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Karen's Craft Odyssey

Karen's Craft Odyssey

Spinning, Weaving and Knitting (and whatever else I want to play with)

Fri
9
Jul '10

My feet are sore….

The internet connection at Ayers Rock Resort was poor — I’ve gone back and added pictures to Wednesday’s post. Thursday night we were at Kings Canyon Resort, with no internet or mobile phone coverage — I survived.

This will have to be a quick post. I’ve put some pictures up on Flickr, but probably won’t have time to put many in the post itself.  Only 30 minutes of internet left tonight.

So, Thursday morning started with sunrise at Uluru.  It was cold and brisk, with a gorgeous sunrise behind us and a bit of sunlight on Uluru.

UluruSunrise

From there we moved on to the base of the rock.  Climbing to the top was ruled out by the rangers because of high winds at the summit.  I don’t think I’d have chosen to climb anyway.

No Thanks

Instead, we walked the 9+ km around the base.  It was cold, but a lovely walk.  I highly recommend it.  Halfway ’round we ran into some unlikely fellow hikers.

Up Close and Personal

At the end of the walk, it was back on the bus to Kings Canyon Resort.

This morning we had another early start — to climb up the Kings Canyon Rim Trail in time for sunrise on the canyon.  Another 6+kms to walk, with lots of steep stairs and uneven rocks.  But well worth the effort.  We got to the canyon before 6:30 and were walking until around 10:30.  I think my feet may eventually forgive me, but not until next week.

Kings Canyon Sunrise

We finished off our time at Kings Canyon with a 15 minute helicopter ride.  The perspective is so different from the air.

Chopper Chopper View 1

Well, we are now back in Alice Springs and will fly back to Brisbane tomorrow.  It has been a lovely break, but the real world beckons.

Wed
7
Jul '10

If it’s Wednesday, it must be Uluru…

Did you notice that there was no blog post yesterday? With my VERY sporadic posting, probably no Tuesday’s itinerary had us trekking to Palm Valley early in the morning. Alas, the weather conspired to prevent that trip. Winter rain in Alice Springs is rare, and enough rain for the Todd River to flow is even rarer. But, that’s what we had. So, Tuesday’s tour was cancelled and we relaxed inside where it was dry.

Today (Wednesday) we were up bright and early for our trip to Uluru. The bus left Alice Springs at 7am and we arrived at Ayers Rock Resort at 1pm. There were several stops along the way. First off, Frank took advantage of the opportunity to try a camel ride.

FrankCamel

From there we stopped at Mt Ebenezer Road House for a light meal. Last stop before the resort was a view point where we saw Mt. Connor and Lake Amadeus.

MtConnor LakeAmadeus

We have a nice room at the Desert Gardens Inn — with a view of Uluru out the back window, but didn’t have much time to enjoy the room. After just an hour to get settled and have lunch, we were off on a tour to see the Olgas (Kata Tjuta) and sunset on Uluru. The Olgas were gorgeous.

Olgas1 Olgas2

And we had time for a one hour walk up Walpa Gorge.

WalpaGorge

Then back to Uluru for the sunset with the rest of the crowd.

UluruSunset2 Ulurusunset3 Ulurusunset4

It’s been a great day — and the skies have been washed clear by the rain, so the views are fantastic. Tomorrow morning is another early start — 6am to catch sunrise at Uluru.

PS — the wi-fi here is just about useless.  I’m trying to upload pictures, but I don’t think they’ll make it.  I’ll come back in a few days and add the pictures once I have access to real internet.

Edited to add pictures (and fix spelling)!

Mon
5
Jul '10

Welcome to Alice Springs

Yes, I’m actually writing a blog post.

Yesterday morning we left Brisbane bright and early to catch a direct flight to Alice Springs.  We were looking forward to crisp blue skies and cool winter days in the desert.  Reality is a bit different.

Sunday afternoon wasn’t bad.  We had a half-day tour of the city.  It was cold, but dry as we viewed the city from Anzac Hill.

