More Hong Kong

Had a couple of busy days exploring. Walked, ridden buses, taken the MTR. Public transport is just so efficient. Visited many markets including The Wet selling fresh fruits and veg and meats, the ladies, the bird, the flower, goldfish, fish, and dried goods, and streets specialising in certain types of goods, ie computers, or kitchen equipment. Fascinating. Also been over to HK Island and up the Peak. Great view over HK. Also been to Lantau Island to view the Giant Buddha. Into China tomorrow and our first experience of a sleeper.

HongKong

Ensconsed at the Langham Place Hotel which is very well situated for local markets ie the Wet Market Ladies market etcetc. Rather hot and humid. A bustling crowded place but fascinating in the contrast between old and scruffy and new buildings. Went on market cum orientation tour last night and about to do a Cultural tour. The airport is vast and hugely efficient . Melbourne airport could learn a lot.

China/Silk Road. meanderings

Well on the way. Sitting in business class lounge at KL airport waiting for our connection to Hong Kong. Business class , the way to go. No waiting, nice food, plenty of room.

Bowra Station was a great spot.  Lots and lots of birds.  Chestnut crowned babblers everywhere and saw lots of Major Mitchells.  Definitely a place to return to.  I had several  sessions watching pairs of Bourke's Parrots going about there business.  The last night there we had a tremendous electrical storm.that went on for most of the night.  In the morning there was lots of surface water but we were given the all clear to leave.  We crept out to the road but still managed to get a good coating of red clay that has set like concrete under the wheel arches.  On our way to Sydney we called in at the Warrumbungles National Park.  Sadly, the park has been devastated by the very hot fires 6 months ago.  We could find little evidence of regrowth and most trees don't look as if they will regenerate.  It will be many years before the Warrumbungles recover to anything like their former beauty.  Only the main road, the bush camping area by the creek and a couple of short walks are open.  Camp Blackman, the Visitor Centre and all side roads are closed or gone.  Heart breaking.  The weather got very cold and when in Blackheath the temperature was minus 6 with the wind chill factor.  Thank goodness for the diesel heater.  But we rugged up well and didn't let that stop us exploring look outs, waterfalls etc.  the Blue Mountains are certainly a spectacularly scenic area. So here we are in Sydney staying with our son, Paul, Daughter in law, Alison, and 4 month old Matthew.  Matt is a dream baby.  Full of smiles and curiosity about the world.  Also sleeps amazingly well.  We are so lucky.  Moving over to daughter Angela's home on Friday to spend time with Angela, Tim, Adam and Laura.  Expect to be home on the 5th August. 

I last left you in Alpha.  From there we went to Rubyvale which is actually famous for it's sapphires not it's non existent rubies.  We didn't fancy srabbling around in the dirt searching for what might be a sapphire but we did visit a lot of outlets and learnt a lot about that gem stone. We also saw some amazing sapphires that we could have bought for a mere $95,000 or a cheap one at $45,000.  Did you know that sapphires come in all the colours of the rainbow.  Our favourites were the greens shot with other colours. We meandered on through Emerald and down the Carnarvon Hwy to Roma.  Sadly, because we were buying ice every day we weren't able to revisit Carnarvon Gorge. We stayed outsside Roma on Meadowbank Museum Farm for a couple of days so that we could properly explore Roma and surrounds.  Roma was one of the first places to exploit reserves of gas and coal seam gas.  The farm was a peaceful place to camp with only a couple of others there. Lots of old farm machinery etc to look at.  Eventually we arrived in Robina and  spent a week with our friends Sylvia and Ron.  We were also able to catch up with my niece and her two children and I spent a day with a dear ffriend who has recently moved to the Gold Coast.  On arrival we were informed that although the boat had arrived in Melbourne it didn't have any spares for our fridge on board.  Oh Dear.  However, after some discussion Dometic went away to think about it.  The following Monday , lo and behold, they had found a cooling unit tucked away in Sydney so it was brought up to the Gold Coast quickly and we now have a working fridge.  Halleluyah.  Whilst on the coast wwe also had a new wind screen fitted as a passing road train had heaved a rock at us not far out of Mt. Isa. 
So now we are on our way to Bowra Station outside Cunnamulla for a few days and hope to do some good birding there. Today, when stopped at a roadside rest area another vehicle was there and unbelievably it contained two women (ex members of Melbourne(82) Ionian Club) I hadn't seen for about 15 years.  Much surprise and chatter and we have booked into the same caravan park in St George so that we could continue the conversations.  Huguette and Joy now live in Brisbane and the Gold Coast and are on a trip in Joy's motorhome to far north Oz. 
From Bowra we will take about a week to get down tto Sydney where we will spend about 10 days before coming home.

