Before Melbourne

The one downside to all the sunshine in Tennant Creek is that after a while you start to miss the odd grey rainy day. So I'm heading back to Melbourne at the end of the week with plans to hit the streets, camera in hand. Got me thinking about those first few days when the camera was new...

City back lane cafes

And other back lane activities

The industrial precinct over the Westgate

Back on the Barkly

Spending time out and about on the Barkly is a pretty enjoyable way to earn a day's pay. There is always something special to see.

Through the winter the clouds put on a pretty spectacular display.

Sunrise on the Barkly Highway is worth getting our of bed early for.

These ladies were intrigued by the work I was doing.

Always time for a cuppa under a coolabah tree.

Wind mills aren't all that common anymore. I just happened to turn around when I was looking at this one to see the shadow it cast.

Good for a refreshing dip after a hot day.

Since arriving in the Territory I've been on the look out for a Thorny Devil. I swerved just in time to miss this little guy sitting in the middle of the Barkly Highway. Even at 130km/hr his thorns were very distinctive.

The Barkly in the grip of a long lasting drought.

The rain came early in January. Just a day after I took these, Tennant Creek was flooded cutting off the Stuart Highway.

Christmas with Family and Friends

As much as I love the Barkly, family and friends will always draw me back to Victoria - if only for visits to enjoy extended Christmas celebrations. But instead of the usual Christmas shots, I've picked a few of my favourites of the people I spent it with...

Backyard golf is a bit of fun for Kayla... if only Ed would accept that the ball is not his.

Cooper in serious contemplation...

Rare time together for Kayla and her Uncle Mark.

So... which monster are you, Cooper?

Photos of Christine not poking her tongue out are a rarity. To get these ones I had to distract her with some of her favourites - tea and books.

And we can't have photos of Christine without throwing in a cat...

Summer afternoons on the veranda with the family and friends. A cuppa and a good chat... and often a passionate debate!

Snoozing on the lounge room floor after lunch is not just a Christmas Day tradition... its a necessity!

Outback SA

This year's 3000km trip south from Tennant Creek to Melbourne for Christmas took me through a grey and moody South Australian landscape.

On an a break from driving, I took a purely chance turn-off to "The Breakaways" just north of Coober Pedy. With no expectation of finding anything of note, I was promptly blown away by a landscape unlike any other I've seen.


From this ridge top for as far as the eye can see...

With all the opal mining in the area it took an interpretive board kindly provided by Parks SA to convince me that this is a natural landscape and not the result of human (or alien) activity.

Once an inland sea, the geology here is a patchwork of colour, texture and contrast.

Back in Coober Pedy...

Is this a joke? Or should the guy who put up this sign follow his own advice?

Fascinated with Coober Pedy (in the same way you can't help but look at a car accident) we detoured to Andamooka - Just like Coober Pedy... only not so polished!

I thought these miners shacks must have been built some time in the 1800's, but the writing on this one set me straight proudly declaring "built Sept 6th 1956"

Inside one of the cottages...

Lake Hart, one of SA's many salt lakes.

Leaving the desert and resting at Port Germien where the grey mood persisted through low tide.