Tassie

Me at The Edge of the World

Taken Feb 2011

Taken Feb 2009

Hi All

Just to let you know I am alive and well down here in Australia. Been very busy with limited access top computers. Couple of photos from the Edge of The World which is at the mouth of the Arther River in North West Tasmainia. The first one feature's me and a small stone pillar that tells you this is the edge of the world. The sea behind is the Roaring Forties which wander round the world until they hit Tassie. Looking out to sea the next land is South America, Argentina to be precise. Looking south it's Antarctica and to the north is mainland Australia. Not a lot here at the Edge of the World, very desolate, just a few holiday homes and great views.

The second picture shows a pile of logs. Last time I was here I thought they had been brought here by the sea but it turns out this area was extensively logged in the later 19th century. The loggers cut trees down along the river and let them float down stream where they were sorted into two piles. These are the rejected pile. Not just the pile you can see but the whole coast here is littered with similar piles of hundred year old timber. The 3rd photo was taken when I was here 2 years ago. Despite the constant waves beating against this coast line not much has changed, just the log in the foreground has turned over. Much of Tassie is still being cut down but the conservationist and a reduction in the demand for wood pulp is slowing the extent down, hopefully soon to a complete stop.

PS If you are thinking of visiting Australia have a look at Tassie, it's a beautiful place, lots to see.

Rugby

While I was away the Under 11s rugby team, supported by Stagecoach Devon played 4 games won 3 and drew one. last Sunday they beat Totnes by 52 pts to nil but I didn't get home until 2 hours after the match had ended. The boys didn't have a particularly good start to the season losing several games in a row but all the hard work they and the coaching staff have put in seems to be paying off. They have a home game on Sunday against Newton Abbot. I will be there but so will strong winds and blustery showers. Welcome back to winter sports in the UK.
Meanwhile here in Torquay more shops have closed down including the Pound Shop in Union Square. If you have any spare cash please come to Torquay and spend it. Now. Please, before the whole place shuts down.



Scaffolding has gone up in Fleet Street so much needed work can be done on the shop fronts there. Last year a lump of concrete came loose and fell into the street. The Romans built concrete structures and some of them are still standing 2000 years later. How come modern builders can't manage to make their concrete last as long. In Burnie ( 4th largest town in Tasmania) there is a concrete building there that is dropping bits of it's self on passers by so this problem isn't confined to the UK. And when you consider the number of concrete building dotted around our town centres I watch your head if I were you.

Burnie, the main car park.

OK. One last blast from the Opera House.

And a little look at Woy Woy and a vicious pelican.
Woy Woy is a small town between Newcastle and Sydney and there I was attacked by this pelican. I was sitting in the shade of a tree trying to decide if I could make the 20 metres to the shade of the Fisherman's Wharf where a fish and chip lunch awaited me. The above pelican appeared and I decided to take a photo. I mean I had never been this close to such a big bird before. With the pelican only a couple of metres away I put my hand in my bag to get the camera. Pelican decided I was putting my hand in bag to take out some food. When your dentist says, "Open wide." you might open a 7 or 8 cms at most. When a pelican opens wide we are talking a metre or so, enough to rip me apart from groin to gob. I desperately and ineffectually waved my camera and gasped, "Shoo." but the pelican was having none of that, it wanted food. Was the last picture I ever took to be me vanishing down this feathered 'Jaws' throat? Then a 4 year old child save my life, or at least my dignity, there were about a hundred people sat around watching this display, waiting for blood no doubt. He, the child just came running up, arms spread wide and screamed. The pelican ran for the sea, I was saved. So I went and had some fish and chips and noticed this.
Pity the pelicans can't read. There were still people feeding them though bits of fish and chips, not bits of hand or other body parts.

Back on the train I heard the guard announce that passengers for Wodabyne must travel in the back coach and let him know they wanted to get off and I wondered why. Is this the shortest platform in Oz? If no one want to get of or on the train doesn't stop.

On all the photos of the Opera House it always looks like one big building but it is actually 3 small buildings.

Photo Album of more Oz photos will appear some time soon. I have been fairly busy since I got back, shivering mostly.

Last from Oz, for at least 2 Years

A trip to Newcastle, NSW. I have been to Newcastle in England only a couple of times, both trips over 40 years ago. The North East has a reputation for being a grim, dark industrial wasteland. Please note if you are from the North East I am aware that much can change in 40 yrs and certainly has but reputations persist. When a trip up the coast to Newcastle NSW was put forward I was a little unsure of what to expect. But the above is a photo of suburban Newcastle taken from the train window. The train ride cost $22.00, £10.50 for one hundred miles. I wish train rides were that cheap in the UK. Have you ever wondered why surfing is so popular in Oz. Well this is on a beach close to the city centre and these are school children learning to surf. It must be on the National Curriculum. Note the vulture sat on the top of the lamp post.

Newcastle also pleased me because there are very few high rise buildings any where in complete contrast to most other cities in Oz, and the world for that matter. But someone managed to build this object, the Leaning Tower of Newcastle. Remember dear reader, Newcastle does have a fault line running under it and recently had an earthquake that cost billions in damage.

