Naoshima, the Japanese Art Island

Lately I have swapped my little watercolour brushes for a big one, to paint our hallway. That’s one of the reasons I haven’t finished telling you about my adventures in Japan. I have also been doing a workshop to help develop my newsletter. Lots to learn, and lots to put into practice.

Meanwhile, back in Japan…..

Naoshima is a little island in the Seto Inland Sea.

We (my mother, brother and I) needed to get there from Osaka and the shinkansen was the way to go. The JR office was so efficient. Once the clerk knew our destination she tapped on the computer and out came the tickets we needed to get there. So, armed with our trusty JR rail passes and the tickets we hopped onboard the shinkansen from Shin-Osaka to Okayama. There we changed to a middle-sized train to get to Chaymachi, where we changed to a small local train to Uno. Each connection worked smoothly.

View from the train

I had debated about where we would stay. You can stay on Naoshima Island, but I thought the ferry ride and then getting to the accommodation might have been a couple of steps too many for Mum. It was the correct decision, especially as I made the right choice in Uno Port Inn.

Its location couldn’t have been better ~ just around the corner from the station, and over the road from the ferry. But it was the Inn itself that made the stay. The staff were welcoming and spoke excellent English. They gave us so much information about the Inn, Naoshima, the ferries, the local area ~ and they made excellent coffee!!

The concept of the Inn is great. Each room had tatami mats but western beds ~ the Japanese vibe without the inconvenience, especially for my elderly Mum. Apparently the upstairs are all Japanese style. Instead of an ensuite each room had a small, private bathroom at the end of the hall. There was a lounge area and cafe for guests. You can see more detail on their website. And a delicious restaurant just around the corner that was still open when we rocked up for a late lunch.

Naoshima is a small island that was, like country places the world over, languishing. This article explains what happened, 

Naoshima might have been headed for the same relentless decline.

Enter Benesse Holdings, an education and publishing conglomerate based in the nearby city of Okayama. Its best-known brand is Berlitz, the language school company. Benesse’s other claim to fame is its world-class modern art collection, including paintings by Claude Monet, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol, as well as many Japanese artists less famous in the U.S.

The former head of Benesse Holdings, Soichiro Fukutake, wanted a special home for the collection, someplace where it would have a local impact and could also be shared with the wider world.

So, nearly 30 years ago, Benesse bought a big hunk of land on Naoshima’s south side. It hired world-famous architect Tadao Ando, and over the next two decades, he designed museums and adjacent luxury lodgings. The buildings follow the natural contours of the landscape. One museum is mostly underground, with open courtyards and skylights bringing in natural light.

It is not the only Art Island in the area, but is the most well-known.

The photos show that it was a rainy day when we went over, but still warm. And the clouds were spectacular! Unfortunately the rain stopped us from seeing everything, especially the art houses. Not really sure what they are, so I can’t tell you about them. But I will go back the see them….and then you can hear all about it! The article I linked to before details some of the benefits for the locals.

Sculpture is dotted around the island. You may know the images of the pumpkins.

Spots are the theme of the island, with the bus painted with spots too. The town bus takes you over the island to where the big art galleries are. To get to them you hop on a free shuttle bus (the town bus costs Y100, about $1), which winds up the hill and drops you at the gallery you wish to see.

We went to the Chichu Art Museum. Photos aren’t allowed, but the website gives you a very good feel for the place. It is unlike anything I have been to before. And I loved the Monet paintings displayed there

There was a lot to absorb there, so we decided not to see the two other galleries, and headed to town for another late lunch. Lunch turned out to be one of my favourite moments of the trip.

We hopped off the bus in the drizzle, looked around and down a little alley we saw a doorway with an “Open” sign.

By now we were quite used being surprised by these small restaurants….and this was no exception. It was larger than it looked from the outside. One room had the traditional tatami mats where you sat on the floor. My brother and I could have managed, but Mum may not have got up again! Fortunately the next room had tables and chairs.

Can you see the menu? Assorted seafood bowl for Y1500 (roughly $15.00) or roast fish for Y1300 (roughly $13.00). Mum chose the roast fish and said it was the most delicious meal. Andrew and I chose the other. The photo shows my meal; succulent fresh, raw fish on a bed of rice, with miso soup and pickles. The green herb in the little bowl to the right was rather like basil (but it wasn’t), to be sprinkled over the fish. The marshmallow-looking things in the miso soup had normal flavour, but a squishy texture. The meal was delicious.

At the bottom of the miso soup we found these….

Mystified, Andrew cracked one open to find a morsel of flesh inside. We later learnt that they are barnacles. Well I never!

