Australia by Red Nomad OZ
The Pinnacle Lookout with Lake Bellfield below, Grampians National Park, Victoria

Walk the Pinnacle – Grampians National Park

WARNING: Do NOT attempt the Pinnacle walk if you don’t like A) heights; B) snakes; C) wildflowers; or D) looking uncool! Whether or not D) applies depends to a certain degree on physical fitness levels – and possibly hiking fashion sense! Although tragically that’s not a factor if you’re like me.  That red face, heaving chest and death-rattle puffing after[…]

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Geikie Gorge, via Fitzroy Crossing, Western Australia

The Incredible “Icebergs” of Geikie Gorge!

‘Look out for the cat snakes on the rock ledges,’ our guide warned. ‘We saw one stalking a bird the other evening’. CAT Snakes? ‘But don’t take my word for it – I failed the snake identification exam!’ she laughed. Pilchard and I exchanged glances. The previous day a gaggle of grey nomads had shown us a photo of the[…]

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Swimmers Beach, Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

On the Beach … Swimmers Beach, Yorke Peninsula

The sun rose as usual on this shining, sparkling pre-Xmas summer morning. A nice day for an apocalypse*. And where better to face the end of the world than on a (mostly) deserted Aussie beach, in an inadvertent echo of Australian classic On the Beach? A disturbing vision of post-apocalyptic dystopia, Australian author Nevil Shute’s masterpiece** was adapted for a[…]

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Cutta Cutta Caves, via Katherine, Northern Territory

The Ghoulish Guide of Cutta Cutta Caves!

I hadn’t suspected the otherworldly limestone Karst country we’d crossed en route from the Visitor Centre to the Cutta Cutta Caves entrance to be a portal to a parallel universe. But had we inadvertently stumbled into a casting call for a bad B-grade movie? For now, waiting for our guide at the stairs leading down to the locked entry gate[…]

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Native Waterweed on the surface of the Crater pool, Mt Hypipamee National Park, Queensland

The Hypipamee Heebie-jeebies …

‘I would NOT like to fall down there,’ the backpacker remarked to his mates with that peculiarly British mixture of overconfident understatement and blinding obvious as he stared down into the depths of the crater. They nodded wisely, unsure whether or not they’d heard something profound, but deciding to play it safe. Banal though his utterance was, however, he was[…]

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Victoria River Escarpment, Northern Territory

The 5-Experiences-in-24-hours Victoria River Roadhouse Action Plan!

I don’t know what made us decide to stay overnight at the Victoria River Roadhouse as we pulled in for fuel, late on a Northern Territory July morning. Perhaps we took the Grey Nomad’s experimental driving technique involving an inexpertly executed U-turn directly in front of us without warning as a sign to stay off the roads that day.  […]

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Hikers at Joffre Gorge, Karijini National Park, Western Australia

Mind over Madness … Joffre Falls, Karijini National Park

The edge of the gorge was no place for a recovering acrophobic*. Despite its well-made viewing platform with solid handrails, the lookout overhung the sheer drop to the Joffre River far below, many more metres than I wanted to count**. I don’t think I’ll EVER get used to being on an overhang … But weirdly, the scare-factor just added to[…]

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Crops on Southern Yorke Peninsula, South Australia

“Red and Pilchard’s Day in the Country” by Red

My Story by Red Nomad OZ Today we went for a drive in the country on the Yorke Peninsula. The fields were all dry but the sky was very blue. We stopped to look at flowers. There were lots of white everlastings. We had to look for snakes but we didn’t see any. That was good. There was just a[…]

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