VA Blog

Painted Desert Buttress at first light Photo by Andrew Weller

Frequently we find ourselves travelling the long and lonely road from Adelaide to Alice Springs, or vice versa ... sometimes, we might only be headed to the Simpson Desert or up the Old Ghan Track.

There is, however, one of those lovely serendipitous things in life that occurs due to the perfect distance - about 1000ks, that Coober Pedy is from Adelaide. A good day's drive brings you to this amazing piece of eclectic life in a lunar landscape that is surely one of the most unique in the world. Photographing it, is something I have never really gotten on top of. One would need permissions - permission to enter the opal fields, and courage to scout around for those perfect vantage points... courage because of the inherent and extreme risk of falling down one of the opal miner's holes.

Thankfully, however, there are nearby two wonderful locations that beckon and that relieve me of the fear of wandering the opal fields - they are the Breakaways about 15 or 20km out of Coober Pedy, and Painted Desert on Arkaringa Station - about another 60 or 70km further on.

So it is that after a brief stop in the oasis of Coober Pedy, and after a quiet drive down it's dusty streets, photographers are found trekking along in time for sunset - perhaps at the Breakaways, or if they have the luxury of a little more time, at the Painted Desert.

There are more wonderful places like this in the Australian outback that we are yet to explore - and they are nearby. If you would like to visit these areas, you can bolt a few days on one side of the other of our Central Australia tours, and we can take you out to experience the wonder of this location.

I am sure Andrew F who joined us there recently, has a quote about how wonderful it is, and that he will let me know so I can put it here!

Our Painted Desert Gallery can be viewed online, where we have a selection of images from a June visit to Painted Desert and the Breakaways. The Breakaways shots are the ones with the incredible pink, red and orange morning sky turned on there - we can't promise that, but we know that these locations never disappoint.

If you would like to visit the Painted Desert there remains but one seat on our September Simpson Desert Tour. Get in fast - it is a bargain tour, and will put you amongst some wonderful outback scenery.

Bindoola Falls Photo by Anna-Mair Hunter

Things will never be quite the same again! It is life changing spending time in Australia’s remote Bush - I doubt that I will ever be totally comfortable in the city again (not that I ever was before I just didn’t know it).

For me the Kimberley trip with Vivid Adventures was a learning curve - one that was fairly steep at times, obviously I hoped to learn certain skills but much of it was unexpected.

The reason I went on the trip apart from to see the Kimberley itself was that I hated my digital camera; I’d always said I would never get one but recently I had to eat my words. I love film, I love the colour, I love the mystery of not knowing, the excitement of first viewing the images after the event and the delight of seeing the results (lets not talk about the times you screw up and the feeling that brings). I even love the smell of film and processing. What I don’t love is the price of it all. I could not afford to experiment, and as an emerging professional photographer that is what I felt I needed to do. Try new angles, look at things in a different way, look at a location a second and third time to see if there is a shot there somewhere - an expensive exercise on film hence the digital.

Setting aside 21 days to devote to a new relationship always brings it’s own challenges and rewards but I can safely say that I do understand Digi more and can even respect what it brings to the table but I will never forget or totally abandon my first love!

Any qualms I may have had about the trip were allayed within the first few hours of meeting Andrew - he had fridge magnets on his vehicle and he gave me a proper big map of the Kimberley. I was hooked there and then as they happen to be my weaknesses!! Could the trip get any better? Well of course, yes, much, much better.

Stand out moments for me (don’t mention the snakebite) apart from Kulumbaru, which Helen has already mentioned in her article about the trip.

• Cathedral Gorge (Bungle Bungles) is too big to describe, and all but impossible to photograph but it made me want to sing, Amazing Grace! The girls were very happy that I didn’t I’m sure as we weren’t alone in there but I would have been happy to have stay there for days.


• Wading chest deep through a rock pool and clambering up & over huge rocks (took me back to my youth!) to delve deeper in El Questo Gorge beyond where most folks venture. We found an unusual rock art of an upside down man and a private waterfall.


• Galvins Gorge, probably the smallest of the gorges and the most accessible but so pretty. Complete with a boab on the top of the waterfall and amazing shapes in the trees. It was here I saw about 50 green ants dragging a dead dung beetle vertically up a tree!


• Awakening to find a horse grazing in front of my swag with the Dawn breaking over the Pentecost River and Cockburn Ranges behind it. Just prefect.


• A still, quiet moment late one afternoon at Sandwich hole, it is hard to say why it was so magical as it wasn’t the most spectacular place we visited but it was very special.


• Last but not least was the impromptu 4wd 101 course - not part of Andrew’s normal teaching but a class I’ll never forget, I’m hooked for life but next time I drive out of the Bungles I’ll do it without a trailer I think.

How do I feel now it is all over? I am more confident in my abilities as a photographer and in my capabilities to spend time alone in the bush. I have moved way outside my comfort zone and survived, I can’t wait to go bush again! Have I improved photographically? I believe so, I feel that I am getting more consistent results and the response I have had from those that have seen some of my images has been favourable.

When it is all said and done, was it worth it? I don’t think I have ever got so dirty, smelly, tired or had so much fun, seen so much great scenery, great company, and eaten such great food, learnt so much even in such a short space of time. I’m still getting red mud out of my trousers but when can I do it again?

Take a look at Anna-Mair's Gallery.