So we oohed and aahed our way through lunch, overseen by the two ladies (mother and daughter?) who owned it and cooked for us. Then we braced ourselves for the rain outside and scurried for the shuttle bus, due any minute. Just as we got to the stop one of the ladies ran after us, saying that she would take us over the island to the ferry on the other coast. Such a sweet, thoughtful thing to do.

The last thing to show you is the fish on the esplanade at Uno. I could see it from the Inn, and it looked like a large coloured fish. Imagine my delight when I got up close….

to find out it was made from detritus, much of it from the sea. (Of course, not delighted by the fact that all that rubbish is in the sea.)

According to the sign it is “Black Porgy in Uno” by Yodogawa Technique.

And next to it is a smaller fish, created as a children’s slide.

Would I go back? Yes. I would love to wander the little villages on Naoshima, soaking it all up, finding the unexpected. And I would like to visit the other islands too.

Do you have any tales to tell of unexpected delights on your travels?

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Fabric and fashion in Japan

Before leaving I researched fabric shops in Osaka and Kyoto. My intention was to buy small off-cuts and fabric to use as background for my embroidered trees. How lucky I wasn’t intending to buy dress material – I could have gone mad! My mental shopping list included vintage pieces, especially in indigo, and I would have loved to find boro fabric. (I am becoming interested in boro material/sewing/quilting, and will talk more about it later. If you are interested this link is a good beginning.)

The first shop to track down was Toraya, in Osaka. Japanese addresses are tricky for the uninitiated so my instructions came from another (English speaking) blogger. This is what I wrote in my book, which seemed perfectly doable on my couch in Melbourne:

Ebisubashi, underground shopping arcade running between Shinsaibashi and Namba stations up the Namba end. Take exit 20 at Namba station, turn right in the street, first right; turn right at ABC Mart; on left.

Mum and I negotiated the subway, with the help of a sweet young woman, and got ourselves to Namba station. Underneath every large Japanese station is a web of shopping malls, with exits leading to hotels, department stores and sometimes even to the world above. We were caught up in this maze and realised that looking for exit 20 was beyond us; we were just longing for a way to fresh air. Eventually, with the help of another woman, we popped up above ground.

A much needed coffee was found at Starbucks. (The coffee-snob in me would never drink Starbucks coffee in Melbourne, but we found in very acceptable in Japan. 😉 ) Out came the map, and, once I had oriented myself, I found out we had come up in exactly the right spot. Right at the entrance to Ebisubashi-Suji! It is a long, very long, covered walkway/mall/pedestrian street, which extended for kilometres up to the area around our hotel.

We were ambling along and then Mum said “Is this the place you are looking for?” I would have walked right on past.

It was material paradise, with the fabric enticingly displayed in lengths. And there was a second floor. The range was extensive, and the prices seemed cheap while the quality good.

 

 

It was hard, but I limited myself to off cuts. I bought this one because it was the colour and weight for my embroidery work.

It is obvious why I couldn’t resist this, even thought the background is quite vivid lime.

And this was an impulse buy. Apron maybe?

In Kyoto Mum and I passed up an opportunity to visit Himeji Castle to go fabric shopping. (Well, we had seen the castle from the train……!) My instructions were more precise but luck still played a part, as we just happened upon Nomura Tailor’s main store. It is another sewer’s paradise and not for the weak-willed! Again, reasonably priced, good quality and extensive range.

 

It was here that I found my scraps and off-cuts, and I had a pleasant time rummaging. This is what I came home with

and…

Quite restrained, really.

The second Nomura Tailor shop, in another long arcade, was more for quilters, and I can  imagine many of my quilting bloggy friends having a wonderful time there! I was only tempted by some threads.

Mum on the other hand…. I have to take some responsibility here. As you know, I love a project, whether it is mine or someone else’s. So, when Mum said in Osaka “I am going to buy this material for a table cloth” I did not say “Hmmm, is that a good idea?” I was all for it. When she saw material in Kyoto that would make perfect serviettes my reaction was “Perfect!” She doesn’t even have a sewing machine! I finally put on my dutiful daughter hat (once we were back in the hotel room, not in the store!) and said that I would take the material and sew it up.

She also bought one of those pre-package, very tempting kits that you embroider and make up into a bag. She loves embroidering, and I was happy to make it up for her. It never crossed our minds that the instructions might be in Japanese!

I mentioned ‘fashion’ in the title. I am never up with fashions and trends, so what I saw in Japan may be common knowledge. I loved the clothes women were wearing.

