Through the Flinders Ranges to Blinman - 26 Sept. 2016

A bit of an odd day but all turned out well in the end.

After my walking feat of the day before and at the suggestion of one of the ladies at the caravan park shop/office, I decided to walk to some waterfalls. First I took the wrong road, soon remedied. There was only one other car in the carpark and with the walk twice as long as to Arkaroo Rock and the hills looking steeper, I squibbed on walking on my own in that much wilderness. Instead, from the same starting point, I did a short walk to the top of a mesa-like land feature, Twidale Top, again with 360 deg views.

A couple of cars at Station Hill Lookout

Caravan park and cabins dotted in the centre.
Posh eco-cabins, a few dots at the left.

And so on to Wilpena Pound, the feature of the Flinders Ranges. I got started on a walk but didn't get far before the path was blocked by the rarely flowing Wilpena Creek. 

Flooded Wilpena Creek

At that point I gave up, realising that what I wanted to see wasn't going to fit in with my lunch plans. But it did get me organised for the next day. I noticed an art exhibition in the woolshed and decided to call back for that after lunch.

Lunch was at Blinman, an old mining town that looks pretty ramshackle. The mine was actually at Blinman hence working men's type buildings rather than the managers type buildings at Burra.

I chose lunch at the local (only!) cafe. A miner's pastie – aka a Cornish pastie, of course. It was full of the traditional veggies, no meat. But unlike any other Cornish pastie I've ever eaten, one end had been dipped in sugar and there was apple inside – a two course meal in one! It really was delicious. 

Dessert wasn't. Yesterday's 4WD guide said that when cooked, quandongs had a rhubarb-y flavour. Yum! So I bought a quandong crumble pie to follow the pastie. Way too much pastry for one lunchtime but there wasn't much else on offer anyway. So - no rhubarb-y taste – not any taste at all really. Disappointing but I'll know for future reference :-)

I lunched on the verandah ... with flies for company. How like Oz!

Across the road from the cafe, there was an art exhibition at the Blinman Memorial Hall – painters of the Flinders and nearby areas. It's an annual event to raise funds to keep the town's historic buildings standing and also to support the Flying Doctor services in the region. There was some very good work there but the raffle prize was such that I didn't buy a ticket. What if I won?!

As planned, I returned to the exhibition at the woolshed at Wilpena. I want to win their raffle! [Late note: I didn't  :-( ] But overall, the Blinman exhibition was marginally better. Here though, I did find out that these two are part of an annual series of exhibitions. Not realising it, I'd also visited two others on the program, at Port Pirie and Parachilna. I might even fit in one or two more (of twelve) on the way home.

I asked when the woolshed was last used for sheep and shearing - 1985. And you could still smell the animals!!

The drive to Blinman was quite pretty.

Also, the number of wildlife spottings increased – more emus and kangaroos and now dragons (some of whom I'm sure would have been squashed before they got across the road), kookaburras and black hairy caterpillars!

A friendly little dragon

"Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree ...."

A very hairy caterpillar  :-)

In spite of the messy visit to Wilpena Pound, it turned out to be another more than satisfying day.

I found an extra blanket and slept soundly without having to turn the heating on :-)

Brisbane and Townsville - Sept. 2015

In September 2015 I visited Brisbane and Townsville to catch up with friends (Brisbane) and family (Townsville). It wasn't meant to be a tourist trip but Brisbane ended up that way. My friend Alison, with whom I was staying, was held up at work. Seeing as she was working in India at the time, “held up” meant she arrived days, not hours, later than planned. Thankfully she did get home for the last couple of days of my visit.

I stayed at Wolloongabba and didn't get north of the Brisbane CBD except to have brunch with my friend Joseph. On Southbank, as well as lunch with my friend John, I was able to ….

The Gabba cricket ground

... stroll through the riverside parklands and beach, including a leisurely browse through the Sunday riverside market – only one purchase, a casual shoulder bag. Quite restrained of me :-)

Epicurious Garden, Riverside gardens

Epicurious Garden

Riverside Beach

... use Alison's ticket to a concert at QPAC (Queensland Performing Arts Centre) – Simone Young conducting the Queensland Symphony Orchestra performing Mahler's 6^th symphony – the one with the hammer of doom. Impressive!

QPAC

... 'do' the galleries – Queensland Art Gallery, GOMA (Queensland Gallery of Modern Art) – and the State Library

Aboriginal art at GOMA 

GOMA

City skyline from GOMA

... ride the river ferries towards the mouth of the Brisbane river. On Alison's return we took the ferry in the opposite direction, to St Lucia where her office is located – when she's in town!

I really like Brisbane. It has retained many more of its old buildings than Melbourne has and the skyscrapers are not nearly as tall. Plus the mall really is car free, as a proper pedestrian zone it is a pleasure to walk there. I loved the way different coloured Chinese lantern bushes had their stems entwined so that several different coloured flowers appeared to be on the one bush.

Across the river ... 

I took the free bus to North Brisbane “just for the ride”, walked about the city, did a DIY tour of the City Hall, visited the art museum at QUT's Gardens Point campus, strolled through the City Botanic Gardens.

