As we returned to the Mt Remarkable National Park, in the southern Flinders Ranges of South Australia, we realized that it was nearly three years to the day since our first visit. We had loved it then, and wondered now how it would seem after so much travel in the interim.
We’ll always remember the 4th of December 2010. It rained on and off overnight, quite heavily around dawn. We were woken by loud thunderclaps, and we were quietly excited that this might be the day – we might finally see rain on Uluru. By the time we got up the rain had all but ceased, so our first job was to make sure our campsite was secure, and not flooded, as there was a fair bit of run-off coming through the campground. As soon as we could, we raced up to the nearby lookout to check out Uluru, but were disappointed to see that the rain had cleared over her. Damn!
We visited Uluru in September 2009, and like everyone else we were awed by its presence. Nothing has changed on that front in a little over a year – seeing Uluru again up close still took our breath away. But the countryside around Uluru has been transformed, and it is now surrounded by wildflowers and wildlife. Its waterholes have been flushed clean and topped up; there are even frogs and tadpoles in Kantyu Gorge, a wonderful sign that its previously polluted waters are healthier now.
We are often asked to name our favourite place from our travels. We find that impossible, because we have visited many wonderful places and are unable to chose one above all others. But there are a dozen or so which stand out. These are the places we often find ourselves day-dreaming about, places we’d visit again in an instant.
Many of them are remote. And many of them we had never heard of until we ventured into their region. We doubt whether you will know all of them all. Some are tiny national parks tucked away in remote corners of Western Australia’s glorious south-west, another is at the wild southern tip of South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, while yet another is a tiny town astride the Darling River in outback New South Wales. Each of them is magical in its own way.
We will feature each of them in an online article, hoping to impart some of that magic to you, and also hoping to provide practical information should you ever wish to visit them. Maybe, one day, we will see you in one of our favourite places!
