Sunday, March 29, 2009

There And Back Again; Chapter Four, Keith to Naracoorte

On The Doorstep

But of course since this is my blog and my travel-log, I get to put in whatever the heck I want. So y'all's'in's will just hafta put up with TWO (count them) pictures which do not pertain to the trip to Naracoorte.

The first picture happens to be of the black furry object that I keep around. Every once in a while I toss it's useless hide outside. It ends up in some positions you'd expect from a furry, useless, sawdust-filled, no-brained, large-fanged, critter.

See for yourself:
flopped cat
Notice the bits of grass on his left flank? That's cus when I tossed his butt outside he landed on his left side, overturned as he skidded along the lawn, and then slid to a stop upon his right side.

Cockatoos are much bigger than rainbow lorikeets:
more birds
See the bloke hanging on to the feeder upside down? I've seen the cockatoos do that too.

Let's join our intrepid explorers as they leave Keith on their way to Naracoorte!

Here's the standard view the driver sees (and has seen, and will continue to see) for the next gazillion kilometres --that's around 3,141,592,653,589,793 miles, but who's counting?
flat
Does anyone want some pie?


As usual (and as all awesomely great fantasy writers do) I've provided you with a map:
keith to naracoorte


As usual, I just really felt the need to scrawl all over it:
keith to naracoorte painted
Doesn't that help?

Notice that since this is kinda like a graphical topo map (terrain map?) there's some various ridges. See how the ridges are kinda, like, sorta lined up along some axis that, just a bit, looks like it might be parallel to the coast? Hmmmmmm, perhaps a few million years ago each one of the ridges could have been coastline? And the fact that they are not only limestone, but that they are so recent (meaning within 5 to 20 million years or so) that there are still some non-solutionised (I made that word up) shells in the limestone matrix????? Here, let me help you see the ridges:
keith to naracoorte old shores

Science class has now been dismissed, let's move on to Padthaway. Their main store has really good ice cream, BTW.

Don't blink!
welcome to padthaway

Padthaway is a very large, thriving metropolis of 218 folk. Hmmmmm, too big for me. They have some an awesomely great sh*tload amount of ground water and also have some really cool modern artsy-fartsy type stuff.

Here's a picture of downtown Padthaway:
downtown padthaway


This is "where it all happens" at Padthaway. From right to left, there's a phone booth, then a liquor store, the post office, a trash bin, the store (which also includes a deli), a petrol (gasoline) pump, a trailer to live in, a picnic area, and finally a shed.
more downtown padthaway


I just love the bowser (fuel pump) being on the sidewalk!
bowser


As we leave Padthaway, we see lots and lots and lots of vines:
more vines


This next section may bore you a bit, so I'll just post a pic of the information board on the outskirts of Naracoorte upon our arrival:
we have arrived


Do you think that the motel in "downtown" Naracoorte would have our reservations on file? You know, this place that has a sign in the window stating "No Vacancy"?

You're right; they didn't!

Stay tuned campers :)

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very nice maps. I cannot wait to see what the caves have in store.

Jim and Heather on Meerkat said...

We could use your excellent navigation skills... can you imagine what our charts would look like with all that crayon writing and notes like where it is boring and where to get ice cream???
TOO FUNNY!
What's with that cat? Poke him with a stick or buy him a dog or something. Worthless...

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Sciencebloke: Well, ya know, google kinda helped with the maps. Planning on many cave posts, perhaps you could call me cromagnon dave?

Sv Meerkat: Did those two blokes that hang around with you forget that "left turn at Allbekiokee"?

LoveANewIdea said...

Yikes - realize that I am getting way behind in hearing about your adventure! I'm catching up now...

-Y'all's'in's - more Aussie ling? (that's short for lingo; I know how you like to shorten words...)
-I can't get over how the cat just flops anywhere in the grass, sorta random like.
-In looking at the photo of the open road, I couldn't help but notice how smooth it was! No signs of roughly patched potholes or undulating frost heaves. Makes for nice driving.
-LOVED Padthaway...do they know that you've made them famous by posting about them in the worldwide blogosphere?

PS - what do you use to scrawl on, I mean notate, the map?

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

New Ideas:

1) No. That's just me being a smartass (much better than being a dumbass).
2) I think he runs on solar power.
3) Some folks down here actually complain about the roads... If they only knew how lucky they are.
4) I could handle living in Padthaway. On the outskirts of course.
5) I print out a google terrain map, then get my crayons out, scrawl all over it, take a picture, and the upload the pic. You probably don't believe that, eh?