resemblance, Litoria Littlejohni is its scientific name. It has been living in our sun umbrella for the past two weeks and is almost the same colour as the umbrella and the garden table. Just as well as I am sure frogs are on the water dragon menu.

Great Victorian Rail Trail

Mansfield - Alexandra - Yea - Tallarook

Opened earlier this year this trail adds to the growing number of excellent trails in Victoria. It's difficult to understand why New South Wales has not followed the same development plan, it is easy to see when you ride there how the towns and villages along the Victorian trails are benefiting from the thousands of bike tourists using the trails every year.

We used Alexandra as our base, this meant doing a shuttle with our cars each morning but saved doing each leg out and back.

The official guide book says the grade is mostly flat but undulating would be a more accurate description. There are toilets at regular intervals and quite a few pubs, cafes and restaurants along the route. Spring and Autumn would be a good time to ride, we did it early November and had one day at 37C and the other a more comfortable 28C.

Distances are,

• Tallarook - Yea 38kms.
• Yea - Alexandra 34kms.
• Yea - Mansfield 83kms.
• Alexandra - Mansfield 75kms.
• Tallarook - Mansfield 121kms.

 Mansfield to Merton section.

Alexandra to Tallarook section.

We stayed at the Alexandra Tourist Park, this is a well run park with a beautiful camping area set at the back of the park. It's only a five minute walk into the town centre.

7 days in New York City.

What an amazing place, it doesn't matter how many times I visit this city there are always new places to discover. A week gives you time to explore places that are well away from the tourist traps. Staying in Jersey City instead of Manhattan gives an entirely different perspective of Manhattan and the different moods it presents every day.

Joshua Tree National Park California.

The southern park entrance is located 25 miles east of Indio on Highway 1, about one hour from Palm Springs. Unfortunately when we were there in September the temperature was over 100 F. so doing any of the hiking trails was not an option. There are hundreds of miles of hiking trails with camping facilities along the way, something to put on the to do list if ever we are in the USA during the winter. 
More info. here http://www.nps.gov/jotr/index.htm

Backcountry roads graveyards.

Our trip only covered a very small part of central Australia but there was a lot of automotive history on show. There must be thousands of vehicles scattered across the desert areas, this is a small selection.

  Mail trucks used by Tom Kruse, the real one not the Hollywood copy.

Outback back roads re-run July 2014

Sydney to Birdsville and return.

This was a repeat of the trip I did in 2000 but this time done clockwise which is a much better option, if done anti clockwise you could be driving into the afternoon sun and dust clouds over the crests from Cameron Corner and into Birdsville.

Quite a few photos in this post, I hope they will be of interest and useful if you are planning a similar trip. Feel free to contact me via the comments section at the end of the post if you have any questions. Total distance was just over 5000 kms. and we used $1200 in fuel [petrol].

We took three vehicles, a new Toyota FJ Cruiser, a new Toyota Prado and a 2001 Pajero with 230000 kms. on the clock. The only mechanical problem was a broken battery support on the Pajero, fixed using a velcro strap. We had no tyre problems. CB antennas on both Toyotas broke and both had cracked windscreens but I don't count those as a ''vehicle'' problem. Reading a few 4WD forums today it seems broken aerials are a common problem, especially for diesel Prados with a bull bar mount. 

There was a lot of traffic around Birdsville, there was an ultra marathon across some of the Simpson Desert which finished in Birdsville the day we arrived there and a concert on Big Red the following week. We saw hundreds of 4WD's during our trip but not one of those was from Europe, Japan rules the Outback.

We left the bitumen at Yunta S.A. and took a little used track across to Hawker, great scenery, the next two nights were spent at Wilpena Pound. 

From Wilpena Pound we travelled to Leigh Creek and then north to Marree where we joined the Birdsville Track, camping at the Mungerannie Roadhouse halfway to Birdsville.

We had two days at Birdsville and did the pilgrimage out to Big Red.

We used Walkers Crossing to travel to Innamincka, it saved us 250 kms. compared to our original plan and was a great drive, rough and sandy in places but a lot of fun.

The best thing to come out of Innamincka is the Strzelecki Track, we used the new and then the old Strzzies to get to Cameron Corner.

From Cameron Corner we went to Sturt National Park and then via Tibooburra to Mutawintji National Park. Both parks were fantastic and both are on our list to do again.The following photos were taken on the way to and then in Sturt National Park.

The following were taken at Mutawintji National Park.

We decided to do the 60km. out and back drive to the Ngiyampaa rock art near Cobar, this turned out to be a very good decision as it was the 10th. anniversary of the handover of the land to the traditional owners, there were hundreds of people there and a real party atmosphere, we were made to feel very welcome. They have leased the area back to the National Parks and it is now open to all visitors.

Unfortunately I couldn't find out the name of the group or the singer in the following video but they were so good, a great way and a very special way to finish the trip.