I had expected to see young women in sailor suit tops and Hello Kitty inspired clothes but I hadn’t expected the simplicity and clean lines that I saw in so many outfits. They were often layered, flowing, lots of wide legged pants, berets and hats, very few florals or bright colours. So comfortable but elegant. The colour of the season seemed to be a mustardy orange colour.

The fabulous fabric stores made me wonder whether many women made their own clothes. I was tempted by a Japanese pattern book, but again, it was, naturally, all in Japanese!

This link will give you a taste of the clothes I was seeing.

Only a couple of regrets…

• I couldn’t find the handcrafted needle shop Misuya-Bari in Kyoto. The instructions told me to look for a pink shop. I can only hope that the pink shop is now another colour and that the needle shop, which has been in the family for 400 years, is still tucked away somewhere in Kyoto.
• I didn’t see any traditional cloth. That will require more research for the next trip. The closest I came was when a chap sat next to me at a diner. He had jeans mended in the boro tradition. I would have loved a photo, but felt that a stranger asking to photograph his thigh might be taken the wrong way!

More blog posts to come, as I want to tell you about Naoshima, the Art island, as well as tempt you with some of the delicious food we ate. This is a link to my previous post about the cities I traveled to.

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How was your trip?

Well, thank you so much for asking. My trip to Japan was fantastic, and will spawn a number of blog posts! This first one will be a general overview of the cities I visited. There will be lots more traveller’s tales to come.

In Japan I travelled all the time with my mother, most of the time with my younger brother and some of the time with my older brother and his family.

Our first stop was Osaka, which I loved unconditionally. No “this was good but I didn’t like that”. It was a great place to walk around in, narrow streets, something interesting wherever I looked. Every corner showed a street that I wanted to walk along.

And it was quiet, because there seemed to be more bicycles than cars. Not safer though, as the cyclists are rather crazy! It was one of the contradictions of Osaka…..In Melbourne I happily walk against the red light if it is safe; in Japan I waited patiently with all the other pedestrians for the green light . Meanwhile the helmet- less cyclists would ride through red lights, go on the wrong side of the road and meander across the road, often while talking on the phone or holding an umbrella! There were no crashes because they seem to allow for the path the pedestrian is on. The only ‘accident’ we saw was a lady loosing her high-heeled shoe as she cycled!

And the food….a post for another day!

We left Osaka and travelled by train to Uno. Before I tell you about that let me rave about the train system.

Foreign tourists are able to buy a JR Rail Pass. Like a Eurail Pass, it must be bought before you enter the country but it allows unlimited travel for the life of the pass. Rail is the way to get around ~ efficient, frequent, safe, clean and goes to most areas. To get to Uno we needed 3 trains, which would seem, by anyone used to Australia’s rail system, to be rather a nightmare. However we walked into the JR office, told the clerk where we wanted to go and after a few taps on the computer, she gave us tickets for all the legs. The connections were perfect. (You only need to go into the office if you wish to reserve a seat. Otherwise you just flash your pass as you enter the station.)

Our first train was one of the Shinkansen trains. They used to be known as the bullet trains. They are sleek, fast machines.

The next trains got progressively smaller as we got further into the country. Uno is a ferry port on the Seto Inland Sea, with stunning views over the many islands in the sea.

We were there to visit Naoshima, aka as the Art Island, which I will tell you more about in a later post. For now let me tell you about the place where we stayed, Uno Port Inn.

It is the brain child of Max, who lived for a while in New York. He has created a welcoming place to stay that has a great vibe, including jazz streaming from a radio station in New York. There are only about half a dozen rooms, all with tatami mats, but western beds; you get the feel for Japan while still being able to get up in the mornings! There aren’t ensuites. Instead each room has its own private, well appointed little  bathroom down the corridor.

There’s a guest lounge, and they make fabulous coffee!! The ferry is close by and the staff, who speak good English, are happy to help out with visiting Naoshima.

After two nights we were back on the two trains to Okayama and then the Shinkansen to Kyoto, to meet up with the other parts of the travelling family.

The view from our hotel room

I love Kyoto too, but with not unconditionally.  The main streets are busy and modern, and some leading to the big temples are quite touristy. You have to get off them and, like in Osaka, just wander to find the little delights. We were staying in the Gion area of old Kyoto, so the houses were old and wooden and utterly charming (and probably expensive!) The houses and shops come right to the street, and doorways have lanterns or pot plants or maybe a tree. I was delighted to find an neighbourhood with a car mechanic, a supermarket and a hairdresser who was crocheting between clients!

Kyoto has narrow roads that run alongside canals. They are lovely to walk along during the day and quite enchanting at night.

