Both me and the website for our big trip that is.
http://ofnofixedabode.wordpress.com
Sunday, July 19, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Wildlife Special
What a busy pair we've been! This is going to be my last blog here for some time. We've upped sticks to go on a long trip around Australia, and I'll be charting our progress on another website (i'll leave the details here in another post).
Meanwhile we've spent the past two weeks travelling up to Ella's parents' place in Bundaberg, spending a week here - and having fun along the way in Canberra, Sydney and Landsborough.
It occurred to me that the last week or so has been dominated by unusual and interesting wildlife, so here are a few of the photos.
When we arrived in Bundaberg Helen told us the story of the injured sugar glider that Jacques (with the help of Fred the dog) found on their property.
It was taken to a nearby animal carer to be looked after, but sadly it didn't make it. On a more positive note however, the carer discovered it had a tiny offspring attached ... and this has been nurtured. It's grown from 3.5 grammes to 6 grammes and we went to see it last week. Photos courtesy of Jacques. What a cutey! (the sugar glider I mean, not Jacques!)
Back in the Rohen's garden there are three Tawny Frogmouthed owls that live in a tree near the house. They're incredibly well camouflaged - if they hadn't been pointed out to me I don't think i'd have spotted them. Obviously they're asleep in these daytime photos.
On Sunday we took a trip with some of the Rohen's family friends aboard their boat, the Black Pearl. We hadn't been given the details of the boat, so when we arrived at 7am I suppose we were a bit surprised at the size and luxury nature of the eight berth beast! John piloted us three hours south along the coast to Hervey Bay (named for one of Captain Cook's colleagues).
Why did we go there? Well, at this time of the year it's the best place in the world to catch sight of Humpback Whales. They come north from Antarctica to this area in June to calve in warmer water and they can be seen until November.
The first 'spot' however had us flummoxed for a while. It turned out to be a Turtle ... but it didn't look very well. It was swimming very slowly and Jacques thinks it might have been damaged by a boat's prop.
Then we caught sight of some fins! According to those who had been before often the Whales will come and play alongside the boats. Not these guys, though, and there's a strict code about not approaching too close.
After floating around for a while we headed for the beach instead and Ella and I had a swim. (It was too cold for all the Queenslanders though).
Then on the way back we saw loads of Dolphins - then finally a Whale who appeared to be playing with her calf - slapping the water's surface with a huge fin, which was followed by a much smaller fin from the calf. We even saw, from a distance, leap completely out of the water! Stunning, but I didn't have my camera out ... you'll have to settle for some fin slapping.
After that it was another 2-3 hours back and we made it just as the sun set. A beautiful day indeed.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
The first quarter of 2009 ... and a bit
Need I really mention that 2009 has been busy and I have struggled to get around to adding to this blog?
I spent most of the first three months walking - anywhere and everywhere. This turned out to be very good training for the monster Oxfam Trailwalker. Thanks to everyone who donated to the cause - we raised over $2.5k and had a blast walking for 33 hours to complete the 100km as a team of four. Of course that sounds like a lot longer walking than is entirely necessary, but it includes lots of meals (I would never have believed i'd get tired of eating!), podiatry, massages ... and a bit of limping.
Here's a little slideshow of some photos of the last section of the walk.
Recovery from the event was swift and two weeks later it was Easter and we headed up to the Australian Alps (yes there really is such a place - I promise) to meet up with Ella's family - Helen, Jacques, Ingrid and Jana, plus Phil and Jim (Ingrid and Jana's partners). We had a superb long weekend walking in the hills by day, cooking, eating, playing board games in the evenings. I also took my brand new camera along to get to know it ... here are some of the results:
Jacques heads across a raging torrent!
Helen supports Jacques while he catches his breath on the way up a steep hill ... or was it the other way around?
On Easter Sunday some of us did a day-long circuit walk starting out high on the ridge (1700m) deep into a valley, past several old graziers/camping huts and back to the start. It made for a nice trek with lots of variety. Here we are starting out - Mt Feathertop and the razorback walk on the horizon (we did that walk a few years ago when we last visited this area).
This was the pick of the huts for me, right at the bottom of the valley, nestled amongst the trees in a clearing. It would make a nice place to spend a night or two.
Especially when it's kitted out with this stove.
The whole area suffered badly in bushfires in the last few years. The fragile alpine environment is much slower at regenerating than lowland areas. Even still these huge trees (~60m by Jacques reckoning) are showing signs of recovery.
My camera came with a superb zoom lens. All the better for capturing sister-in-laws from great distance! I call this composition 'Ingrid on a hill' ... she must have been half a mile away when I took this.
Everybody went home on the Monday, apart from Helen, Jacques, Ella and I, so we did a couple of shorter walks before heading back on Tuesday. The trip up to Mount Tabletop was brilliant - wonderful views. The spiny leafless trees gave the landscape an eerie look.
