Hopkins Go Walk About.......: May 2014

Hello to you all, I hope the winter is going well in Vicco or your spring/start of summer is happening in the UK. We have now left the resort living behind and headed into the MacDonnell Ranges from Kings Canyon via the Mereenie Loop.

The road to the MacDonnell Ranges was really rough; probably worse than the Oodnadatta Track. The road runs through Aboriginal owned land, thus we had to purchase a permit to travel its route.

Our first destination was south in the ranges to a place called Palm Valley where high clearance 4x4 vehicle access is recommended. It is a beautiful long, slow 18km’s to the bush camp which by the way is brilliant with showers, flushing toilets and BBQ’s. Upon arrival there we were greeted by the ranger who informed us there were lots of frogs around and please use head torches at night because he had already removed two Mulgas (king Browns….a really gnarly snake) from the dunny block!

Now for those of you who don’t know this is arguably Central Australia’s most aggressive snake when provoked (not that I planned on a Mexican stand-off with one anyway). He also told us there were lots of Dingos around and make sure you put everything away……..

Now on the first night there we were sat around the fire when…… after putting what I thought was everything away there was a lot of clashing coming from our camp. Now Mr Dingo if you please seemed to be trying to lift the lid off some ground coffee and on running over he scarpered. Great I thought, saved.

Well Dave the dingo had another plan to hatch. During the night he very quietly sneaked in and took a 2 litre glass bottle (with posh pourer) of olive oil. He very politely spat out the pourer and then went home to prepare a stir fry I assume! This is quite serious when olive oil costs $9000.00 per litre in remote NT.

Now, it was clear the wildlife really did want to interact. Whilst chatting to a guy who turned up in a Paris- Dakar type off-road truck (see pics below- a mere 13 tons & $550,000 worth). I turned around to see a 1.5 metre King Brown cruising around in the evening gorging on the abundant frogs; I shi…. Myself (unfortunately didn’t have the camera to hand)

Seriously the MacDonnell Ranges have also been mind blowing beautiful from the extremely rare Red Cabbage Palms and Cycads dating back 500 million years ago to the stunning gorges and swimming holes (bloody cold though!). I hope you enjoy the pictures. Cheers for now …..Hoppo

Please read on below pictures for -

Tilly's Tips, Jack & Flynn's Wildlife Wanderings & Mumma Jodes Insights

On the way to Palm Valley...crossing Finke River

Palm Valley

Slight cause for concern.....?

Red Cabbage Palms

Palm Valley from above

Time for Uno ...next to camp by Finke River

13 tons of fun ...only $500,000

6.5 Tons of fun....only $260,000

Camp spot...Two Mile, Finke River, NT...Home for 6 days, no complaints

Some kind of Dragon? Walk at Ormiston Gorge, West MacDonnell Ranges, NT

Anyone know what bird built this gorgeous little architectural master piece?

Bottom of Ormiston Gorge, West MacDonnell Ranges, NT

Pedicures & Teaching on the road

More shots from our Two Mile camp spot, Finke River, NT

Whistling Kite

Redbank Gorge, West MacDonnell Ranges, NT

Ellery Gorge, West MacDonnell Ranges, NT

More Two Mile Camp shots

Yes...I am wearing a serong whilst eating lentil soup

TILLY’S TIPS!

How to Make the Perfect Camp Bread!

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups of self-raising flour,

2 teaspoons of dry yeast,

A shake of olive oil and

Enough water to make it like dough (warm water makes the yeast rise)

UTENSILES:

A big bowl,

One spatula,

A cup, 1 teaspoon,

A camp oven, teacloth,

and something to cook it over (like a fire)

Firstly grab the bowl and put the two teaspoons of dry yeast in, then pour the three cups of flour in. After that a shake of olive oil and give it a mix with the spatula. Now you have to just keep on putting bits of water in until you have the right consistency. Then you need to kneed the bread until it is all stuck together. Cover it with the teacloth and leave it to rise for about 15 to 30 minutes. Then you need to light a fire and let the camp oven get hot, when that’s done you can put the bread in and cook it for about 45 mins or until you can see the crust forming. Once it’s done you leave it to rest and then you can serve it for breakfast, lunch or even for just an afternoon snack. And if you want to try putting in some raisins or some olives it will taste really nice. I hope you enjoy your bread and I’II see you soon for more yummy ideas and more of Tilly Tips.