And how could I resist this photo?!

Off again on the Shinkansen, all the way from Kyoto to Nagasaki, which is on the western tip of Japan. We changed at Hakata from the Shinkansen to a local train, and had lovely views of the coast and the mountains.

Nagasaki is nestled into valleys, which makes it very picturesque. It also has a tram system that brought a joy to this Melbourne heart! As it’s smaller than the other cities it has a country town feel about it, despite the ship yards!

Of course the Peace Park was the thing we wanted to see. I was disappointed. It was so busy with Chinese tourists from a cruise ship and school children that it lacked any solemnity. (Although the school groups were very respectful, often with heads bowed, but they were teenagers.)

There were lots of statues; the one that moved me most was in recognition of atomic survivors world wide, including indigenous Australians, service personnel and civilian workers who were affected by British nuclear testing in Maralinga. This is a world wide issue, and one one that has become so prominent again.

Back on the trains again to our last stop at Hiroshima.

It is a very modern city, as so much of it was wiped out in by the first atomic bomb in 1945. Although many parts of Nagasaki was destroyed, I think a lot of it was saved because of the hills and valleys. Hiroshima, like many Japanese cities is very flat, with the mountains in the background. The blast just radiated out.

The A bomb dome and Peace Park area were more solemn than Nagasaki ~ fewer people and a drizzly rain helped build the atmosphere. There are many memorials discretely through the park, while the A Bomb Dome rightly dominates.

There is a very moving memorial to the victims of the bombing. Oral accounts were collected in 1950, and those survivor stories are told in this memorial. Stories that world leaders who talk of annihilation should be forced to listen to.

The Children’s Memorial is another place that touched me. You probably know the story of Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes. Now children from all over the world fold cranes and some are displayed both at Nagasaki and here in Hiroshima.

Some cranes have been created into pictures.

Shikkeien is a beautiful old Japanese garden not far from the epicentre of the bomb. It was devastated by the blast, but has since been rebuilt, to provide a serene and restful antidote.

So that’s the overview. We took the Shinkansen directly from Hiroshima to Shin-Osaka and then the airport train to Kansai airport. So easy!

I still have lots to tell you, but my adventures in fabric shops and restaurants will have to wait for another time.

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Japlanning

Yes, I am off on an adventure to Japan. I have been Japlanning, a termed coined by a woman in my Pilates group. My Piladies [women who do Pilates!] are my go-to people for so many things. Anyway, my head has been in Japanese hotels and rail passes, and all the things that need to be done before you go away. I apologise that I haven’t been a very good blogger lately, only just keeping up with reading; commenting has been very sporadic.

And there has been no creative work.

I went to Japan about 10 years ago, and am very excited about going back. Last time I went as a delegate of the Australian Teachers’ Union. The AEU was a sister organisation with the Shizuoka teachers’ union, so we had the opportunity to stay with practising teacher.

It was such a fabulous experience to live for a few days with my host in her traditional house in Hamamatsu, getting a glimpse of  her life. I went to school with her for two days. That was an eye-opener, and deserving of a post of its own. There won’t be any of that on this visit. This time I am a tourist, but maybe one with a little more understanding of life below the surface.

I am travelling with family and we fly into Osaka, where I will spend a few days before I go onto the art island of Naoshima. Then back to Kyoto to meet up with more family. We travel to Nagasaki, Hiroshima and then back to Osaka. I know that all the bookings and connections will be fine, but until they are, you always worry a little.

Now I am at the stage of organising all the odds and ends. I am surrounded by lists and every time I cross something off I add another thing!

So I will be off the blogging radar for a while. However, I will be full of Japanese excitement when I get back and I will be raring to tell you all about it. I hope to be posting on Instagram, so you might like to keep up with my travels at @annelawson54

Have any of you been to Japan? Any tips or tricks or must-see places in the cities I will be going to?

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Travel theme: Earth

Thanks to Ailsa at Where’s my backpack? for this theme, which is in celebration of Earth Day. Hopefully we will be able to encourage our politicians to have policies that support our Earth too.

It is tempting to publish beautiful photos of sunsets or mountains or glorious landscapes. I want to show you one of my favourite parts of the Earth, the area around Menindee. It is an arid area of Western New South Wales, an hour away from Broken Hill. It is flat and looks uninspiring. However, the more you look, the more beauty you see in this unique landscape.

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015)

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2015)

C. australasicum growing prolifically beside the road. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2011)

Looking for the right plants, Kinchega National Park (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2012)

Looking back to the caravan park, evening light

Once you start to explore you can see the diversity, and begin to appreciate how plants can survive in such harsh environments.

