Northern Territory Day 3

The third day of my trip, I visited Kata Tjuta (the Olgas). A number of friends had recommended it as being as good as, or better than, Ularu. I didn't feel that it was better than Ularu, but I agree that it was just as good, but a completely different experience.

I started out in the morning with the Valley of the Winds walk. The walk starts as a single section of track heading in between the rock mounds of Kata Tjuta, until you reach the first lookout. From here there is an amazing view of the Valley of the winds.

After the first lookout the walk becomes a loop walk, down into the floor of the valley, through a steep section between two mounds, to the second lookout, then back down and around to the valley floor, then back up to the first lookout. The path is rocky, uneven footing, and often quite steep, but I still found it easer to walk on than the sand of the Ularu basewalk. I had a walking stick with me, which was invaluable both for reducing the stress on my bad knee, and for helping me to keep my balance in some of the trickier parts.

The valley floor was probably the easiest part of the walk, until the steep scramble up to the second lookout.

The view from the second lookout was the highlight of the whole walk.

And here is a view from the track, looking back up to the second lookout. There are some other walkers, coming down the track.

The continuation of the loop walk after the second lookout gave me some great views of the some of the other mounds of Kata Tjuta.

Finally, the loop section of the walk was finished, and I returned up to the first lookout, then down to the carpark. Then it was time to eat lunch, and put an ice pack on my knee and ankle. After lunch, I did the much shorter and easier Wulpa Gorge walk, through another area of Kata Tjuta. As this walk was much easier, it was also a lot more crowded, with a lot of tour groups. Wulpa gorge is greener than the Valley of the Winds walk, with relatively more dense vegitation.

After all of this I drove back to Yulara and collapsed for a while!

Ballarat/New garden bed

Well, it has been a busy weekend. Yesterday (Saturday), I drove up to Ballarat to visit friends. It was wonderful spring weather, a bit windy, but otherwise warm and sunny. We ate lunch at a restaurant on the shore of Lake Wendouree (which has water in it again!), and then just hung around chatting. Eventually we watched the sunset over the lake, before heading our separate ways. I was a lovely day.

Today, I planted plants into my new garden bed. I have been working on the garden bed gradually for months, starting with using a mattock to dig trenches to lay sleepers in, then laying down cardboard to kill the grass, then filling the bed with soil. Finally the bed was ready for planting. One of my friends in Ballarat (one of the people I had lunch with yesterday) had sent me a list of plants that are indigenous to the area I live in, and this morning I visited a native nursery that stocks some of them. The nursery is a not-for-profit organisation called Greenlink, which relies on volunteers to grow indigenous plants in tube stock. The goal is to make sure that the species that are local to the area continue to be grown in the area.

I was lucky enough to find three of the plants on my list in stock, and another type that one of the volunteers told me is definitely indigenous to my area, and one that they are trying to push people to plant. So I got 2 of each type, for a total of 8 plants. The varieties are:

Epacris Impressa (common heath)

Platylobium obtusangulum (Common flat pea)

Dianella admixta/revoluta (Black Anther Flax Lily)

Anthropodium strictum (Chocolate lily)

I planted out the tube stock, except for the platylobium, which the nursery volunteer told me was a bit small to plant yet, he recommended that I keep it in the tube for a couple of weeks before planting. I have put the tubes in the location I intend to plant them, and if they survive the next couple of weeks then I will plant them in. I also put some clear plastic tubing around the plants, to give them some protection for the first week or so.

And now, I wait. Hopefully some of them will survive, and maybe all of them will. Time will tell :)