By Tilly Hopkins!

Jack and Flynn’s Wildlife Wanderings

Hi our names are Jack and Flynn and we are going to tell you the Australian animals we have seen so far on our trip.

These are the birds we have seen so far…..

We saw Wedge Tailed Eagles in the Flinders Ranges.

Black Kites, Whistling Kites, white necked herons, little black cormorants, black- fronted dotterel, Magpie- larks, Major Mitchell cockatoos, Australian ringnecks, Black-faced cuckoo-shrike, crested pigeon and Willie wagtails at Finke River.

At Uluru we saw little zebra finches. On the Oodnadatta track we saw quite a few Emus.

We have only seen one snake, it was the King Brown or also known as the Mulga, one of central Australia’s most poisonous snakes.

Mammals we have seen,

Quite a few Kangaroos on the Oodnadatta track, Black footed rock-wallaby in the

Northern Flinders Ranges at Weetootla, Dingos have been seen everywhere, when we were camping at Palm valley a Dingo stole our olive oil it was very funny!!!

Some really WEIRD insects! And we all saw a Red Back spider in the showers at Kings Canyon resort, a Golden Orb spider at Wilpena Pound.

And those are the animals we have seen so far on our AWESOME trip around Australia!

By Jack and Flynn Hopkins (And help by their sister Tilly Hopkins)

Mumma Jodes …….

Feeding a hungry family of five on the road is no easy task…..

I thought I’d share with you some ingredients and recipes as the trip progresses….

Several different factors make it challenging – having to stock up for long periods to minimise buying from isolated roadhouses (it can be very expensive), eating a well-balanced diet with food that will last and having one vegetarian in the mix. It really helps if you can have a freezer as well as a fridge, which was deliberated about when we were setting up for our year away.

A few of the essentials for the shopping list:

Flour – Lots of for making mainly bread.

Rice – Can be served with most meals.

Pasta – A quick and easy fill & the kids love it.

Cheese, salami, tune, porridge, milk, coffee & tea.

Wraps & crackers lasts a lot longer than bread.

Veggies that lasts – Cabbage, Cucumber, Carrots and Capsicum. Frozen peas, sweetcorn, beans.

Fruit that lasts – Apples, pears (that can be stewed and frozen).

Trail mix – Nuts, sultanas, coconut, seeds & dried apricot.

Curry pastes, coconut milk, tin toms, tom paste, sweet chilli sauce

The dinner menu we have been eating consists of:

Red/green Curry, chicken or tofu, (only available remotely where Japanese tourists are expected –Uluru supermarket only to date)

Stir-fry, Thai fish cakes, Chickpea & spinach curry, Tuna & rice, Sausages and sautéed potatoes,

Eggs fried rice, Lentil soup, Bolognese (lentil & meat), cannellini beans, cous cous & coleslaw, pizza’s (cooked in the camp oven) and falafels.

More Mumma Jodes insights to come.

Uluru, Kata Tjuta and Kings Canyon……….

Hello to you all and welcome to another Hopkins Walkabout update. Wow……what can I say, we have certainly seen some amazing natural wonders since our last update. We have gone from bush camping to resort living (we really had no choice), achieved some spectacular walks and have seen our first snake! There’s a bit of info on Uluru, Kata Tjuta (Olgas) and Kings Canyon below followed by some more images. I hope you enjoy and please if you have any coments please post them on the blog (at least I know someone is having a browse). Onto the MacDonald Ranges now……

Uluru….