Big skies…..

red dirt…..

and amazing colours.

What part of our Earth do you cherish?

Time for a tree giveaway

I have created one of my oil pastel trees just for you. It is small, A5 (8 x 6 inches; 12 x 15 cm) and on good quality watercolour paper. Unfortunately, it is only for one of you. ☹️ And you have to do a little bit to earn it. Let me explain……

To celebrate the launch of my new series of trees I want to give away this drawing. To win it leave me a comment by Sunday 5th March. Then, on Monday, I will write all the names on slips of paper and the Fella will pull one out of the hat. I will happily post it any where in the world.

So what do you need to do?

As you know I have recently been over to Western Australia. In the southern part of the state there are many towns with names that end in ‘up’. We stayed for a couple of nights in Manjimup ~ a wonderful name that is fun to say. How about this for a list:

• Coolbellup
• Kendenup
• Myalup
• Nannup
• Noggerup
• Wannaup
• and many more

The suffix originated in a dialect of Noongar, an Indigenous Australian language, in which “-up” means “place of”. The suffix “-in” or “-ing” has a similar meaning in a related dialect of Noongar.^[1] Places tended to be named after their distinctive features, whereby the place names could be used to create a “mental map” allowing Indigenous Australians to determine where water, food and other raw materials could be found. These sites were often located near sources of fresh water, leading to the common misconception that “up” and “in” mean “near water”.^[1]

The Fella and I had great fun with these names ~ well I did anyway! I created my own ‘Up’ towns. Wheat fields would flash past the car window and all of a sudden I would ‘Pipeup’ with ‘Buggerup’ or ‘Fillerup’. It certainly whiled away the time! I came up with a good list, but most of my pearls are lost ~ my memory is not what it once was, sigh. Here’s a few I do remember

• Shutup
• Timeisup
• Standup
• Liveitup
• CanIfillitup

So, your job is to help me compile my list. You need to ‘Makeup’ your own ‘Up’ town and leave it in the comments. I will happily accept other languages, as of course the originals were not English names. So that’s all you have to do….. Have fun!

 

The Nullarbor and trees.

It was at my artist in residency at Mountain Seas on Flinders Island that inspired me to focus on trees. Not just any tree, but melaleucas. I love their canopies, the way the top  parts catch the light while the underneath is in deep shade. I love the shape of them ~ flat areas and crevasses. But I also love their trunks and branches, which twist and bend. When they are massed together there is a rhythm to the shapes.

© Anne Lawson 2015

© Anne Lawson 2015

© Anne Lawson 2015

© Anne Lawson 2015

© Anne Lawson 2015

I am obsessed by these trees. I try to move on, but I keep coming back, either to try them in a new way or perfect what I have been doing. I have used pencil

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

I have painted with watercolour

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

Image copyright: Anne Lawson 2015

I have worked them in yarn. This was probably the least satisfactory way of creating them, but it did lead me onto creating embroidered landscapes.

© Anne Lawson 2016 Detail of the stitching (Art work and photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2016)

© Anne Lawson 2016

They all flowed from the Flinders Island experience, where I saw the melaleucas massed together. The trip across the Nullarbor has fuelled my obsession in a different way. The trees there are not melaleucas and, while there are hundreds of square kilometres of them, they are individual trees. I am not sure what species they actually are, and at the moment, that is unimportant to me. Like the melaleucas it is the shape of the canopy and the sculptural branches and trunks that make my creative heart sing.

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

Maybe you look at these photos and think “Nice pictures, but iI don’t quite get the obsession”. I love them partly because they dovetailed so nicely with the melaleucas, so similar, and yet they shimmered in the wind. Partly because I had to wonder about the evolutionary process. What advantage is there to have such spindly branches? (Bendy branches help in the wind, I guessed, and maybe thinner trunks help move water more efficiently. Any thoughts?) But largely because when you are travelling a thousand kilometres (and another thousand back) staring out the window, you do get a bit obsessed by what you are looking at. I found I was trying to capture the individual trees in my mind.

So, the trees sat there for a couple of weeks and a couple of thousand kilometres. It wasn’t until I came home that I realised two things had come together ~ the trees and a set of oil pastels that were a Christmas present in Western Australia. And this is what is coming out…

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

© Anne Lawson 2017

The oil pastels allow me to smudge and blend and get carried away with colour combinations. I can layer colours over each other and drag pastels through areas. Then the trunks and branches have the delicacy of the ink. That’s like doodling! Mostly I use black ink pens, but I have been experimenting with different coloured inks. (I show some of my experimentation on  my Instagram feed, AnneLawson54.)

