We initially visited the Olgas on Thurs 24th, with Nikki and family, during their weeks holiday to central Aus (see A Week with Friends). We returned for a second visit this Wed (30/7), so I’ll write this blog post first (of the Uluru related posts) given they are fresh in my memory! The Olgas are a pretty awesome looking group of rocks about 45 km’s drive from Uluru. In many ways they are more interesting than Uluru, but perhaps a little less imposing.

There are heaps of photos so I’ll break it up into a few sections: First up, some general and sunset shots of The Olgas. Followed by photos from the 7.4km Valley of the Winds walk we did Wed arvo, which has some pretty awesome views (pity you missed this one Nikki). It must get real hot out here in summer – this walk is full of warnings about heat and water, and closure on hot days, and there are a couple of water drinking stations to which they must truck/4wd in water! Even in mid winter it was warm and we drank plenty.

Finally we’ll go back to last Thurs (24th) when we did the Walpa Gorge walk with Nikki, Ava and Scarlett. A less exciting walk, but still great and good for some fun photography.

The Olgas, viewed from the south east (roughly!)

and from the west, at sunset!

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Heading south along the Stuart Hwy from Tennant Creek you eventually come upon a range extending east-west across the countryside. It is atop this range (Davenport Range?) that the Devils Marbles are located. Taking the service road that goes into the Marbles area (Thurs 17/7), I was surprised by what I saw. I had expected a pile of nice rocks balancing on each other, but instead what we came across was an extended area, a huge paddock if you like, strewn with granite boulders off all shapes and sizes. There are some areas where they are concentrated or stacked higher, and it is close to these that the tourist info, day use, and campground are located.

The boys had a great time climbing all over the place. There are plenty of rocks, nooks and cranny’s to investigate. Not to mention finding a way to the top of the tallest piles of boulders!

As is best with these types of natural features, I’ll let the photos do most of the talking. I spent a lot of time taking photos – sunset, sunrise, during the day….. and the photos reveal different colours/textures of the rocks at different times. A warning: this post has LOTS of PICS!

took a large diamond saw to get such a clean cut 😉

Now that is how a mine tour should be run! A ‘hands on’ type experience, by an old fella with character who has worked in the mines for years! We’ve only just finished, as we did the Wed evening 5:30pm pizza and beer tour, which goes for a few hours.

It isn’t in the actual working Mt Isa mine, which literally overshadows the town of Mt Isa, but rather in a nearby mine set-up just for tourism purposes. However they have done it well, setting it up as per a real mine, and installed some of the usual equipment (past and current). They make us get dressed up in safety overalls, gum boots, and hard hats with head lights. The bloke was good and got the three kids on the tour active and involved – having to do stuff for him like have a go at the air operated drilling rams etc. Tough life being a miner in the old days – hot, hard, dirty and dangerous. Give me the old underground gem mines over these underground lead/copper mines anyday!

Boys in front of entry cage. With tour guide and other boy on the tour. Photo of a photo they gave to us.

Well we’ve completed our visit to Longreach, and I type this sitting beside a campfire, having eaten BBQ’d steak egg and sausage sandwiches for dinner, followed by fire roasted marshmellows, with a full moon rising over the horizon, at a nice free area just out of Winton 🙂

Earlier on…

We spent quite a long time at three major tourist attractions at Longreach (spread over 3 days) – the Longreach School of Distance Education, the Stockmans Hall of Fame, and the Qantas Founders Museum. I wrote about the the first, and part of the second in my last post ‘A Day in Longreach‘.

We spent the majority of Saturday at the Stockmans Hall of Fame, Continue reading →