Author Archives: ontheroadwithdec

The Great Red Center of Australia has one town. Alice Springs is 1000 miles in any direction from the next town. There are long long dirt roads to Darwin, Perth, and Adelaide and a blacktop (bitumen here) road that goes about 200 miles to Uluru (Ayers Rock). The rainiest month on record was last monthContinue reading “Alice Springs, Australia’s Outback Town”

The 5000+ foot air in the San Jacinto Mountains was rough on our virus-addled lungs. We walked up in Humber Park and then went on to Black Mountain where we hung out at a fire tower with juncos and hummingbirds – and the forest ranger. Once you are in the mountains amidst the towering pinesContinue reading “Pines to Palms – oops, forgot to post earlier”

I have just arrived in Sydney and am in a McDonald’s as the Apple store is closed on a Sunday night. I will post one page and then do a couple more tomorrow evening at the Apple Store. I have been out of contact for a while and the wi-fi here is very slow…. soContinue reading “Cairns is a Great Town”

Today was the fourth wet and gray morning here in Orange County. Of course everyone tells us how unusual the weather has been but that doesn’t make the sun shine. We were off early to the Newport Pier where we joined dozens of fisherman in the early morning mist. The pier was a polyglot ofContinue reading “The Last Day in Southern California”

In days of yore the Palos Verdes Peninsula was an island off the mainland of what is now California. All sorts of organisms lived there and many found it inconvenient or impossible to commute to and from the mainland. These populations became suited to the island and began to differ from the source populations. RecentlyContinue reading “Palos Verdes Peninsula”

The morning was a bit gray but the rain had stopped. We started off for the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary which is probably in Irvine but runs into Newport Beach. It is in fact a place with 12 miles of trails and a series of lagoons, ponds, and vegetated wetlands. And, no surprise, it isContinue reading “Orange County & The Coast”

Our last morning in Palm Desert (the Coachella Valley) was rainy and surprisingly cool. It rained hard off and on for a couple hours as we prepared to head for the coast. Rain is not much of a problem here so there are swales along the road edges and then concrete riverways that collect waterContinue reading “Flash Flood in Anza Borrego”

This morning we started out at the Coachella Valley Preserve, an area bought (in 1984) to protect the Coachella Valley Fringe-toed Lizard. It also protects a beautiful swath of California Fan Palms that grow along a one-mile stretch of wet soil. There are eleven palm oases along a crack in the earth (part of theContinue reading “Coachella Valley Preserve”

I am carrying my new and heavy lens. It is a test of strength and will, but it has been worth it. This blog page will consist of some images that represent places and birds that you might enjoy and we did enjoy. There are many cacti in this area – not as many asContinue reading “Some California Dry Land Images”