But they make a great backdrop for family photos!
Autumn's here now ... as you can see, but we're trying to plan some enjoyable trips for the future to help us through the winter. Hopefully we'll manage to get over to Tassie for a real winter walk - snow and all. Maybe I'll even be able to update this blog before then... I hope you contain your excitement.
I spent most of the first three months walking - anywhere and everywhere. This turned out to be very good training for the monster Oxfam Trailwalker. Thanks to everyone who donated to the cause - we raised over $2.5k and had a blast walking for 33 hours to complete the 100km as a team of four. Of course that sounds like a lot longer walking than is entirely necessary, but it includes lots of meals (I would never have believed i'd get tired of eating!), podiatry, massages ... and a bit of limping.
Here's a little slideshow of some photos of the last section of the walk.
Recovery from the event was swift and two weeks later it was Easter and we headed up to the Australian Alps (yes there really is such a place - I promise) to meet up with Ella's family - Helen, Jacques, Ingrid and Jana, plus Phil and Jim (Ingrid and Jana's partners). We had a superb long weekend walking in the hills by day, cooking, eating, playing board games in the evenings. I also took my brand new camera along to get to know it ... here are some of the results:
Jacques heads across a raging torrent!
Helen supports Jacques while he catches his breath on the way up a steep hill ... or was it the other way around?
On Easter Sunday some of us did a day-long circuit walk starting out high on the ridge (1700m) deep into a valley, past several old graziers/camping huts and back to the start. It made for a nice trek with lots of variety. Here we are starting out - Mt Feathertop and the razorback walk on the horizon (we did that walk a few years ago when we last visited this area).
This was the pick of the huts for me, right at the bottom of the valley, nestled amongst the trees in a clearing. It would make a nice place to spend a night or two.
Especially when it's kitted out with this stove.
The whole area suffered badly in bushfires in the last few years. The fragile alpine environment is much slower at regenerating than lowland areas. Even still these huge trees (~60m by Jacques reckoning) are showing signs of recovery.
My camera came with a superb zoom lens. All the better for capturing sister-in-laws from great distance! I call this composition 'Ingrid on a hill' ... she must have been half a mile away when I took this.
Everybody went home on the Monday, apart from Helen, Jacques, Ella and I, so we did a couple of shorter walks before heading back on Tuesday. The trip up to Mount Tabletop was brilliant - wonderful views. The spiny leafless trees gave the landscape an eerie look.
But they make a great backdrop for family photos!
Autumn's here now ... as you can see, but we're trying to plan some enjoyable trips for the future to help us through the winter. Hopefully we'll manage to get over to Tassie for a real winter walk - snow and all. Maybe I'll even be able to update this blog before then... I hope you contain your excitement.
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Rafting Trip ... and a charity walk
We got the photos back from the rafting company (thanks Helen and Jacques!)... and here's a slideshow I put together showing the best ones that featured us.
Ella and I are at the front of the boat, Jacques and Helen at the back, and some random people who no doubt have lovely names but I can't remember them, are in the middle.
Enjoy.
Now, if you're done watching that, can I ask you to go nicely to this next website where you can find out all about my next exciting adventure...a great big long walk for charity! <--- click on that bit back there.
Ella and I are at the front of the boat, Jacques and Helen at the back, and some random people who no doubt have lovely names but I can't remember them, are in the middle.
Enjoy.
Now, if you're done watching that, can I ask you to go nicely to this next website where you can find out all about my next exciting adventure...a great big long walk for charity! <--- click on that bit back there.
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Another World Heritage Christmas!
In 2007 we were in the depths of the Tasmanian wilderness walking the South Coast Track, but Christmas 2008 saw us driving a long way north to the World Heritage rain forest National Parks of northern New South Wales.
Getting there took two days of solid driving, camping along the way.
We spent a few days just the two of us in New England National Park. This park is partly situated at about 1500m above sea level on the Tablelands and straddles an impressive escarpment. This means it was fairly cool and often damp or completely immersed in clouds. We didn't think there was much in the way of walking here, but by adding several small walks together we were able to really enjoy it. the views off the escarpment out across the forests were excellent and there were beautiful cascades amongst the rainforest... and even a big black snake!
On Christmas Day we did a nice walk down into Wollomombi Gorge - which was truly spectacular.
There are some impressive waterfalls along the escarpment, as you can see.
On Boxing Day we moved on to the Gibraltar Range National Park to meet up with Helen and Jacques, stopping in Grafton for supplies. There were more campers at this spot, but it wasn't quite overcrowded. Our plan was to walk the World Heritage Trail, a circuit walk that runs through Gibraltar Range and Washpool National Parks. Unfortunately the late afternoon storms typical of these sub-tropical regions made things a bit tricky and after discovering Lake Salewa in the bottom of our tent we changed plans and arranged to do various daywalks either directly from our campsite or driving short distances.
