Quick Drive to Karuah

So we were sitting at home yesterday afternoon. I looked over at Carmel, not liking sitting still doing nothing, I offered to take her for a drive down to Karuah. It's only 25km from my folks place, so away we went. I got a couple of nice shots but my favorite is the one of the little doggy running. It's just so energetic!

Back in The New South!

So Carmel and I arrived back in Sydney yesterday. We were driving over the bridge, on Australia day, and I could just envisage how this shot would look. I hope you like and I'll be back and more active in the next couple of days.

Lair of The Redbacks

Otherwise known as my swag... Yes I opened it up and about four females and one male jumped out at me!!! I was lucky to survive. Okay that's a little dramatic but nonetheless there seems to be two plagues in the Alice. One, mice, absolutely everywhere. In fact the Mitre 10 around the corner from my old place literally had to buy trolley's full of them to sell. Two, Red Back spiders, a dangerous species that isn't often found in the desert. I managed to loose sight of all four but managed to get a pretty cool shot of an egg-sack and web. The egg sack is about the size of a small marble.

The Yard Sale.

So it's official. I'm now again a Novocastrian. Internet is up and running and I've been able to again login. Thank you to those guys that have enjoyed my pics and I'll be converting this site to a Newcastle and surrounds site very soon. Anyway I think that this little pic of my life being on sale is kind of cool.

Until I can get up some shots of Newie, I'll be putting up another couple from Alice. So please stay tuned this site is only going to get better!

More Plants

I just love the variety of plants out here. As a tour guide it was one of my great joys learning heaps about them. But there are just too many out there to learn off-by-heart. This is a form of kangaroo paw. I just loved the patterns that were made by the spiky leaves at it's base.

Interesting Art

There is a lot of different artworks all over Alice. This is just a blown-out bus tyre that someone has painted blue. I thought it looked really cool, the guy that owned the house was kind of strange and didn't really like me taking a shot of this. But oh well.

Wierd and Wonderful

There is a cornucopia of flowers in central Australia at the moment. Some I have never even seen in the five years I've been living here. This was part of a eucalyptus tree, there are 500 different varieties out here most of which don't have Latin names yet alone common ones. So if anyone can tell me exactly what type then please let me know.

Truck Stop

I went there really hoping that I'd get a shot of a five trailer road-train but at least the sun was pleasantly setting and the clouds were really nice and mostly whispy.

Zebra Finches

Central Australia is famous for a lot of thing. A big rock, the most venomous snake in the world but what it was originally famous for was it's unique bird life. For those of you non-Aussies out there you can thank us for a couple of little birds. First is the Budgerigar.

It was first discovered by westerners when Charles Todd was building the Overland Telegraph Line. A botanist, of all things, discovered these fast green birds. He captured a few and eventually they made it to the East-coast then the rest of the world.

The second was one of my favorite birds, the Zebra Finch. They are a cute little bird. No bigger than 7cm tall and are extremely fast. Their chirp sounds like a dogs chew-toy, which isn't good for them. And they are everywhere out here!

Botanic Gardens 1

The botanical gardens in Alice were named after a local eccentric who set them up in the early eighties. There isn't a whole lot there but occasionally it's nice to escape. There's a few interesting sculptures that have been donated, like the couple of sprinkler sculptures which I find really cool.

Back Roads

If you ever come to Alice make sure that you get yourself a 4WD and get to know a local. We didn't have the fourby but we did have our little crap-box. Carmel and I drove north, past the northern communities out to a little dirt track that I found one day when I was exploring. There's this cool little burnt out Caravan there. As I think I said before, when something doesn't work anymore, burn it.

Playing with Techniques

So I was wandering around Alice, as it's my second last week before I head back to Newcastle so we can have our baby. I had puppy with me and she was just so exhausted so we stopped and took a few photo's of her. I also was just playing around with processing and trying to fake a medium format camera.

Clouds AGAIN!

I don't want this to come across as whinging. But more as a homage to those in Brisbane and North Queensland. I wish everybody there the best and I really hope things get better there.

Back Again!

So the works been atrociously busy lately. Looks like I'm the only one left! Also we've had so much rain again in Alice. The Todd river, mostly dry, is still running almost 24 hours later. That's almost unheard of. There hasn't been that many opportunities to take photo's where there's shelter enough to keep my camera dry. Here's some shots though.

Cars Around Town

There are some real characters, I guess like any town has, around Alice Springs. Here's a few examples of what we do with cars, from respecting to recycling to just plain burning out.

Telegraph Station

Ok so the old telegraph stations was the original Alice Springs and was named after Sir Charles Todd's wife by a surveyor, W. W. Mills, whilst he was incorrectly naming a site as a spring instead of a soak. The town of Alice Springs only became known as that in the 1930's, originally it was called Stuart after the explorer of the same name.

Drive to Simpsons Gap

So Carmel, my partner, and I decided to go on a little drive out to Simpson's gap yesterday. You always find things that are a little bit surprising out that way so naturally I had to take my other baby along to. Carmel will get so jealous of the 60D!!

Anzac Hill Memorial

The other night was so great. The sky really just opened up and gave Alice Springs one hell of a show. The Todd river actually ran and there were some amazing shots to be had. Here's one that I actually really like the low-keyed tone of.

Rainy New Years!!!

Happy New Years everyone!