Some close up photos so you can see how the oil pastel creates luscious textures and combinations of colour.

Image and photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2017

Image and photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2017

So far they are all either A5 or A4 size, but I am planning bigger ones. They are so satisfying, and such a contrast to the detailed work in my botanic art paintings!

Most of the paintings are available in my Etsy shop AnneLawsonArt. There are details of each if you are interested in finding out more. Some of the other drawings I have shown you in this post are there too. However you don’t have to buy through Etsy if you don’t want to. You can email me at annebags@optusnet.com.au and we can sort things out.

Continuing across the Nullarbor

The other day I left you on the South Australian/Western Australian border on the Eyre Highway, about half way across the Nullarbor.

This was the full journey we were on, from Melbourne, Victoria to Bunbury in Western Australia, a trip of about 3,500 km.

Let’s continue the journey……

Right on the border is the quarantine station. It is staffed 24 hours and stops all traffic entering Western Australia to check for produce, especially fruit and vegetables. It is to stop diseases and pests from entering WA. So the very nice young woman inspected all the nooks and crannies in the van, but, as we had already ‘donated’ at the SA/Victorian border, there was nothing to be found.

Eucla is just down the road. It is the only stop on the Nullarbor that could almost be called a village. Not only does it have the quarantine station, the usual motel/camping ground/cafe complex, but also a health service and the police. Many people visit the old telegraph station too.

Any where is a long way from home in Eucla!

Eucla sits on top of the plateau that we have been driving on, that amazingly flat landscape.

Just out of the town the road descends down the escarpment onto the plain below. On the South Australian side the land must have sheered off to create the cliff into the Great Australian Bight. On this section there is a coastal strip that runs alongside the escarpment for many miles. Every time I thought we were seeing the end of it, more would appear on the horizon.

This sketch was done in the car. That funny, semi-circular shape in the sky at the right is actually the moon. It was large, and the bottom edges of it dissolved into the cloud  haze.

Now the vegetation changed again. It is more salt bush country, but with the most glorious silver, shimmery trees, with sculptured trunks and branches. I think they must be Acacia papyrocarpa or Western Myall. In his book “A guide to plants of inland Australia” Phillip Moore describes them as

“Usually a short, thick-trunked tree with a broad dense rounded silver canopy….this stately tree is most noticeable on the Nullarbor Plains and along the Stuart, Lincoln and Eyre Highways, north, south and west of Port Augusta.”

I have discovered that it is so difficult to take decent photos from a moving car. We pulled over a few times, but the trees were always better just down the road! But here are a few offerings of the acacias. (Maybe you had to be there to fully appreciate their splendour!)

The road is so flat and straight that it makes the perfect landing strip for the Royal Flying Doctor Service, if they should be needed. There are four strips along the highway. (You can see the escarpment along the horizon.)

About 70 kms from Eucla is Mundrabilla, a windswept roadhouse and motel. Travel on about another 100 kms to go back up the escarpment at Madura. Then it seems like a short jump to Cocklebiddy, another motel/roadhouse/camping area.

Someone here has a sense of humour, which you would need, to live in such an isolated spot!

It’s probably the time to tell you about Nullarbor Links, the world’s longest golf course. The link will tell you much more, but is is described as

The Nullarbor Links concept is unique. The 18-hole par 72 golf course spans 1,365 kilometres with one hole in each participating town or roadhouse along the Eyre Highway, from Kalgoorlie in Western Australia to Ceduna in South Australia. Each hole includes a green and tee and somewhat rugged outback-style natural terrain fairway. The course provides a quintessential Australian experience and a much-needed activity/attraction for travellers along the renowned desolate highway.

I’m not a golfer, but if I was, I would have done the course!

There is also a cave at Cocklebiddy, which I didn’t know about until Anna mentioned in the comments from my first post. Even if I had known, I would not have gone down there! But it would be interesting to see the entrance.

Caiguna is the next  fuel stop. It is also the beginning of the straightest stretch of road in Australia ~ 146.6 km without a curve ~ which ends at Balladonia.

Balladonia’s special claim is that in July 1979 the re-entry of the Skylab space station left a trail of debris across the nearby countryside.

Then we finally pulled off the road to camp in a wayside stop. We had covered about 1000 kms since leaving Penong.

The peace of our little camping area was so welcome. And that night the moon was so bright….magic. Worth every kilometre.

