Australia Tour 2015

A months-long “down under” trip in 2015. A grand tour of the continent, from Brisbane to Queensland, to Alice Springs in the Red Centre, from the Kimberleys to the Northern Territory and Cape York. Crossing the bush by 4x4 on the red tracks (Tanami, Oodnadatta), wandering the big cities of Sydney and Melbourne, whiling away time along the Gold Coast, watching surfers on the Great Ocean Road, and admiring this still-wild nature. Happy moments in the beauty of the Australian landscape.

In the pleasure of discovering a new continent, there’s of course the landscapes and the culture, but also the encounter with its wildlife and flora. Australia offers a remarkable fauna, so different from ours (for a European). We stopped so often on the roadside to admire a koala along the Great Ocean Road, a group of emus in the Flinders, yellow-footed rock wallabies in the Brachina Gorges, jacanas in the billabongs of Kakadu, kangaroos in the Kimberleys, a huge eagle quietly eating the remains of a kangaroo in the Red Centre, wild horses and camels on the Larapinta Drive, or a crocodile calmly napping by the Fogg Dam track near Darwin. I often ran through the bush after a goanna glimpsed for a second and never seen again. The beauty and grace of the Brolga cranes near Karumba still make us dream, and the calls of the kookaburra still seem just as strange. Moments of solitude so appreciated in the bush, and the pleasure of joyful conversations meeting Aboriginal artists in Yulara and Alice Springs, and those of the Tiwi Design centre on Bathurst Island.

I’ve gathered a few photos in this little post, in memory of the bush.

DK4A8434 DK4A8471-square wild horse [Larapinta drive] DK4A6969-square IMG_6631-painting-square IMG_3928-painting-square IMG_5976-painting-square 025-painting-square Painting by Kerry McCarthy [Alice Springs] Tiwi island Oodnadatta track Posting [Pink roadhouse] [Alice Springs] Elisabeth & Kerry McCarthy [Alice Springs] camping in the bush Roadhouse pause [Uluru] Alan Kerinauia painting screenpainting [Tiwi island] Opera House [Sydney] Opera House [Sydney] Mike Manning training session [Bells beach] Coorong NP [Princes Hwy] Pink Roadhouse [Oodnadatta track] The good life [Broadbeach] Lifeguard [Surfer Paradise] Broadbeach [gold coast] coffee [Cooktown] Dances [Bamaga] breaks broken [Bamaga] broken down at Bamaga [Cape York] Emu [Flinders] Baobab [Kimberleys] roadtrain [Tanami track - Red Center] Tanami track [Red Center] Kangaroo [Flinders Ranges] Koala [Kenneth River] the Tip [Cape York] [Cape York] Blue-faced Honeyeater [Bramwell Jonction] Bramwell roadhouse [Cape York] Surfer Paradise [Gold Coast] wild camel [ Larapinta Drive] Crimson Rosella [Phillip Island] Pelicans [Batemans] the singer... kingfisher [Darwin] Blue-faced Honeyeater [Malborough] Koala [Kennett River - Great Ocean Rd] Bats [Nitmiluk NP] Wallaby [Nitmiluk NP] Wild donkey [Kakadu NP] black cockatoos [Kakadu - Yellow waters] kookaburra [Kakadu billabong] Yellow Footed Rock Wallaby [Brachina Gorge] Eagle [Flinders Ranges] Jabiru [Corroboree Billabong - Darwin] Ibis [Fogg Dam - Darwin] Little Jacana [Corroboree billabong - Darwin] kookaburra [Cape York] BuffBanded rail [Green Island Beach] Kangaroo [Mareeba Wetlands] Tawny Frogmouth [Bina Burra] Cassowary [Daintree Rainforest - Jindalba] Rock Wallaby [Lake Argyle - Kununurra] Jacana [Darwin - Fogg Dam] Brolga cranes - Karumba Cormorant [Kakadu-Yellow Water] Walawuru - Wedge-tailed Eagle [Red Center] the bridge [Sydney] Bungle Bungle [Purnululu] Kangaroos [Flinders] road to Hawker [Flinders] Emu [Flinders] Wentworth Falls [Katoomba NSW] Road to Brachina Gorge Tanami track Geikie Gorge [Fitzroy river] DK4A9397-2 Road to Bamaga [Cape York] Crossing Jardine River [Cape York] Brolga cranes [Karumba] country side Larapinta Drive Gosse Bluff [Tnolara] Bungle Bungle [Purnululu NP]