Flinders again

Another shot I took during my cycling tour of the Flinders Ranges; somewhere in the Brachina Gorge region. I love the contrasting colours and the sheer rugged beauty.

St Mary's Peak

As a follow up to my ABC Wednesday's "outback" post I will show a few more places in the Flinders Ranges.

St Mary's Peak is probably one of the most climbed and photographed hills in the Flinders. I have climbed it a couple of times ... when I was younger! It lies on the eastern side of Wilpena Pound. To climb up and back is a full day's hike. When I did it I started at the Wilpena Pound camp-site, walked through the pound and up to the top and then returned via a track on the outside.

Nearly at the top! I found this shot amongst my slides; taken in September 1968.

ABC Wednesdays - O for Outback Oldyssey

What is an oldyssey? Several years ago Bike SA ran a cycling event called the Outback Odyssey and another group of 'older' cyclists organised an alternative; the Outback Oldyssey. It was an epic journey, riding up to a 100 km on some days.

I joined the Oldessy in the second week and enjoyed some challenging riding in the Flinders Ranges.

One of the most memorable days was riding through Bunyero and Brachina Gorges.

Another challenging and 'fun' day was riding on a bush track from Wilpena to Rawnsley Park.

Many of the roads and tracks we rode along were part of the Mawson Trail, a mapped cycling route from just north of Adelaide to the Blinman in the Flinders Ranges.


To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions go to the ABC Wednesdays' site or to see direct links to their own sites go here.

Leafy green eastern suburbs

These trees are typical of those found in many streets east of the City.

City street garden

Adelaide's gardens are blooming with spring colour; private gardens and roadside plots alike. I photographed this on the eastern side of the the City on Sunday on my way home from a bike ride in the Eastern suburbs.

City of Adelaide Coat of Arms

If you look at yesterday's post you will see this Coat of Arms displayed on the Albert Tower. The original coat of arms was attached to the stern of The City of Adelaide; a sailing ship that brought supplies to the settlement of South Australia.

The arm holding a miner's pick at the top represents the early South Australian mining industry that provided wealth to the state.

The lion symbolises England from where the first settlers came and the kangaroo symbolises Australia, the country to which they came.

On the shield is

• a three masted ship typical of the vessels that sailed to and from South Australia
• a golden fleece representing our sheep industry
  
• a bull's head symbolic of our cattle industry
• a golden wheat sheaf representing our farming industry
  

The Albert Tower

A feature of the Adelaide Town Hall, completed in 1866, is this bell tower; named after England's Prince Albert. The tower was void of a clock until 1935, when one of Adelaide's prominent citizens and former mayors, Sir J. Lavington Bonython, donated one; 69 years after its completion.

Adelaide Town Hall

This is the Adelaide Town Hall, on King William Street in the centre of the city. It was built in the1860s.

My recent trip to Canberra caused me once again to make comparisons to our fair city. Adelaide has its unique historic charm; much younger than European cities like the ones we visited in France last year, but none the less has valuable links to our past.

Embassies

This will be my last post from our recent holiday in Canberra - a slide show of some of the foreign embassies in the city.

ABC Wednesdays - N is for National

This is the National Carillon, situated on a small island on Lake Burley Griffin in the centre of Canberra. The 50 metre tall structure houses 55 bells; weighing as little as 7 kilograms up to a massive 6 tons and covering four and a half octaves.

The National Carillon was a gift from the British Government to the people of Australia to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the National Capital. Queen Elizabeth II officially opened the National Carillon on 26 April 1970.

The bells chime every quarter hour and regular recitals are given. On Sunday we heard part of a concert by a carillonist, Susan Antcliff.

Click here for a link to a virtual tour of the National Carillon.

Canberra is our National capital and if you look back on my posts on Sunday and Monday, you will see some more National buildings lit up at night.

We just arrived home from our holiday in Canberra; hence the reason for this post being up a bit later than usual. I did have my laptop and a 3G mobile wireless modem with me, so I was able to get posts up during the trip. Last night we were staying in a town where they only had a GSM network which was quite slow, so I decided to delay today's post until I got home.

To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions go to the ABC Wednesdays' site or to see direct links to their own sites go here.

ACT Bushfire Memorial

In 2003 a devastating bushfire caused widespread damage in the Australian Capital Territory. 

Four people lost their lives and five hundred houses were destroyed. A monument has been created at Stromlo Forest Park as a memorial. 

Very much a community project; the designers Tess Horwitz, Tony Steel and Martin Jolly incorporated 500 images from 80 people in the glass columns in this amphitheatre.

160 people provided inscriptions to be used on bricks in the curved wall at the entrance to the park.

Looking towards Mt Stromlo and the park one can see results of the devastation; five years on the area is slowing recovering with new growth.

Click here for a link to an information sheet about the memorial.

Canberra - more night shots

Old Parliament House

(New) Parliament House

Australian National War Memorial

Canberra at night

I love the challenge of taking night shots, so on Friday night we set out to see Canberra at night.