We left with the sunrise the next morning, and reached Norseman, the end of the Nullarbor. Here the road turns north to Kalgoorlie or south to Esperance. We went south, and stopped in Esperance for a meal ~ was it breakfast? Lunch? ! Then headed on further and eventually ended up in Wagin. It was another long day, through wheat land and salt lakes, but at the end was a powered site and a shower with hot water! Blessings!

I guess the only other thing to say is that we had to do the whole thing again on the return. You may be surprised to know that I enjoyed as much the second time! We spent New Year’s Eve camped at Moodini Bluff, another peaceful place. I wrote about it a couple of posts ago.

Thanks for coming along for the journey. It may have brought back memories, or it may have sparked an interest or it may have just been a good armchair journey!

Across the Nullarbor

The Fella and I decided that we would drive to Western Australia to visit family for Christmas. So, as well as organising an early family Christmas this side of the continent, we packed the van and got ourselves ready for the adventure.

There are very few ways to get across the Australian continent. You can go north, through Darwin, or you can go south, across the Nullarbor. The only navigational decision we had to make was how to get to Port Augusta in South Australia because once you get there the road just goes straight west. We decided to go through Mildura.

It is a trip of about 3,500km!

A lot of you are probably thinking “What is this Nullarbor stuff?” and I promise that I will explain it soon. For the moment, understand that the trip across the Nullarbor is an iconic Australian road trip. It is either something you have done or long to do, or could never contemplate. The Fella and I did it about 15 years ago, so we had a reasonable idea of what we were up for. I travelled a lot when I was a child. Mum and Dad would hitch up the van and off we would go. I loved those long, mesmerising journeys where I was able to go into my own world. And I still love being in the car and just going. The distance was never going to be a problem for me.

There’s not a lot to say about the trip from Melbourne to Port Augusta. It is agricultural and mainly wheat. It was harvest time, so there was a lot of activity in the fields, large harvesters and other tractors with movable silos. The grain then goes to the silos but not those big concrete things, although they still stand tall in many towns. Instead the wheat   is poured horizontally and covered by huge plastic tarps. Some farmers seem to be using smaller versions of these to store grain in their fields. I feel that I saw every grain of wheat between here and the west coast! But pondering about the process of storing and selling wheat helped quite a few hours go by.

Wheat fields ~ and this is a small one

The only other thing of note was that we crossed the Murray River on a ferry. That was cool!

Day 1 we made it to Burra in South Australia, 820kms.

The next stage was up to Port Augusta and then on the Eyre Highway, west, heading to Ceduna. We went through Ceduna and camped on the side of the road, about 14 kms west of Penong. Day 2 was 737 km.

We pulled up in a spot amongst some trees. We watched the sun go down, and then we were asleep, only occasionally woken by trucks thundering down the highway through the night.

Day 3 and we were off to cross the Nullarbor. So time to tell you about it.

Wiki gives the dry facts:

The Nullarbor Plain (/ˈnʌlərbɔːr/ nul-ər-bor; Latin: nullus, “no”, and arbor, “tree”^[1]) is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country of southern Australia, located on the Great Australian Bight coast with the Great Victoria Desert to its north. It is the world’s largest single exposure of limestonebedrock, and occupies an area of about 200,000 square kilometres (77,000 sq mi).^[2] At its widest point, it stretches about 1,100 kilometres (684 mi) from east to west across the border between South Australia and Western Australia.

(Note the Latin definition of the name…..It wasn’t until I went across last time that I realised that Nullarbor wasn’t an Aboriginal name. I was flabbergasted that I had lived so long without knowing that it meant No Trees!)

That description doesn’t give you a feel for the amazing landscape. It is flat. It is unrelentingly flat. No mountains, only some hills. There are no permanent watercourses across it. Over the whole distance you don’t cross creek beds, dry or otherwise. That’s because it is limestone, and the water eventually trickles down and to form large underground caves and aquifers. An information sign described it:

When limestone interacts with underground water it dissolves to form a ‘karst’ landscape ~ an amalgamation of caves, underground channels and a rough, bumpy ground surface.

The karst landscape, including some shells imbedded in the ground.

As you drive along, clinging to the southern edge of Australia, you know that this ancient landscape stretches way northward, and south over the Southern Ocean to Antarctica. You are a speck in the vastness.

Not only is it flat, but is is a desert. Even now, in cars with air conditioning and excellent fuel economy and modern technology, it is not a journey to undertake lightly. It is the Outback and unpredictable, and you don’t want to be caught without enough fuel and water. There are no towns, no farms. Roadhouses are scattered along the highway, but there are many miles between each one. We were lucky that the weather was cool as we crossed both ways, but temperatures can average 35 degrees in December and January.

