Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Journey Home: FINAL LEG!!!

Wow! I'll bet y'all never thought you'd finish this trip on down to the Limestone Coast and back. And what a loooooonnnnnnng, strange trip it's been...

I really didn't plan to drag out the whole thing this long. I did plan on this many posts but I thought I'd be posting every day or every-other day. However, when you've got almost 3000 pictures to sift through, lot's of research to do, beer to brew, bread to bake, cheese to make... and a pool to clean... Well, I hope you understand how it just sorta got away from me.

To make up for that (and to thank you for your neverending patience on this seemingly neverending story) I'm putting up 3 pics of local aussie wildlife before starting on the final leg of the journey.

This bloke was just too cute not to post:
cute koala

The next two pics are purposely posted to give Fishsticks nightmares
aussie magpie

upset bird 2


Ok, now for the final leg of the Naracoorte trip!

Let's start with a map:
meningie to sturt


Well, as usual, that stale, generic, BORING, map won't do. Lemme see if I can fix it up a bit. Hang about while I break out my crayola crayon box...

Hmmmmm, where the hell did I put them?

Damn, someone straightened up my desk! Hate it when that happens; can't find a darned thing...

Aha! Here they are.

Give me a sec to do some scribbling...

.
.
.

Tada! This looks much betta:
meningie to sturt painted



Notice that long boring stretch betwixt Meningie and Wellington? Guess what? There's no pictures from that part... flat, boring...really boring. So the first pic is when we arrived at the ferry crossing over The Mighty Murray at Wellington!

We just missed it...
finalleg028

Poor little car, has to wait
finalleg036

Buh-bye!
finalleg004


But that's ok, gives us a chance to look around. Hey cool! Lookie what supplies the power
finalleg001

And it's free! 24 hours a day!
finalleg002

I'd say that the cables are pretty darned well secured.
finalleg006



On our side of the river we could hear a rather large flock of parrots that were on the other side. This is the 5600 on full zoom.
finalleg007
Anyone bored enough to count them all?



Yea! Here's comes the ferry!
finalleg046


I hope that rig knows which side of the road he's supposed to drive on
finalleg052



This is halfway across the river. Maybe about one fourth of the flock.
finalleg026
Cool lens flare, eh?

Driving up the far ramp
finalleg065



How's abouts we drive around to take a look at the flock? I'm sure my regulars can identify what kind of parrot it is.
finalleg072

Head count anyone?
finalleg074

Try this one
finalleg086



Notice that long boring stretch after Wellington on the way to Strath? Yeah, no shots from there either. In fact, we didn't even break out the camera till we got to that park in the middle of town.

You'll notice the huge flock of parrots isn't around... THAT'S CUZ THEY'RE ALL AT WELLINGTON!!!
finalleg089


There's also "Public Facilites" there. That's a fancy way of saying "crapper". But oh what a crapper it is! How many country towns do you know that decorate the outside of a public crapper like this:
finalleg102

Let's zoom in a bit
finalleg101

I stupidly neglected to that a picture of the commemoration plaque, my bad.

But here's a few closeups of the artwork:
finalleg103

finalleg104

finalleg105



Coming up next is meself bein' back to me normal self! Which means pretty much anything I want to post along with a whole buncha cool parrots, birds, roos, koalas, lizards, and whatever other "exotic" critters I can find down here.

Thanks for reading about the trip and I hope I didn't bore too many of you over these last couple of months.

7 comments:

Frances said...

Really cool photos, Dave.

Especially the fifth from the bottom love the composition

Fizzgig said...

that bird with the long hook beak looks like a skecksie sp? from the dark crystal!

I dont think i would ever ever leave a place where i saw cute little koalas sleeping in a tree. I'd curl up under the tree and sleep there too.
sooooooo cute!!!!!!!!!!!!

TwoYaks said...

[...] lot's of research to do, beer to brew, bread to bake [...]You mean a lot of beer to drink, pools to lounge around in, parrots to photograph and cats to watch bake themselves on hot bricks? ;)

Love that first picture!

As for the bird counting... about 160. The trick is to count in fives, have someone else count independently of you, and if your numbers disagree by more than your standard error (which you've worked out in advance!) then you both recount.
And the best part is if someone wants to prove me wrong, they have to go through and count the birds one by one. :P

Anonymous said...

I recall your first ferry crossing. Hopefully this one will be a bit smoother.

LoveANewIdea said...

Dave,
It's funny, but on just about every blog I visit, and including my own, most bloggers slowed way down or hit a road block in late April / early May...something in the atmosphere / blogoshere???

Anyway, loved getting the final log of the journey. And, I'm sure you can guess, my favorite part is the mosaic. Thanks so much for the close-ups...enjoyed seeing all the detail.

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Frances: As many times as we've been through Strath, we'd never noticed the mural before. I think the bright sunny day helped the shot.

Fizzgig: Hmmmmm, skeksis... that gives me an idea... Oh, koalas are very cute! Saw 11 in one day.

KC: Yep, that'd be right mate.
As far as the counting goes, I'll take you word for it! I'm assuming this is how you count a herd of ungulates?

Science bloke: The first one was smooth, we just had to wait while the dredging was finished. Which gave us time to explore Wellington.

LoveANewIdea: It's not that I've been neglecting things, it's just that I've got so much to blog about that I get confused and then just jump in the pool. My mind has been aglow with a whirling cascade of scintillating thoughts!
Oh, and I've been bust making cheese, beer, bread, and chocolate.
I'm still bummed that I forgot a closeup of the plaque for the mosiac, damn!

Alaska-womom said...

I loved looking through your bolg-not boring at all mate! Way cool stuff. Loved the pictures too.