The High Court of Australia

National Museum of Australia

National Library of Australia

Inside Parliament House

Australia's federal government has two groups of elected members. 

Australia is divided into electoral districts of approximately equal numbers of people. A person elected by the majority of voters in that district becomes a member of the House of Representatives. It has 150 members.

The House of Representatives chamber

The second group of elected members belong to the Senate. There are 76 senators; 12 from each state and 2 each from the Australian Capital Territory and the Northern Territory.

The Senate chamber

A good overview about Australia's Parliament can be found here.

Parliament House

Australia has a Federal Government and each state has a State Government. The Federal Government is based in Canberra in a separate area of land called the ACT (Australian Capital Territory)

(New) Parliament House was opened in 1988. It was built as a replacement of an existing building (Old Parliament House). 

When you look from the roof of Parliament House you see Old Parliament House and behind it several kilometres in the distance across Lake Burley Griffin you can see the National War Memorial.

When looking from the War Memorial you see new Parliament House 'perched' above the old building. 

Lake Burley Griffith

Canberra was designed in 1912 by Burley Griffith, an American architect. An important feature of its design is a lake named after him.

The lake is used by a few small charter cruise vessels, but recreational power boats are prohibited. This photo shows yachts from the Canberra Yacht Club competing last Sunday.

The tree lined shore makes for very pleasant walking and cycling.

ABC Wednesdays - M for Murrumbidgee

The Murrumbidgee is one of the River Murray's tributaries. This photo was taken just out of Canberra, about a hundred kilometres from its source in the Australian Alps. The Murrumbidgee's  total length is about 1600 kilometres. Murrumbidgee is an aboriginal word meaning big water.

I am posting this post from Canberra, Australia's capital, where we are on vacation at present.

To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions go to the ABC Wednesdays' site or to see direct links to their own sites go here.

Road to the top

Canberra has a fantastic network of bike lanes and bike paths, but today our illustrious leader took a short cut up a bush track to a scenic lookout. Demanding enough at the best of times, it was made worse because it had rained the night before.

Space exploration

This  is Deep Space Station 43, a 70 metre radio telescope, located at the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla about 45 km from the city. This antenna is one of a series of large antennas that enable NASA to communicate with and receive signals from distant space craft exploring our Solar System.

The complex also houses Australia's largest permanent collection of memorabilia and hardware used in the exploration of space; all very interesting.

Floriade 21

Each year Canberra comes alive with a vivid display of flowers. Over a million plants are featured in specially designed layouts along a theme; this year's theme was 'Films that shaped our nation' and the event, Floriade 21, ran from September 13 to October 12 (today).

Roadside rest area

In an effort to prevent accidents through fatigue when driving long distances on rural highways, roadside rest stops have been established along the route.

Some of these like the one we stopped at for lunch have shelters with tables and seats. Some even have toilets.

This is a "modern" long drop toilet; a clever adaption of the traditional outback dunny. Click here to see a typical outback dunny on one of my past posts.

Tranquility

Another river shot; I took this at dusk today at Renmark. We are are our way to Canberra for a short holiday, so over the next week or so my posts will be of places further afield than usual.

Canberra is about 1200 kilometres from Adelaide, so we have quite a drive ahead of us tomorrow; we have only driven 250 kilometres towards our destination.

Houseboats

A comment made yesterday prompted me to show these houseboats on the River Murray. Some are privately owned, but most are available for hire from tourism operators. These vessels are moored near Berri, about 200 km from Adelaide.

Do you like to dream? This 10 - 12 berth luxury vessel is for sale; only $255,000. Click here to see the details of "Cocktails and Dreams".

ABC Wednesdays - L for Lock

In the 1920's and 30's a series of 14 locks and weirs were built along the River Murray to manage water flow and levels in the river. This is Lock 4 at Bookpurnong (between Berri and Loxton).

The locks are large enough to accommodate 6 to 8 medium sized houseboats and passage through a lock takes about 20 minutes. The lock system also allows quite large cruise vessels to navigate the river.

Alongside of Lock 4 is a pleasant picnic spot. This was my cycle group's lunch stop on a ride we did from Berri in 2005.

To find out more about ABC Wednesdays and see other participants' contributions go to the ABC Wednesdays' site or to see direct links to their own sites go here.

Bottlebrush

The bottlebrush (callistemon) is a native Australian plant and is suited to the Adelaide climate, hence their common use as street trees. Once established they need no additional water and they flower profusely in spring and early summer.

One billionth jar of Vegemite

No not this jar; I wish it was! Yesterday the billionth jar of Vegemite was produced; a milestone in the history of the product.

Vegemite is a spread rich in vitamin B1 made from brewer's yeast. It was developed in 1922 and first hit the shelves in 1923. Now, somewhat of an Australian icon, it is found in most Australian homes.

It is an acquired taste; you either love it or hate it. We once had a Japanese exchange student staying with us who was determined to try 'our' Vegemite. She eagerly spread it on on some bread and took a bite. I can still see the look on her face; it did not taste like what she expected.

But for me, I will hoe into this in a moment. I love it and I know it's good for me!