Well what can I say about “The Rock” It really does have an imposing presence and without getting too hippie, a spiritual vibe. We made the decision not to climb as the Anangu aboriginal owners make it quite clear in all the literature “you can” but they rather “you didn’t” I will let Tilly discuss why:

WHY PEOPLE SHOULD NOT CLIMB ULURU!

Hi my name is Tilly and I’m going to tell you why I believe that people should not climb Uluru and here are my reasons why:

Firstly it is Aboriginal land and they really don’t like it when people do climb it. But some tourists just can’t stop themselves from climbing Uluru, there is a saying that says “It’s not cool to climb Uluru.”

Secondly you could really badly hurt yourself and you could nearly die of the desert heat. There are also sacred sites that Aboriginals don’t appreciate white people looking at and taking pictures. It is also very unfair because when someone gets hurt Aboriginals feel really bad and feel like it is their fault (But it really isn’t)

Thirdly you could destroy lots of lovely Australian animals’ habitats which makes Aboriginals very angry with us white people. And some really shy animals could get really scared and run away from their Mums, and would properly end up dying and we wouldn’t want that to happen. Plus some tourists don’t read the signs and feed the wild animals and then they don’t try and hunt anymore!

I hope you agree with me and I have persuaded you it’s not cool to climb Uluru, and this was my strongest reason why: You could destroy animals habitats or even kill them and hurt the Aboriginals feelings by looking at the sacred sites. So please don’t climb Uluru.

Thank you for reading

By Tilly Hopkins.

Geology- The making of Uluru & KataTjuta

Around 550 million years ago a range to the West of Kata Tjuta eroded forming a fan of sand and rock. Later the whole are became covered in sea. Sand and mud covered the sea bed including the fans. The weight of the seabed turned both it and the fans beneath into rock. The rocky fan became conglomerate rock. The sand fan turned into sandstone.

About 400 million years ago, the sea had disappeared and the whole of Central Australia began to be subjected to massive forces. Some rocks folded and tilted. The rocky fan tilted slightly. The sand fan tilted 90 degrees so the layers of sandstone almost stood on end.

Over the last 300 million years, the softer rocks have eroded away, leaving the parts of the old fans exposed. Kat Tjuta is a hard part of the old rocky fan. Uluru is part of the sand fan, with its beds of sandstone nearly vertical. The area around Kata Tjuta was covered in windblown sand plains and dunes 30,000 years ago. Uluru like Kata Tjuta is the tip of a huge slab of rock which continues below ground for possibly 5-6 kilometres. My apologies for the geologists out there fir this explanation.

A few facts & figures

Uluru is 3.6km long and 348 metres at its tallest point: 43 m higher than Sydney’s Centrepoint Tower, 24m higher than the Eiffel Tower and just 33m lower than the Empire State Building.

Kata Tjuta consists of 36 domes, the highest rises 546m above the plain, 198m higher than Uluru.

The colour changes of Uluru result from the filtering of the sun’s rays through the earth’s atmosphere on the sun’s rays.

Tourism dates back to the 1950,s where the trip from Alice took over 2 days (now about 5 hrs). 5,462 tourists visited Uluru in 1962/63. This number reached 391,547 in 2002.

Kings Canyon

As spectacular as Uluru and Kata Tjuta are I think Kings Canyon is the visually most imposing and impressive. The “Rim walk” is breathtaking and it is great the OH&S police have not ruined it yet. You really can get up close and personal with some very long drops…Awesome! The Canyon is a valley that cuts first through a layer of Mereenie Sandstone, deposited about 400 million years ago, forming cliffs 30 metres high. Below the cliffs, the slope is less steep and the valley cuts through the softer Carmichael Sandstone, deposited 440 million years ago……I could go on but the geology gets quite involved, suffice to say the result is spectacular. A picture tales a thousand words, enjoy………

Am Emu at Curtain Springs...