On our last day in Alice Springs we were lucky to coincide with some NZ friends who are doing a year's trip around Oz.  It was great to see Marian and Clive and we hope the rest of their time here is full of good times.  Unfortunately, the (so called) Plenty Hwy didn't quite live up to the information we were given on several occasions about the good state of the road.  It has certainly had an enormous amount of money spent on it in recent times but the volume of huge B Doubles  full of many heavy cattle haven't done the surface much good at all.  It is a generally a very hard rocky surface that is deteriorating into corrugations.  The scenery is pretty ordinary, flat, dusty, yellow grey soils and sad straggling grey plants.  The first day on the road was a long and tiring as we missed a good camping spot that had been indicated on the map by a bloke we met because it was in the wrong place on the map.  We ended up bush camping at night fall on the bank of the Arthur  River (dry river bed, of course).  The next day wasn't such a long drive and we pulled into Tobermorey Station early in the afternoon. Our  timing was good  because helicopter mustering was in progress and it was fascinating to watch the skill of two young helicopter pilots controlling a large herd of cattle (hard to tell how many but between 500/1000).  They flung those tiny choppers around the sky and did amazing things with them.  Swooping and diving, climbing and spinning, and hovering like enormous dragonflies.    Tobermorey is a real oasis along the track.  Grass and flushing loos and very interesting to get another insight into station life.  Tobermorey is about 6 or 7 thousand square kms!  We really enjoyed our afternoon there.  The next day we made it into Boulia, thankful that we hadn't suffered any tyre damage as many others had.  One young family with five children had 3 punctures.  However, the next morning we discovered that the fridge hadn't been so lucky.  Things were getting rather warm in there and eventually I was forced to throw out everything in the freezer (which was full).  Obviously a problem so we had no choice but to go to Mt. Isa where there is a Dometic (brand of fridge) service centre.  Sadly, we were informed that the cooling system was kaput and that there are currently no spare parts available anywhere in Australia.  A boat is due to arrive in Melbourne on the 30th with the necessary!  So we are travelling with our fridge acting as an old fashioned ice box.  Every day we put more ice in the vegetable bins and this keeps things cool enough if we buy frequently.  It is working out perfectly well.  We have decided to make our way to the Gold Coast and spend some time with our friends, Sylvia and Ron and to see my niece and family and my friend Evi, who has recently moved up there.  We have a booking with a service centre in Burleigh Heads to get the fridge fixed as soon as the part turns up in about 12 days time (hopefully).  We have met others with the same happening and the Mt. Isa man had a string of people in the same boat.  Why is this happening is the question. So, at present we have moved down through Winton and Longreach and tonight are camped in a little country spot called Alpha.  Very quiet and peaceful and a lovely soft afternoon.  That is all for now.

Painted Desert view west of Oodnadatta

Giant termite mound on the Plenty Hwy

Helicopter mustering at Tobermory Station

Black footed rock wallaby, Alice Springs

Sunrise Mt. Dare

The Ochre Pits, West MacDonnell Ranges. The aboriginals sourced ochre here for decorating themselves and for medicinal purposes

Sunrise, Old Ambalindum Station

We left Alice Springs on the 14th after doing much shopping and washing and headed for Glen Helen in the West MacDonnell ranges.  We camped at the resort which is in a rather picturesque spot looking across water at an amazing red cliff face.  After dinner we went over to the resort and listened to the singer.  He is also a photographer for Australian Geographic and has beautiful photos of the centre playing on the TV behind him.  Worth going just to see the photos although we enjoyed  the music as well.  The next day our first port of call was Red Bank Gorge.  About a half hour rocky walk into this spectacular chasm. Next stop, Roma Gorge.  This required an 81/2 km drive along the Davenport river bed.  Very slow over river stones but attractive with lots ghost gums growing in the river bed.  Roma Gorge is a very special place, a beautiful gorge with an aura of peace and history.  We found many ancient (6,800 years old) aboriginal petroglyphs.   Well worth the trip in.  Later we visited Tylers Lookout which has 360 deg. views of the surrounding countryside.  Our last destination was Gosse Bluff Reserve.  140 million years ago a 1km wide comet crashed into the earth and caused huge devastation for hundreds af years.  A fascinating place.  The circular crater is surrounded by rugged rocky hills that are the remains of the enormous amounts of debris thrown up by the impact. 
Today was our 51st wedding anniversary and tonight we had a lovely dinner in the resort.  The equal of any restaurant in Melbourne.  During the day we went first to Serpentine Gorge, another stunning gorge with lovely refections in the pool at the entrance to the gorge.  The remainder of the day we spent at Ormiston Gorge, a truly spectacular place.  After lunch we did the Ghost Gum walk which finishes by coming back along the gorge floor where there are lots of large boulders to clambered over.  Boulders in an array of unusual colours, mauves, purples, pinks, cream, smooth and shiny.  Such a contrast to the sheer deep red rocky walls of the gorge.. One gets a real feel for how ancient Australia is. 
We had an enormous stroke of luck.  When we left Alice the last thing Bill did was fill a water tank.  Unfortunately, without realising it, he left the cap and bunch of keys on the back bumper of the van.  We drove into Serpentine Gorge on our way to Glen Helen but didn't stop as there was nowhere to park our big rig.  Two days later, when we returned to Serpentine Gorge, as we began the walk we noticed a water cap and keys on a picnic table.  Thought "oh, the poor peoople, they will be upset to lose those". A couple of hundred metres down the track Bill suddenly said, "I have an awful feeling those keys look familiar", so he ran back and sure enough they were ours!  We didn't even know they were missing! as we hadn't needed those particular keys.. It turns out that a ranger had found them and put them on the table hoping someone would claim them.  Can't believe they sat on the bumper for more than 100 kms or that no one else had acquired them for two days. We made a speccial trip back to the ranger station to thank him. Decided that was the best 51st anniversary present we could have had.  Back in Alice now having the truck serviced etc. before the next leg of our trip.  Planning on going back east via the Plenty Hwy.  so should be in Boulia about Friday.

Sunset on the cliff at Glen H

Rocks, Ormiston Gorge

Water on the way to Newhaven