The flora of the area includes Christmas Bells.
We also saw a fair amount of the granite geological formations that make the landscape of the area so rugged.
The geology made for some great swimming and more wonderful waterfalls, too.
And when we weren't busy walking, oohing and aahing at the landscape flora and fauna we were taking photos or laughing deliriously at pretty much anything (including our outfits!)
A nice shot of mother and daughter disappearing into the murky rainforest.
Base Camp:
Evidence of all our hard work:
There was so much to see that the walking was quite relaxed ... there were lots of photos to be taken, like this huge grass tree (the one on the right).
The view from the Needles lookout:
We were having so much fun I forgot to shave:
Several days in we did a walk in Washpool NP that really made the World Heritage status of the area apparent. Absolutely astonishing and abundant plant life in every direction... but not very easy do justice with a camera unfortunately.
To finish the trip we headed to another National Park that didn't have a great deal of walking written up. We camped at Platypus Flats in the depths of Nymboi-Binderay National Park in order to join a whitewater rafting trip down the Nymboida River (a very nice Christmas present from Helen and Jacques - thanks guys!)
It was a beautiful spot by the river and very relaxing and we spent a couple of days there swimming and heading off to another park for a walk (with another brilliant waterfall) before the rafting.
The rafting was immensely good fun, the river wasn't terribly fast-flowing but the rocks made the navigation fun and the secluded rainforest location awesome. We should be getting some photos through from the firm that organised it, so I'll post some up then.
Even though we drove 3,800km and walked over 100km we finished the trip thoroughly relaxed, it felt like much longer than two weeks. Plans are afoot for the next trip ... and it may be an altogether more exotic one.
Lots more photos available HERE (if you can bear them)
And this map should show the area that we were in:
View Larger Map
Getting there took two days of solid driving, camping along the way.
We spent a few days just the two of us in New England National Park. This park is partly situated at about 1500m above sea level on the Tablelands and straddles an impressive escarpment. This means it was fairly cool and often damp or completely immersed in clouds. We didn't think there was much in the way of walking here, but by adding several small walks together we were able to really enjoy it. the views off the escarpment out across the forests were excellent and there were beautiful cascades amongst the rainforest... and even a big black snake!
On Christmas Day we did a nice walk down into Wollomombi Gorge - which was truly spectacular.
There are some impressive waterfalls along the escarpment, as you can see.
On Boxing Day we moved on to the Gibraltar Range National Park to meet up with Helen and Jacques, stopping in Grafton for supplies. There were more campers at this spot, but it wasn't quite overcrowded. Our plan was to walk the World Heritage Trail, a circuit walk that runs through Gibraltar Range and Washpool National Parks. Unfortunately the late afternoon storms typical of these sub-tropical regions made things a bit tricky and after discovering Lake Salewa in the bottom of our tent we changed plans and arranged to do various daywalks either directly from our campsite or driving short distances.
The flora of the area includes Christmas Bells.
We also saw a fair amount of the granite geological formations that make the landscape of the area so rugged.
The geology made for some great swimming and more wonderful waterfalls, too.
And when we weren't busy walking, oohing and aahing at the landscape flora and fauna we were taking photos or laughing deliriously at pretty much anything (including our outfits!)
A nice shot of mother and daughter disappearing into the murky rainforest.
Base Camp:
Evidence of all our hard work:
There was so much to see that the walking was quite relaxed ... there were lots of photos to be taken, like this huge grass tree (the one on the right).
The view from the Needles lookout:
We were having so much fun I forgot to shave:
Several days in we did a walk in Washpool NP that really made the World Heritage status of the area apparent. Absolutely astonishing and abundant plant life in every direction... but not very easy do justice with a camera unfortunately.
To finish the trip we headed to another National Park that didn't have a great deal of walking written up. We camped at Platypus Flats in the depths of Nymboi-Binderay National Park in order to join a whitewater rafting trip down the Nymboida River (a very nice Christmas present from Helen and Jacques - thanks guys!)
It was a beautiful spot by the river and very relaxing and we spent a couple of days there swimming and heading off to another park for a walk (with another brilliant waterfall) before the rafting.
The rafting was immensely good fun, the river wasn't terribly fast-flowing but the rocks made the navigation fun and the secluded rainforest location awesome. We should be getting some photos through from the firm that organised it, so I'll post some up then.
Even though we drove 3,800km and walked over 100km we finished the trip thoroughly relaxed, it felt like much longer than two weeks. Plans are afoot for the next trip ... and it may be an altogether more exotic one.
Lots more photos available HERE (if you can bear them)
And this map should show the area that we were in:
View Larger Map
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