Hi there,
In part 4 of Kiama which will wrap up this trip, i will focus on some of the surrounding areas of Kiama that interface with the sea. In non jargon language we would call it the Coastline. We have seen some already and on any given day the sea can be calm or ferocious, which may or may not change our perception of the coastline.
Look at the photo above, the rockpools are nice and calm whereas at the top right hand side of the photo the ocean is pounding into the coastline. What if we change the sky to dark storm clouds? Does that change our perception of the coastline? Does it suddenly become threatening? Maybe, maybe not. One can find beauty in nature in any circumstance i would think. One thing is for sure, it’s the ferocious ocean that sculpts the coastline.
Look at the power of the ocean above which slams into some rocks and creates that huge spray. Majestic and frightening all at the same time.
Here it is nice and calm and barely a ripple in the ocean.
I like this photo, it shows the interplay between rock, sand and ocean. Sand that once was rock worn down by the ocean over centuries.
Here’s a picture of some rough sea, angry at the wind pulling at it.
Just the obligatory seagull surveying the sea, nothing more!
Some interesting formations above created by the endless cycle of tides.
It would be interesting to know if the first Western Explorers who saw these interesting block formations a couple of hundred years ago would notice anything different today. I somehow think not, there may be one or two changes in size in some of these blocks. One may have to go back 10’s of thousands of years to see any real difference. I’m not a geologist, only surmising!
The ravenous sea wanting to swallow you up!
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The thing about Kiama is there’s some lovely coastline, rugged and dangerous looking, some lovely beaches looking cool calm and collected, some lovely rock pools that can be a whole lot of fun. A bit of everything to suit everyone.
Until next time.
These are actually Epiphytes(plants that grow on other plants-but not parasites). They have a lovely silky smooth glossy green leaf. Quite a spectacular plant and readily available in most nurseries.
One of the trees in this rainforest is the Jackwood(see picture below) or Native Laurel, which is also known as Cryptocarya glaucescens which grows to about 35 metres tall. Click 
I just realised that you can’t see the top! Not a great photo but gives you a sense of scale! Another commonly grown plant in gardens is the Elkhorn which is an Epiphyte as well. scientifically known as Platycerium bifurcatum. The one below is quite a size!
Another great tree was the Strangler Fig, Ficus oblique , which is also known as the Small leaved Fig. The leaves are the only thing on it that are small!
And again!
It was very hard to get all of this tree in the frame, what a monster!
Some nice buttress roots
I think we will progress to smaller things just to calm ourselves down a fraction. Below is the Fragrant Fern, Microsorum scandens which is clambering over a boulder. Looks quite lovely don’t you think?
Now for something out of the blue and a slightly different track we came across a very interesting bird which can be difficult to see in its native habitat.
The Superb Lyrebird, Menura novaehollandiae . Click 
Not great photos, but in this case they will have to do. Check out the amazing tail they have. Below you can see the landscape and how green it is, a couple of patches of red reveal the Illawarra Flame Tree, Brachychiton acerifolius. Click 
Some more ferns, this could be Blechnum neohollandicum , Prickly Rasp Fern.
This may be the Sickle Fern, Pellaea falcata.
Some nice lacy effects from under a tree-fern
The one below is the Giant Maiden Hair , Adiantum formusum.
Heres another lovely side view of the Birds Nest Fern.
Some vines now to make it a little scary!
Look out! You don’t want to stand still for too long Here!
Here are some roots of a strangler Fig and more vines!
Hmmmm.
A truly remarkable environment for adventitious plants.
Another remarkable tree here is the Australian Red Cedar, Toona ciliata var. australis. This tree is now scarce as it was highly sought after by the early settlers and the early timber industry as the wood was highly sought after for its fine grain. It has beautiful dusky pink-red trunks.
Very Majestic.
And another one.
This one below has some ferns growing on it. I think they may be the Rock Felt Fern, Pyrrosia rupestris.
Ill finish our tour here with a couple of general shots in the Minnamurra Rainforest. Go and have a look at it if you ever get the chance!
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Until next time.
Beautiful clear water with nice waves, quite rough when the wind was up otherwise it was calm.
Sun has just set behind the hills to the rear of Kiama which lead to the escarpment up to the plains around Bowral and Moss Vale. It’s quite a drop from Moss Vale through Knights Hill down to Kiama. The Budderoo National Park is here to which is spectacular. Here’s some nice rock pools at Kiama East Beach with the waves crashing in behind them!
More kids contemplating the ocean.
Around Kiama there a couple of Blowholes. A large one and a small one. When we were there the small one was outpacing the large one by a country mile. That’s a long way by the way!
Above we have some tourists waiting for the action and below we have the small blow-hole from a distance.
The coastline here is quite impressive and there’s a lovely walk along it in either direction from the caravan park. Here a some photos of the sea crashing into the coastline.