Not exactly sure about these four either as they stand guarding what looks like and air vent by the side of the main road.

More From Oz

Since the failed attempt to get to the top of Mount Warning it has been a busy week, some of it spent watching the rain tipple down but some spent on little trips. One such trip was to the Best of All Lookouts. I have been there 3 times before, the first time was in my pre digital camera days and all I had was a throwaway camera, great for shots of people but not much use for a view that took in Coolangatta in the east, Byron Bay 40 miles to the south and round to the reason for this great view, Mt Warning in the west. Trip 2 and 3, both with my digital camera with which I took great shots of the inside of a cloud. So one day when I got up and there wasn't a cloud in the sky I headed for the lookout. It's a bit of a climb to the lookout and there were clouds coming in from the north so a few anxious moment but I got there in time before the big thick black cloud arrived. It was a bit hazy but it was still a breath taking view.

After the Best Lookout we went to the Springbrook National Park, Canyon Look out. I have been here before but there wasn’t as much water coming over the cliff and the trees didn’t look as green, it has rained a lot this week.

When I was here in 2007 my sister pointed out one rainy day that the drain pipe next to her house was blocked. There was a large lake in front of her house to help make the point. So I spent a day removing large amounts of dirt from the 30 foot pipe. Now as you can see the water flows through without let or hindrance and the local family of ducks enjoy walking through the rushing water. So far I haven’t noticed any of them going for a white water ride.

An other visitor is the Green Frog. He sits on the rail hoping to catch the old insect drawn to the nearby light. I haven’t seen him actually catch anything but I suppose he/she must otherwise he would not look quite so happy. The frog used to sit there when I was here in 2007. We do have a little conversation each evening, I say “Hello little green frog.” The frog says nothing, shy I expect.

Today there was a Memorial Service in Melbourne for the victims of the Bush Fires in Victoria. Princess Anne was there representing Britain.

Mount Warning

A couple of days ago my sister and I headed for Mount Warning. This time I was determined to get further up than last time, and the time before that. Should not be difficult as we never get more than a few hundred feet up the path after taking a few photos just to show we tried. I'm told it is worth the effort and before my next trip to Oz I am planing to spend months running up and down Rock Walk, hope it's open, to get fit for the attempt for the summit.


Anyway the photo isn't of Mt Warning, it's of a stream, or what is in a stream we crossed on the way there. Shortly after turning of the Murwillumbah to Uki road we came to bridge over a small stream full of rocks. OK most streams are full of rocks but these rocks were piled neatly on top of each other to make columns, hundreds of them. So we stopped and took a few photos and added our own humble effort to the display.

These are just a few of the piles. I have never in my travels seem such a display.

Right now it is raining, torrential rain. It is a shame such rain didn't fall last week in Victoria then we wouldn't be watching the scenes of devastation on the TV over the last few days. So much lost for the people of this country I do so enjoy visiting.

More Travels in Australia

I am now in Tweed Heads where the temperature is expected to make it to 32C. To tell the truth it has already made it to 32C and it isn’t even midday yet, still the car I picked up at the airport has aircon so life isn’t to bad. The flight from Tasmania was rough, up down, side to side and one or two movements I don’t feel like remembering. Tassie was great. Hot when I got there, not as hot as Melbourne but hotter in places than it has been since records began. As with Tassie the rain fell and the temperature dropped to expected levels and the days passed pleasantly, a bit of site seeing a bit of work helping in the renovating of my niece’s house. Arthur River was an interesting trip. But one thing I always notice when out in the wilds, 30km from Burnie, is the stars. There are so many of them and so bright. Before the moon got to near full it was easy to spot our neighbours in space which I call Big Magellan and Little Magellan. They look like small fussy clouds but are in fact Galaxies a million light years away. I am sure they have scientific names but what ever they are they can not be seen from Torquay, Devon.

Landing in Melbourne was sad following the news on TV about the fires in Victoria, so very upsetting, so many people killed and many more with nothing left but the clothes they stand up in. And some of the fires were apparently started deliberately. Such a country of extremes, to the North in Queensland whole towns have been flooded out of their homes.

While here In Tweed Heads I will be doing the usual trips out. My sister liver here and she will be making a list of places to visit. This is my 4th trip here and I have been up to the Best of All Look Outs which overlooks Mt Warning and the caldera that surrounds it. The volcano erupted 20 million years ago and the plug sticks up and the land around has eroded away, Captain Cook named it Mt Warning so passing ships would know about some rocks the stick out into the sea at Tweed Heads called Point Danger. At that point he hadn’t reached the Great Barrier Reef which can be seen from space 200 miles away but not from the deck of a sailing ship 200 yards away as the good captain discovered.

I’ll down load a few photos to day, it does take a while as this computer has a slow link to the world wide web.

