South Australia

From April 10 to 13 this year was the Easter long weekend. This is a time when many people go on a holiday, often camping or in a caravan. Wan, Brenton and I went camping the Flinders Ranges, a large set of mountain ranges in central South Australia considered the start of the Australian Outback.

On Thursday Wan and I drove from Kongorong to Adelaide (about 5 hours), picked up Brenton from his work about 3pm, organised our camping gear and supplies at his house, then drove another 2 hours north of Adelaide to Clare Valley. This is a good place to stop on the way to the Flinders (which is another 3 to 4 hours drive, not because it is one of Australia's many popular wine regions, but because our friends Rob and Meg live there and we get free camping. We set up our tent at their place, enjoyed a BBQ dinner, and got on the road again by about 11am Friday. [Rob and Meg have a nice simple setup on their 100 acres, and about a week after visiting them they had their first kid, Willow. Check out their journey).

We drove via Jamestown, Orroroo, Carrieton and Craddick to Hawker and then arrived at Wilpena Pound (the heart of the Flinders Ranges) about 3pm. There are two caravan/camping parks: Wilpena Pound and Rawnsley Station. Both are pretty good - this time we stayed at Wilpena Pound for $27 per night (unpowered site, 3 people). You can also stay in the National Park, especially in places like Brachina Gorge, which is much more peaceful bush camping.

The weather was perfect for the trip. Everyday was about 28 degrees, with the occasional cloud. At night time it was not too cold, especially with the fire. What did we do there? A lot of time was spent relaxing with a beer at the camp site. On Saturday we went on an easy 3 hour trek up to Hill's Homestead and then to a lookout with a great view of Wilpena Pound. On Sunday we drove up through Bunyeroo and Brachina gorges, and then back towards Wilpena via Stokes Lookout. There are plenty of other places to go and things to do, but this weekend we all wanted to relax a bit. So after a couple of boxes of Coopers and half a dozen bottles of red we made our way home to Adelaide on Monday (and then back to Kongorong on Tuesday).

Photos are available in the Gallery, as well as at Brenton's Facebook page.

Tuesday night Wan and I are off to the land girt by sea. Its time for a well-deserved holiday and to catch up with friends and family.

Finally, the photos from Pete's, Brett's and my trip to Canada in 2003, as well as the collection of the Gordon Family Slides

mmmmmmm ... wine. Shiraz, cabsav, sav-blanc even a chardie - all Oz of course (maybe the occasional farang bottle). Oh, I do miss it!

South Australian brewer, making Pale Ale and Sparkling Ale, as well as many homebrew packs.

Photos from some of our families holidays, as well as some from Maureen and Graham Gordon's slide collection dating back to the 70's.

Central entry point for information on South Australia, e.g. government services, tourism etc.

With Brett (my brother) and Marilyn's wedding coming up in a weeks time (11 March) here is some breaking news: fireworks are not allowed at their wedding! You may be saying to yourself "This is not news" but you are wrong - The Border Watch (local south-east of South Australia newspaper) ran the following article on page 2 on Tuesday 28 February.

I first started at UniSA in 1994, studying a degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Systems Engineering at The Levels Campus (now Mawson Lakes Campus), about 12km north of Adelaide CBD.

My current ISP, based in Adelaide, Australia.

My local Section of IEEE, for which I am currently (2005-2006) Secretary. I was the Student Activities Officer for the Section in 2004, and as a student member I was Chair of the UniSA Student Branch in 1999 and 2000.