Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The Journey Home. Kingston SE to Salt Creek

I am amazed. Not a single one of you have asked why a town is named Kingston SE instead of just Kingston. Well, fine then. I won't tell until someone asks --nicely.

I do thank y'alls good thoughts and such that headed my way. I can actually chew again! Oh, the feta cheese came out GREAT! Expect a post about cheesemaking over at Dingo Dave fairly soon (yes, I know I've been neglecting it).

Just in case any of you have forgotten where we are (directly above the centre of the Earth, BTW) on our return journey, let me refresh your mammaries --oops, memories.
kingston to salt creek smaller


Oh crikey struth, stone the crows, stiffen the lizards and pickle me granmothah! THAT map will just never do. Here, I'll grab some crayons and help ya out mates!
kingston to salt creek painted smaller


There! Now everyone knows what's going on. Right?

The first bit is really thrilling...
salt creek009


And DANGEROUS!
salt creek006
It's hard to tell from this pic, but with the looooong, flat, hot road with the sun beating down on it, the shimmering mirages were everywhere. Passing a slow moving vehicle was NOT fun. Fortunately most folk were doing 100 to 120 kph so it wasn't much of a problem. But I did have to pass a few times and even though a straight may be miles long, you just couldn't tell!

Saw a car almost get smashed by a semi... Wee-Hoo! Gotta love The Prince's Highway!

See the thin white stuff on the horizon? That's the top of the dunes of The Coorong. They are a couple of hundred feet high, and in 25 million years they could have the cave structure you've seen at Naracoorte!
salt creek027


We were going to take the loop road around...
salt creek033
but it was 20 kms of washboard. No thanks.

I think it's a shame that folks have to be reminded...
salt creek045


And here we arrive in beautiful, bustling downtown Salt Creek.
salt creek051


Here's a close up:
salt creek119


The place kinda reminded me of roadhouses up in Alaska. Well, once you got away from Los Anchorage that is.

And any place that has a chalkboard out front telling you which sections of the beach road are washed out, how many vehicles have rolled over there recently and where to get the best snappers, sharks (bronze whalers) can't be all bad. Plus they even encourage you to take ya rubbish and take idiots rubbish out!
salt creek121
This really reminded my of Alaska. Well, except for the beach part...

Salt Creek is known as the southern gateway to the Coorong. And they are right.
salt creek056
Who is that big, tall, handsome, pony-tailed bloke in the red shorts?

This is where we drove up:
salt creek112


See the dashed line on the left of the map going across what looks like water? In the summer you can drive across!
salt creek108
Provided you've got a 4 wheeler, of course.

There are hiking trails galore!
salt creek174
Personally, I think Nakun Kungun is Ngarrindjeri for "let's see how many dumb tourists we can get to walk through mosquisto infested swamp" or something similar to that.

Oi! Mates! We found some swans!

Something you may not know is that swans down here in Oz are black and they have a red bill. These are also some of the first ones I've seen that aren't in parks. Meaning they don't start swimming over to humans looking for handouts.
salt creek078

salt creek080

salt creek082

salt creek143

There are loads of wildflowers everwhere.
salt creek130

salt creek128

We even found an apple tree that had self-seeded:
salt creek137


And now back to the swans, jus' cus I like the reflections.
salt creek156

salt creek159

salt creek164



Sometimes they get hungry
salt creek166


But are we REALLY sure they are feeding? Let's just zoom in a bit and find out what is really going on...
farting black swan
Yep, that's what I thought.

At first I thought this bloke was a baby blue-tongue, but I'm now pretty sure he's a gecko.
salt creek172


If you want to learn more about the Coorong, then just

go here,

and here,

and also here too.

Did anyone get the above SP reference?

Hey look! There's oil in them thar hills!!!!

salt creek175



Instead of me grinding me poor ole fingers to da bone, how's abouts I jus' give ya the danged-gummed signs and youse all kin reed abouts it ya-selfs. Harumph.
salt creek179

salt creek181

salt creek182

salt creek180


They just don't make em like they used to:
salt creek183



Coming up next: Policeman's Point, a place I'd love to live at, and the first counrty town I didn't care for.

6 comments:

Arvay said...

Wow the swans are so pretty! I love their ruffly butts. They look like they are wearing party dresses!

la isla d'lisa said...

Two questions: 1) mind if I snick one of your swan pictures; and 2) why do their wings look all ruffley along their back (if you dunno, s'okay, just curious)?

Oh, and I cheated and looked up the "SE" thing ... couldn't wait for an answer, now that you made me wonder!

trevs72 said...

this isn't related to your latest post, but when I heard this on NPR, I thought yer gunna have to try this on yer cockys out by the pool.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103629651&ft=1&f=1001
Trevor

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Arvay: Yeah, they do look like they have foofy, ruffly party dresses on their cute butts.

Lisa: 1) No worries, snick away! In fact, if you'd like any of the full sized originals then just let me know. 2) They all seem to have "ruffled" butt feathers. Don't know why butt feel free to cheat and look it up :)

Trev: Is that the vid of a tame sulfy dancing to rap music? I still haven't gotten around to watching it (broadband issues).

Ishmael said...

I did not get the Sarah Palin reference.... Unless it was the Blue Tongue looking for a hand out....

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Ish: Nah, the lizard slithered away very quickly --unlike some other creatures who refuse to go away.

The reference was

and also here too.doesn't that sound palinesque?