There And Back Again: Chapter One Sturt to Strathalbyn

Or alternate title: A Short Rest

Yeah, yeah, I know it's not very far from Sturt to Strath. But we were taking the whole day to get on down to Naracoorte (around 400 k from the route we took) so we figured Strath (remember, Aussies shorten all words. Besides it's much easier than saying or typing Strathalbyn all the time) would be a nice first break. It was only an hour to get there (I told you we weren't hurrying).

Here's the map:



Of course, that doesn't really show the trip, so how's abouts some of my awesome crayon art?



And I never even had to look at a map. Why? Cus I know pretty much every single road and climb in the southern part of The Adelaide Hills. I've worn out many bicycle tires going all through them. But since this isn't a bicycle blog I won't bore you with the details of that.

So why did we want to take a break in Strath? There's a really nice park in the middle of Strath. A creek runs through it and there are public facilities (honey bucket?) and picnic areas there.

Oh, and flock of about 5,000 little corellas. They are such genteel avians. Very quiet and they don't make any trouble at all.

I am (of course) LYING!

Noisy, destructive little bastards they are! But that doesn't bother me cus they was here first. However, there are some residents of Strath that probably don't like them.

Oh well. As the old fart (my dad) says, "Deal with it."

Did you know that you can find Strath without a map? Just roll down a window and follow the parrot sound! Here's a picture of downtown Strath:



This town is just a little too big and loud for me... I much prefer something around the size of Reedy Creek (you'll need to skip ahead a few chapters to find out about Reedy Creek).

Can you tell the time?



Ahhhhhh, so nice and peaceful, sigh...

But upon closer inspection you'll see some loud white buggas that hang out there. Just click on the picture to get a really large pic of bird crap on the steeple!



Off Topic: I just thought I'd remind you where we are going:

Just give the picture a click to bring it up full size, no worries.

Back to Strath! And birds! Just click either pic below to bring it up fullsize.





I count 27 in the second shot. How many can you find?

Aaaaaaaannnnnnnnndddddddd what would life be like without the obligatory birdie closeup?



I have a special present for those of you who aren't familiar with the sounds of the little corella cockatoos: A Video! Yes, I switched the Fuji 6500 over to video mode to get the sounds of the buggas. Just so that I can share it all with you!

How would you like to wake up to the sound of this every morning?




Keep in mind, none of them were very close to us. These are LOUD birds.

Next chapter we get to take a fairy to cross the Mighty Murray!

There And Back Again; Prologue

I must give absolute and total credit for the blog series title to Mr Tolkien. I certainly hope that he's not spinning too fast in his grave at my using his title, and I hope that his son is throwing a hissy fit right now (long story).

This is the story of YT (Yours Truly) and WP (Wifey-Poo; otherwise known as The Most Wonderful Woman In The Entire World --please don't be upset ladies) and our trip down to Naracoorte and back.

Prologue: A Long Expected Departure

To give you some background about the Naracoorte caves and myself, I thought you may be interested to know that I've been wanting to visit these suckers before I even arrived down in South Oz.

WP and I were hitch-ed back in '99 in Squarebanks. And for me birfday that year she gave me several "items of interest" about where I'd be heading: South Oz. One of these was The Book of The Road (as clearly distinct from say... The Book Of The Dead which I'm sure she had a hand in writing). Loads of stuff about everything you'd see. Sorta like the Antipodeans' answer to The Milepost.

One thing that caught my eye was a picture of the Naracoorte Caves. "Wow!" thought I. "What a great place to see!"

But why? Well, here's a pic from the Victoria Cave that I took:
Just give it a click to view it full size --although I've already shrunk it down to 1800 pix wide from it's original. BTW the chamber is about 8 to 10 feet high. This is BIG. You will see a great many more pics of the caves as you read the story, no worries.

Fast-forward TEN years and we still hadn't gotten on down to "The Limestone Coast". Hmmmm, time to remedy this situation, eh? Why is it called The Limestone Coast? Well, I'll be giving you various geologic, geomorphologic, paleontologic, agrilogic (ok, I made that last one up) tidbits as the trip progresses. Oh, and you'll also find out why there is a full-size complete LandRover up on a pole in Keith.

How's that for some interest-piquing?

Here's the overall map of the trip. We started just south of Adelaide in Sturt (Sturt doesn't even show on this map, ahem) and went to Naracoorte (which does show on the map) and it's surrounding environs. We then went back by a different route.




Of course that map doesn't show didly-squat. Here, I've fixed it for you:


Doesn't it make sense now? Or does my kindergarten crayon colouring skillz show onto the map... just slightly maybe?

As you can see from the map, we took the north road down to Naracoorte, and then came back along the coast. See? Isn't it obvious?

Chapter One will be coming up next. Sturt to Strathalbyn!

Stay Tuned