Sorry, I did mean to tell you we were heading off on our break but things got a bit crazy here and we were an hour away before I smacked myself on the forehead and let out a great big Homer Simpson-like "DOH!" But... now we are back. With lots of lovely photos! Does that sort of make up for not letting you know?
We headed off to Onslow for a few days - Hubby is on holidays and we thought it would be nice to get out of town for a while, have a break from the house and the usual hum-drum and have a change of scenery. Onslow is on the coast, about 300km's from Red Dirt Central and has a population of (and I quote the lady from the tourist centre) 600-800, depending on the season and what's happening in town. I found it really interesting that such a tiny town exists on the coast - it has one shop, one pub, one restaurant (it's really really good!) two petrol stations (odd, I thought) and not much else. It is a pearling, prawning and fishing town and has a recent salt mine too. We stayed in a cabin at one of the caravan parks - we were going to take the caravan but decided it was getting too hot and we would book a cabin with air-conditioning instead. A wise move!! It's one of those towns that you kind of look at and just ask "why?" I'm really glad we went and enjoyed the break and getting to see somewhere I hadn't been before but I don't feel a need to go back.
The area around Onslow is apparently quite famous for it's ant hills. There are hundreds (probably thousands) of them and they are really quite fascinating. Here we are parked on the side of the road - you can see the ant hills, red mounds of dirt, all around.
And here is a close up of one that was right next to the road. Offspring #1 is standing next to it to give an indication of the size of these things.
Here are a couple of shots of the landscape driving home today. This is what it looks like for 3 hours! Flat, flat, flat and then a bit of hilly range then flat, flat, flat.
I have never seen it look so green up here - I was amazed by the colour and lushness. My overrriding memories of living up this way 10 years ago are the extreme redness and the sparseness of the landscape. But 6 cyclones at the beginning of the year, and the resulting rain, has turned the great redness of "up North" into something diffferent altogether. For me it isn't really 'beautiful' the way that rolling green hills or thick treed bushland are but it has an amazing splendour that is so hard to describe. It's just huge and open and there is nothing for as far as you can see for hours and hours.
Well, that's it for today. I'm off for a cup of tea and a piece of cake then it's time for bed. Holidaying is very tiring LOL. I have lots more photos so guess what you'll be getting this week?
2 comments:
Wow, those ant hills are huge! Are the ants big too? I've wanted to visit Australia for years, I love all of your pictures. Maybe one day I'll get there.
We didn't see any ants but suspect that they are termites (white ants) simply because we have seen termite mounds similar to these in other areas. Termites are are quite small which makes the hills even more amazing.
As for visiting Australia - well, c'mon down! On second thought, maybe wait a few years till I'm back in the suburbs of Greater Metropolis rather than in Red Dirt Central LOL.
Post a Comment