If you are looking for a great summer holiday. Kiama is the place to go! Stay tuned for future posts from this part of the world.
There was a trip to Kiama in January. More will be revealed later.
There was some skiing action. More may be revealed later.
Spring Arrived. More will be revealed about this.
I think that will do. Obviously there’s a whole lot more that goes on with life but seriously, who’s interested in that. we go to work, we come home from work, we have tea, we go to the toilet, we sleep, we wake up, we go to work, we have morning tea, we come home, we have tea, we go to sleep, we wake up, we go to work, we have morning tea, we have lunch, we go to the toilet, we go home, we have tea, we go to sleep, we wake up. Get the picture!
Here’s a few lined up ready to go on some long tours, we were only going to do the 20 minute version.
Old Tom’s waterhole, not sure who old Tom is. You can see our rig in the car park all packed and ready to head south(home).
getting up close with our ride! Here we go!
Time to head towards the Stuart Highway and start our 2,381 kilometre journey home!
Right it is!
A far too common sight on the side of the Stuart Highway. Rolled and crashed vehicles, obviously too expensive to retrieve out here, wont be long and they will be scavenged and rusted away in this harsh landscape. Another common sight is road trains, the lifeblood of the outback! Click 
A couple more photos of these largish trucks!.
Not real great fun overtaking them either as you watch the individual trailers moving around!
We were heading for Marla, 5ookm away in South Australia, our first stop on the way home. When we set up camp behind the Road House we realised there were seven of us instead of the usual six. We had picked up a hitch hiker!
Poor little fellow, thought he might like a holiday, we caught him and placed him on the side of a tree at Marla much to the disgust of our youngest who thought we could take him home.
Next morning we continued south to Coober Pedy to have a look at this interesting place, click 
There is some serious mining for Opals here, it is also known as the opal mining capital of the world with over 70 opal fields. To me the unfortunate thing is it leaves the landscape looking like the above and below photo’s, interesting but quite ugly!
There are a lot of houses here that are mostly underground or partially underground to escape the searing heat experienced here. You can see the ventilation shafts in the photo below.
Here’s a panoramic view from the lookout.
Another view.
Time to move on. unfortunately we found Coober Pedy to be dirty, unappealing and creepy. Not a glowing endorsement considering plenty of other people find it amazing. I should also say that we didn’t do any of the underground mine tours or building tours, apparently these are quite good. We can recommend the Coober Pedy Outback Bar and Grill, we had a really great lunch! Time to hit the road again and get as far along as we could before it got dark.
Another road photo, not really exciting. Lots of road to look at.
Last night on the side of the road, plenty of firewood required for a nice warm fire!
Toasty feet.
It was a cold windy night. We had one more night before we got home and we decided to book a house at a campground which was sort of nice not to have to unpack and set up the camper trailer, a last night of luxury. Sort of! I apologise for all the blurry/grainy photos above, they were all taken on a IPhone 5a, b or c, who would know…Well after 6500 kilometres and three weeks on the road, it was great to be home with a whole heap of memories and experiences which we shall never forget for all the right reasons! Now the fun starts…..Unpacking!!
That’s just me with my family poking fun at me, never seemed to have the camera away from my eyes! Oh, and a small bald spot!
Part 13 – You’re already on it!!
I will finish here with a tribute to the Northern Territory using lyrics from a hugely popular and loved classic of the screen and Broadway. I couldn’t have said it better!!
Notice above on the left hand side on top of the dome, plants in a very exposed situation, coping with all sorts of extreme weather. Walpa means windy and quite frequently you will get refreshing winds through here. Refreshing in winter time may mean “cold”.
We didn’t see any animals in this gorge and one could imagine that with the hoards of tourists who come in here everyday, they would be quite selective with the times they would show themselves.
The walls are virtually straight up and down!
Not sure why I included this photo, just like how the water plays across the stony ground. This is actually a very small stream that was trickling across the pathway. Might be more apt to call it runoff. Just imagine its a high-resolution satellite image taken from high altitude of a flooded plain. Amazing what you can see in a picture! Look at the size of those people walking compared to the gorge walls!
Here’s a few more water related shots. No doubt the native fauna enjoys these cool ponds.
A nice reflection.
We are nearing the end of the track here and the flora landscape is dominated by the Spear wood vine, Pandorea doratoxylon , which is making very large shrubs and thickets here. We have seen this at a few locations now, click 
An interesting information panel above. Below you can see some of the Spearwood in flower(white dots on green foliage, if you squint).
Well, we’ve reached the end of the track and officially our feet are now sore and tired after two days of a fair bit of walking, but we are at peace with the landscape and our minds are refreshed.
Thanks Kata Tjuta, we may or may not ever see you again, but your features and form are forever indelibly inked in our minds.
So long Uluru, it has been wonderful!
