Flew into Ulhuru yesterday to be greeted by the coldest September day on record – beating the previous record set only a week a go by 4 degrees! The compensation was the pelting rain and seeing one of the great wonders of the world – waterfalls cascading down the Rock. Even the road around the rock was flooded.
Talking of roads – the previous BA correspondent reporting in from Alice is quite correct in that pretty much all dirt roads hereabouts are closed due to flooding. Even the bitumen road into Kings Canyon was closed yesterday due to Kings creek flooding. I’m not sure the Docker River road will open any time soon, I passed the start of the Docker today and even the first 100m looked impassable. See photos on link at end of this post. So the Docker SBP’s are out of reach at least for our trip.
Today was still cold but thankfully no rain. Wild flowers are fantastic. Birding has been good if somehat unspectacular. Highlight was a Crested Bellbird in the Valley of the Winds carpark at the Olgas. Near the watertank. Also over the carpark was a swarm of 100 Masked Woodswallows, which apparently tend to flock when the weather turns cold. At the Uluru sunset viewing carpark there were several species of Honeyeaters. – Pied, Singing, Spiny-cheeked plus Red Chats – all offering close up views.
We are planning on spending several more days in the region so we shall see how the rest of the trip unfold. It’s raining now and the weather outlook is still more rain and cold weather.
Some photos of Waterfalls, Docker River road and the odd damp bird are here.
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/cgregory123/CentralAustralia?authkey=Gv1sRgCNz384GlkuG3xQE#
Cheers
Chris Gregory ===============================
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