So why do it? Of course there is the fact that it is the only way to drive from east to west, hence the enormous number of large trucks that do the journey. But aside from that, it is an amazing journey, through a surprising number of habitats. So, let me take you on our journey across the Nullarbor.

We left our camp site early (no showers, of course!) and after about 100 km of wheat farms we entered the land of the Yalata Aboriginal Community. All the farming land was left well behind, and we were in mulga country. Despite the name, Nullarbor, there are trees on it. And they fascinated me. They have rounded canopies of leaves, with spindly branches. The leaves shimmered in the sun and the wind. I was smitten. (Much more to come about these trees and my art work that is inspired by them.)

The last town on this sign is Norseman, 1001 km away!

Quite suddenly the trees disappeared and we were going through the Treeless Plain. It begins at the roadhouse of Nullarbor, on the edge of the Nullarbor National Park. It is a bleak, flat plain, so flat you can see tomorrow.

This next photo was taken at Nullarbor Roadhouse, where we stopped for coffee. Despite the emptiness of the environment, it was a welcoming break, with a large, clean amenities block, including showers (which we didn’t use, because all our washing gear was tucked away in the van 😦 ). The woman who made the coffee was very cheery.

We didn’t see any of these animals…..

The next section of the road runs close to the coast, and it was a buzz to see the ocean. There are some opportunities to pull of the road to view the cliffs. Although I am describing the east/west journey, we stopped on the way back, so I am going to show you the views as they come west to east. I am glad we did it that way, because I think the views just got better.

The first viewing area is just east of the border.

Further along are these stunning cliffs, look how they just sheer down into the Great Australian Bight. Apparently sometimes you can see whales glide past. Wouldn’t that be something?

The Treeless Plain continues on to the South Australian/Western Australian border.

And that’s where I am going to leave you until tomorrow, because I feel that I have made you read so much today! Look out for the Western Australian journey.

 

 

All Good Wishes For 2017

Yes, I know, New Year’s Day has already whizzed by us, and yet here I am writing my 2016/2017 post. The reason is the same one that explains why I have been off air for a few weeks….the Fella and I decided to go and visit relatives in Western Australia for Christmas. The trip from Melbourne to Perth is about 3,500km one way, over the Nullarbor Plain. I am going to tell you much more about it over the next few weeks, so this post is a short one.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve tucked in the bush at Moodini Bluff, amongst the fantastic mallee gums. MUCH more about these plants in later posts.

Camp at Moodini Bluff Rest Area, Nullarbor Plain, New Year’s Eve, 2016 (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2016)

These rest areas are dotted all the way along the road. They are very basic, often only a rubbish bin, maybe a concrete table and chairs, and occasionally toilets of the drop pit variety. But many of the rest areas have tracks that wander around the trees and are very welcome after a long day of driving. They are not suitable for the big trucks that transverse the Eyre Highway. And big is big, often B triples that have to be signed as ‘road train’. The rest areas for the truckies are longer and straighter. You can hear them roaring through the night as you lie in bed amongst the peace of the mallee gums.

This NYE we had about ten fellow campers, all tucked away under their trees and as quiet as little church mice ~ or that simile should be ‘as quiet at little potoroos’!

Celebrating New Year’s Eve has never been high on my Must do List, but this one was super low-key, even for me. A glass of delicious Western Australian shiraz, a scrap dinner of scrambled eggs and short read and then bed. When I turned the light out it was so dark and quiet it was like the end of the world. It was, in a couple of ways……

You would be hard pressed to get further away from the razzmatazz of NYE.

Also, 2016 was, like 2001, a year that changed the shape of the world, and maybe even brought about, if not the end of our world, then certainly cataclysmic shifts. Much has been written about the year, but Marina’s thoughtful post ‘Strange Days Indeed’ at her blog Letters from Athens sums it up best for me.

Sunset 31st January December 2016, Moodini Bluff, Nullarbor Plain (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2016)

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The sunset at Moodily Bluff on NYE was beautiful, and reminded me that 2017 is in our hands. The future is not fixed, and our actions can have an influence. For example, our simple connections here in our Bloggyworld help to build understanding and break down some of the barriers.

Which reminds me that the Sketchbook is on the move again, and that I must tell you about the new, exciting entries soon. And my #secretsanta goodies. Lots of posts to come, to make up for the lack of them lately. 🙂

So, I wish you a 2017 that is free from strife and filled with creativity, love and joy. Let me leave you with this blessing from Neil Gaiman.

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”
― Neil Gaiman