These two photos were taken from the dune viewing area where there were some interesting plants to check out as well, always a good thing.
This is the Broad leaf Parakeelya, Calandrinia balonensis, an annual or perennial growing to 30cm either way with a basal rosette of fleshy linear to lanceolate leaves up to 10 cm long and 1 cm wide. A good indicator plant of recent good rain, if there’s a good number and they are of a good size-this indicates recent good rain as they grow rapidly during wet seasons and store water for the dry times. It has a small purple poppy like flower on tallish stems that dance around in the breeze, if there is one!
The only other imposing rock that’s around here! The tree’s you see in the distance are Desert Oak, Allocasuarina decaisneana , also look at the first two photos of this post, the majority are all Desert Oak, quite common across the spinifex grasslands. Juvenile Desert Oak are quite different in appearance compared to mature examples. More will be revealed about these trees in a future post! Now lets head off and have a look at this place.
Kata Tjuta is a Anangu mens site and sacred under traditional law, which means for us tourists there is no wandering off the pathways. There are plenty of different walks here and lots to see, so as we meander along, please stay with me! No wandering off! Note in the above photo the puddle of water which is a byproduct of rain we had here the day before. If you have read part 11 of this series you would realise this, but now we were enjoying the crisp sunshine, it is winter by the way! A balmy 17 degrees Celsius! You can see a bunch of people above, and to their left a green patch. I will concentrate on that now, the patch that is.
Here’s that green patch. Wanderrie grass , Eriachne scleranthoides , a very rare type of grass, see quote from Grasses of Australia, “Known from two localities in SW central Australia. Conglomerate monoliths (Mt Olga and Mt Currie) growing on crests, scree slopes, in chasms and crevices, in shallow sand, gravelly slopes or shallow stony red soil, sometimes in seepage from
Quite a sharp prickly grass, looks more shrub like though doesn’t it! Even closer below.
This is a problem I find, I get distracted by things off to the side of the pathway and lo and behold the next time I look up the family is gone!! I’m sure I’ll catch them somewhere.
Don’t know why, but I found this quite fascinating. Here in the middle of no where, the only two objects that rise above the plain separated by a mere 50 kilometres are made of completely different rock. I’m sure this happens everywhere, but I just found it fascinating.. Click 
Now for some more wildflowers. Look at that patch of Pussytails, Ptilotis.
It is an annual herb growing to about 50cm and usually occurs on rocky or gravelly ranges, hills or rises and on acidic rock and also found in Mulga dominated red plains and other locations.
We were heading to the Valley of the Winds and eventually the Karingana lookout, a return trip of 2.5 hours on a grade 4 – difficult track according to the visitor guide. I think it was more in line with moderate track! Here we are well into the Valley of the Winds and yes it was slightly breezy here!
It’s at this point in the above photo that if the temperature is over 36 deg Celsius at 11am, the track is closed. This is the Karu Lookout, impressive to say the last. Those mounds in the distance look like a flight of stairs, sort of!
As you can see it is quite rocky here.
Nothing amazing with the above photo, just showing more rock and more conglomerate, you can also see water seeping out from under that large slab. Below is a swathe of Hairy Mulla Mulla, quite impressive to see it like this in its natural environment.
Again not a great photo but it just shows a lovely natural garden bed with no human influence! I read something recently which I hadn’t really thought of before and that was someone’s thought on grouping colours in the garden as we do, pastels here, bright hot colours over there and so on. The thought was (not exactly in these words)”Nature doesn’t separate plants into colour groupings, so I’m not going too. There is just a riot of colour throughout my garden”. I really liked that and it may just become my new mantra. Not sure what the old mantra was!!
Lovely clear stream!
These plants I have no idea at the moment what they are, they are a work in progress.
Pretty, never the less!
In the above photo we are nearing the Karingana Lookout. You can see it in the distance, the high part in between the two walls. The walls of the domes just seemed to rise and rise into the bright noon day sun.
Well! We made it, what an amazing panorama greeted us!
Time to sit down for a quick bite to eat. The 3 oldest boys decided they would keep going on the circuit walk and us oldies along with our youngest lad turned back here. Here they are heading off at breakneck speed as per normal!
Below is another beautiful spot to recharge your batteries!
Heading back to Karu Lookout. Below we have another Pussytail, Ptilotus exaltus , also known as Tall Mulla Mulla.
Grows to about 1.5 metres tall forming large showy drifts in open scrub and mulga country. The flowers start off cone shape then eventually lengthen to be elongated and cylindrical 3-20cm in length and 4.5cm in diameter. Compare the above two photos. The leaves are quite thick and rubbery looking, flowering from early spring until summer. Widespread across all mainland states. Here’s a small drift of them below.
Simply gorgeous!