AnzacHillView AnzacHill

At the School of the Air we saw a movie about how the school has changed in the internet age.

SchooloftheAir

The old Telegraph Station and the Alice “Spring” (really a waterhole) provided a useful history lesson.  The telegraph was completed in 1872, making communication with the outside world possible.  When it ceased operation in the 1930s, the site became a home for half-caste children until WWII when the military took over.  While we were touring the barracks, an older man was telling us what the place was like when he lived there as a child in the 1930s.

AliceSpring TelegraphPole TelegraphOffice

Next stop was the Royal Flying Doctor Service where we saw a short film about the history of the flying doctors and viewed the museum.  This plane is a model of the type first purchased by the Flying Doctor Service in Alice Springs.

RFDS RFDSPlane

Last stop for the day was a visit with reptiles.

FrankLizard Goanna Walter

Monday was a bit colder (high of 12C) and much wetter!  It rained or drizzled all day.  But we didn’t let that stop us (much).  Starting with the Flynn Memorial, we trekked up muddy trails and tried to keep warm.

FlynnMemorial

At Simpson’s Gap it was only drizzling.  We had to laugh at the “No Swimming” signs — it was way too cold for swimming!

SimpsonGap1 SimpsonGap2

A little higher on the range, at Standley Chasm, the rain was coming down steadily.  After 45 minutes hiking the narrow, rocky trail to the chasm and back, we were damp and cold.  Hot coffee and a sandwich in front of a warm fire made for a welcome break back at the trail head.

ChasmTrail1 ChasmTrail2
Chasm1 Chasm2

The last stop of the day was the Alice Springs Desert Park.  Now, I think of deserts as hot and dry — but today the park was cold and muddy!  Due to the rain, the bird show was cancelled.  We walked around the park and caught a tour of the Nocturnal Animals building.  It was a lovely park, and would have been a great day trip on a drier day.  We listened to the audio guide and learned quite a bit about desert habitats.

DesertMud DesertParkHornyDevil

Sat
19
Dec '09

Three Ply Experiment

Over the past several weeks I’ve been having fun with this thread over on Ravelry.  In it we’re discussing all sorts of combinations of different hand painted fiber into a single yarn.  I took three different hand painted rovings:

Coloured Stone from EGMTK:
Stash

Falkland from FeltStudioUK:
falkland from UKFeltStudio

and Coral Sea from Spindlefrog (Corriedale top):
spindlefrog coral sea

spun them into singles:

Plying Games

Then plied them on my jumbo electric spinner:

Plying Games Plying Games

The result? About 350 grams of 11wpi (about 8-ply, or DK weight) yarn:

Plying Games

Tue
1
Dec '09

The Internet is Working Again

Well, it wasn’t really broken.  But, we have been speed-limited for almost 2 weeks now.  So I’ve been spending my time at my spinning wheel instead of the computer.  I have several skeins of yarn to show for it.  Tonight I finished plying these two bobbins:

Be Happy Be Happy

And these two as well:

Batt Fun

I had fun with the second set — they were originally these batts from Wooldancer:

Batt Fun

and came with some cut threads and ribbon, which I placed in between the strands while plying.  Can’t wait to see what the washed skein looks like.

Last week I finished this skein from some batts I bought in the UK:

Batt Fun More Batts

I spun each batt onto a separate bobbin, and tried to keep the colors in the same order on each bobbin.  The resulting skein goes from rust to yellow to green.

Of course, it hasn’t been all spinning.  Last Saturday we melted at the QSWFA Christmas Fair.  It must have been almost 35C, and no aircon.  It’s hard to get people to buy woolly things in that type of heat.  Sunday was a warm one too, so we spent most of the day out at the mall, where the aircon worked pretty well.  In the afternoon there was a massive thunderstorm, but it had all blown over by the time we finished shopping.

Meanwhile, Alan has left for his semester in Oslo.  He’s started his own travel blog at http://alan.imagin-itis.net — go over and say hi.  It appears that he is settling in to the cold weather and the different choice of computer games at the Oslo office.