On the river -- Storey Bridge

Brisbane City Hall

I particularly enjoyed the City Hall where I did a DIY tour seeing artefacts from Brisbane's sister cities, the concert hall with its swirling, changing-colours ceiling, the Museum of Brisbane, and a tour of the clock tower from which there are some worthwhile views of the city.

The concert hall in Brisbane City Hall

Views from the City Hall clock tower

During the DIY tour I stumbled upon the mayor's office. Not a guard (with or without weapon) in sight - amazing! I was made most welcome and the receptionist pointed out another display area that I would otherwise have missed because it wasn't on the self-guided tour itinerary. I also bumped into a small guided tour and joined them to see the otherwise off-limits basement area where, during WWII, there was a Red Cross R&R centre for servicemen. Recent repairs to the building had uncovered signatures and messages written on the walls above where the urinals were installed at that time – graffiti then, historical record now.

The Museum of Brisbane was showing paintings and stained glass by William Bustard ... more pictures and some cartoons rather than lots of glass. Of the paintings, most were excellent water colours; the oils were not so good. There was also a fascinating exhibition relating the story of the Brisbane River from source to sea.

And somewhere along the way, I lost most of the photos from my 'north of the river' explorations :-(

Castle Rock, Townsville - watercolour by William Bustard
from the exhibition at the Museum of Brisbane

Townsville was strictly family, as planned. Most of the time was spent 'hanging out' at home but we did have a day at an animal park, Billabong Sanctuary, a short way south of Townsville, and visited the Museum of Tropical Queensland, followed by an ice-cream and walk along the beach before I headed to the airport and home.

Feeding the crocs at Billabong Sanctuary

Juliette running along the beach at Townsville

Magnetic Island, off the coast at Townsville

The tourist in Adelaide

Posted on March 1, 2014

It must be at least 15 years since I was in Adelaide, more than I can remember anyway. There are two things I’ve always liked about Adelaide. Firstly, the (relatively) low-rise office buildings, definitely no skyscrapers. Secondly, the (sand- or lime- ?) stone houses that I’d love to come home to each day. The beautiful stone public buildings are often more flinty. Those things haven’t changed. Adelaide is so lucky not to have Melbourne’s destructive “developers”, and politicians who are easily convinced it’s a good idea to destroy my city’s heritage.

North Terrace at East Terrace intersection, opposite the Botanic Garden

North Terrace, opposite the State Library

My tourist trekking began at Rundle Mall. I was underwhelmed, probably reflecting my lack of interest in and skill at shopping. Except at the Haigh’s factory where I bought more chocolate than was seemly after a short but interesting tour   No wonder Haigh’s chocolates aren’t cheap, there’s a heck of a lot that is done manually that I’d have expected to be done by machine.

My favourite visit was to the Art Gallery of South Australia. They were between special exhibitions but preparations were underway for their next, including an “artwork” in progress on the forecourt.

"Art" in progress!!

There is a small William Morris room, what’s not to enjoy?
I loved a Madonna and Child and an early Australian work by Hugh Ramsay.

Madonna and Child

The Four Seasons

But my favourite was in the foyer, couldn’t be missed as you entered the building – a series of icons by Brisbane artist Leonard Brown whose works are both sublime and “you’ve got to be joking”.

ICONOSTEASIS DEISIS TIER [‘CHRIST ENTHRONED’ WITH ‘THOSE WHO INTERCEDE’ 

               AND ‘MOTHER OF GOD OF THE SIGN’] by Leonard Brown (2007–09)

                                            …. plus part of one of his “other” works. 

At the Drill Hall by the parade ground behind Government House, I stumbled upon theHelpmann Academy 2014 graduate exhibition. It was mostly the usual “roll your eyes” works by young artists …. and one beautiful grouping of small works that I’d love to have on my own wall at home.

This won a $2000 acquistion prize - really!

I love this

The whole grouping

I went to the Migration Museum which was surprisingly honest and didn’t try to hide some of the more shameful aspects of Australia’s record. However, I found the small display about the building’s history as a home for poor and/or unwed mothers particularly interesting. Another surprise here too – they didn’t routinely take babies from their mothers.

I’m not such a museum buff but I did pop into the South Australian Museum where I bumped into and shared afternoon tea with a member of the library tour group. I went on to see the Aboriginal section where some of the exhibits chimed with things learned on my visits to Central Australia and the Kimberley in 2012.

Junction point of two wings of the Adelaide Museum

I paid a visit to the Central Market, reputedly one of the oldest/largest undercover markets in the Australia/southern hemisphere/the world – something like that! I’m sure Vic Market would challenge that! I really restrained myself and only bought a bagel to eat. I wasn’t so restrained when I went to the Sunday night market on North Terrace. I love roti so tried roti with banana – OK but plain roti is so much better. And I indulged in a treat that I only see occasionally – churros. Yummmmm!!

Central Market

As well as regular rides on the Glenelg tram in and out of town, I had a ride on the free city circular bus and Popeye, the Torrens River tourist boat. I did the North Adelaide part of the free bus ride – there’s a part of Adelaide I couldn’t afford to live! Lots of those beautiful old stone houses that I love! I didn’t do the full Popeye trip, just from the zoo to the city …. because the boat broke down! So, short but sweet.

Eating bamboo

Treat demolished

Tree hugger!