Another plant we saw was , Hakea subarea . This small tree also made an appearance at Ormiston Gorge. Click 
Here’s a beautiful Eremophila as well. Quite possibly Eremophila latrobei .
Some walls for perspective! Note the little pocket of green three-quarters of the way up. Plants Hey! Amazing.
This is a small person one though!
He’s also carrying a firearm( a gun I was told!).
Here are some more flowering meadows(for want of a better word) which were good to see.
Oops! forgot about this little fellow. sorry!
It was originally eaten by camels in the outback, hence one of its common names. One presumes then that cattle also ate or still eat it! Summer forage option! Here’s a few more random plant photos!
Obviously a Brachyscome of some description, beautiful anyway.
A nice sculpture below. The dead tree that is.
Now we are nearly back to the start of this circuit walk. We did another small walk after this one but I will cover that next time round, i.e. part 12b! To finish off, I have added the below photos sans words as a parting gesture to the Valley of the Winds at Kata Tjuta. They speak for themselves!
Cheers!
I love how the branches radiate out from the trunk on this one. Native to Queensland, this evergreen coniferous tree can grow to somewhere between 30-45 metres. The Bunya Pine is the last surviving species in the section Bunya of the genus Araucaria. Fossils from section Bunya have been found in South America and Europe. This tree was around during the Jurassic.
Leaves of the Bunya above, bark below.
That’s part of the Bunya Pine cone! Weighing in at an impressive 18 kg (roughly) and the size of a football. a hard hat may be called for if you decide to spend an extended amount of time under the Bunya. Living for about 500 years, the Bunya pine makes for an impressive looking tree in a weird sort of way!
Next up we have the Atlas Cedar, Cedrus atlantica
Atlas Cedar is a Cedar native to the Atlas mountains in Morocco, reaching a height of 30-35 metre with a girth of up to 2 metres. Here is the bark with Lichen.
One of the smaller trees in this park is the Irish Strawberry Tree, Arbutus unedo . Can be either a large shrub or small tree, grows to about 10 metres and native to Mediterranean areas and parts of Ireland. It has white Erica like flowers that turn into large red berries, a bit like a strawberry! Here are its leaves.
Arbutus unedo is normally multi trunked. It was first described by 
The bark of the Irish Strawberry tree is quite remarkable as well.
Another Cedrus here is Cedrus deodara, also known as the Deodar Cedar.
Looks a bit like the Whomping Willow, don’t you think? Not that I’ve ever stood under the Whomping Willow, I just feel that this Deodar Cedar is tensing up its boughs to fling them around!
Bark above and cones below.
The Deodar Cedar is native to the Western Himalayas in Eastern Afghanistan through to Western Nepal. Grows to about 40-50 metres and occasionally 60 metres with a girth of up to 3 metres. This is also the national tree of Pakistan.
Next we have the Canary Island Pine, Pinus canariensis .
Obviously native to the Canary Islands, this is a sub tropical pine which doesn’t like cold temperatures. Growing to about 30 – 40 metres but also able to reach 60 metres, with a girth of 2.5 metres. It has extremely long leaves which are needle like, see below.
The bark is interesting as well.
Fun fact! “The tree’s long needles make a significant contribution to the islands water supply, trapping large amounts of condensation from the moist air coming off the Atlantic with the prevailing north-eastern wind (locally called “alisios”). The condensation then drops to the ground and is quickly absorbed by the soil, eventually percolating down to the underground aquifers”.
Lets have a look at the Western Yellow Pine, Pinus ponderosa . This pine hails from the Western United States and Canada and is the official state tree of Montana.
Not sure where the top is in the above photo, in the wild one of these has been measured at 81.77 metres tall, now that’s tall! Check out its bark, that’s pretty cool too!
One more look at this tall tree.
Now, finally to the mummy or daddy of them all. Sequoiadendron giganteum . The Sierra Redwood. Although not the tallest tree in the world, that belongs to Sequoia sempervirens the coastal redwood, the Sierra Redwoods are the largest single tree’s and largest living thing (by volume) in the world. The biggest one, known as General Sherman is 83.8 metres tall with a girth of 31.3 metres at ground level. Yes, that’s not a typo! 31.3 metres at ground level. That’s a volume of 1,486.9 cubic metres!
The bark can be up to 90cm thick, making it quite fire-proof. The oldest known Sierra Redwood is thought to be 3,500 years old.
A large tree can have about 11,000 cones and surprisingly for such a large tree the cones are quite small. Here’s a collection that someone’s gathered.
As the name may suggest, this tree comes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. Here’s a row of them below.
Here they are in their full glory
A couple more photos.
To finish off, here is a small plaque in the gardens, nodding to the great botanist Ferdinand von Mueller, who had the foresight to donate these tree’s and seeds for future generations to enjoy, not only here but in many public gardens and Botanic gardens throughout the state. Thankyou!
huon perennials 