Travels in the Heat

Hi all
Sorry not much happening at the moment, I’ve been out of reach of a computer for over a week now. Yes there are places where people manage with out but I am not sure how. Anyway I was in Sydney and the heat was a bit much, even the locals were saying how hot it was and how unusual it was to have such an extended heat wave. So I decided to head south to Melbourne, should be cooler there. Silly me. The evening I got there it was still 38C. I was there for 3 days and the first day I took a trip to the seaside at Torquay at the start of The Great Ocean Road None of the people there I spoke to had heard of the real Torquay so that was a bit of an ego busting trip. Nice beach, bigger than the Abbey Gardens Beach but no sign of any surf. I looked round for a pub for a nice cool beer, no luck. I walked over to the RSL Club, didn’t open till 5pm by which time I would be on the way back to Hot House Melbourne. Then I found a café bar called Mojave’s which did beer and a sandwich, very good, if you make it to Torquay Victoria head there for lunch.

Then next day, a look round Melbourne. I had a list of places I had been told were “must see”. But with the temp up to 43C it was a question of survival not site seeing. Did see the insides of a couple of pubs. Now here’s a thing. In Oz I tend to drink VB, Victoria Bitter, so here I was in Victoria and not a sign of Victoria Bitter any where, may be they export it all to the rest of Australia.

Then came the big escape, the flight to Tasmania. That’s even further south than Melbourne so it should be cooler, please god make it cooler. On the trip across the Bass Straight to Burnie on a Saab the smiling attendant handed out newspapers, the whole of page two was given over to the news that Tasmania was experiencing its hottest heat wave EVER! Right, OK it wasn’t quiet on the scale of Melbourne’s attempt to reproduce Hell on Earth but really there isn’t much difference between 43C and 37C when heat exhaustion and sun burn had already taken its toll.

So Saturday and Sunday were spent helping my niece’s partner move the kitchen for one part of the house to an other, it an old house some way out of Burnie and we dug a channel for the waste pipe, moved the stove, removed the fitted cupboards and sink, including taps, re routed water pipes, hot and cold and then fed the chickens and ducks. Then a few beers in the cool of the evening.

Monday we, my sister and I borrowed the car and took a trip to the west coast of Tassie to the world famous Arthur River. Never heard of it? So it isn’t world famous then but a fairly wild place and if you are in NW Tasmania have a look. We looked west towards South America across the Southern Ocean and the Roaring Forties, couldn’t see it though, bit too much spray from the pounding waves.

More, including some photos on Sunday (8th Feb).

Hot Hot Hot and Home and Away

Boy is it hot here in Oz. I've just been out in the back garden to hang the washing up. I got back and drank the regulation litre of water and then took a deep breath and went back out to retrieve the clothes before they all burst into flames. Only kidding, I waited all of 3 minutes before going back out.

Yesterday was a bit cooler and I borrowed my sisters car and went up to Palm Beach. Palm Beach is a nice beach a few kilometres north of Sydney and is famous for obscenely expensive houses and it is where some of the outdoor scenes of Home And Away are shot. There were a line of big white trucks parked at the north end of the beach so I parked the car and joined the small (50) crowd of people watching the shooting. If you watch the soap here is a preview of a scene you will see some time soon. I don't watch, nothing against Aussie soaps I should add but these two characters walked along talking, probably about the latest infidelity, marital or otherwise taking place.

The first time they got it wrong and they did it again. Then the director shouted, "Cut and lunch". The young lady in the shot stayed out for quite a while talking to the crowd and having her photo taken with many of them and chatting with them with obvious enjoyment, not giving away to many story lines though. If at some time you see the scene on TV remember you saw it here first.

Gone Away, Just for a Holiday

Sorry I haven’t been blogging much recently but I am away for a few weeks away from the cold and wet and wind of Southern England. The picture might give you a small clue as to where exactly I am hiding, I can also add that when I got here on Tuesday it was hot 31C, Wednesday was the same but that's why I came half round the world, to get away from the cold. Certainly worked. Yesterday, Friday it was cooler so I went into the nearby City, I am sure the picture clue I gave you will have been far too hard for you to guess where so I will admit it is Sydney. After Small Town Torquay it always comes as a bit of a shock to the system to come out of the train station at The Town Hall and In a couple of minutes watch more traffic pass by then a couple of weeks in beloved Torquay. As you can see Woolworth’s is still going strong here.

To day I also went into Sydney to see one of my nieces and her partner. It was overcast and I made a mistake I don’t usually make when in Australia, I didn’t take a hat and now the top of my head is glowing like a nuclear reactor 5 seconds before melt down. When your hair is as rare as mine that is not something to easily contemplate.

A couple of weeks before I came there had been a TV program about Arther Stace, a homeless man who wandered round Sydney writing the word Eternity in beautiful copperplate script on walls and pavements, this was pre graffiti days and he did only use chalk. The Sydney City Fathers celebrated this gentleman’s achievement by displaying Eternity on the Harbour Bridge for the 2000th New Year’s Day fireworks. I mentioned this to my niece and she told me about a site containing over 1300 photos taken by 90 year old Alan Waddel in which he walked round ever street in every suburb of Sydney taking the photos. An impressive collection. View it here.

More in a few days.

Going Away

Well it's Sunday morning and I am just about to go down to Cary Parade bus stop to catch a 31 to the coach station on the first leg of a 33 hour journey to Sydney.

Next post will, i expect be from Sydney.