Our final day of driving in our son's four wheel drive (which we had never needed to put into four wheel drive) was through lush countryside that made me reach for the camera at every twist in the road. Every turn seemed to reveal yet another beautiful landscape. Of course the shots that I tried to take out of the car window ended up being thrown away – the vegetation close to the road was moving at such a speed that it spoiled the rest of the picture. When you look out of a car window your eyes eliminate this blur – but the camera is not so selective.
Fortunately my pleas to stop fell on receptive ears and I have a few “goodies”, but only where there was a gravel shoulder to pull over onto! This shot over the bales of hay was only because there was such a patch of gravel!
Our route took us over what is known as “the Range” and almost at the apex is a picnic spot that is down a narrow track into the dense bush. The wonderful chime that is the sound of the Bellbird could be heard through the closed windows as we drove down to a clearing in which there were picnic tables.
For the first time on this trip I dragged out the video camera – not to take video but to record the sound. Its a pity I don't know how to give you a sample in this blog. Maybe one day I will find out how to do it!
We were joined at our picnic table by some free-loaders. First a female then another and finally a male bird. They are Satin Bower Birds. The male and the female are very different to each other in appearance.
The male is black and his satin black feathers are almost iridescent blue when the light catches them. The eyes are blue but we noticed that both male and female's eyes could look mauve when the sun shone on them.
The female could hardly be called drab with her highly patterned coat of feathers and her blue eyes, but she is quite a contrast to the single colour of her male partner.
In breeding time the male woos his bride-to-be with a bower of twigs (like an archway of twigs) with the ground under the bower and the opening to it decorated with all things blue – blue berries, blue bottle tops, blue caps from ball point pens, etc., and if the female is impressed she will enter the bower.
Back in the car we continued up and over the Range and eased over to let impatient drivers race past us – even though the speed limit was 70kph.
This shot was taken through the windscreen since there was no way we could stop on this steep road. The trees and the cliff are so dramatically different to the emerald green of the farming area we had just left.
Over the top and down the other side it is even steeper and heavy vehicle have to take great care. We caught up with the impatient drivers who had overtaken us, they had become trapped behind laden trucks negotiating the decline at about 40kph.
My shot is to show two things – the traffic on this steep road and the emergency ramp that runs off to the side should brakes fail. The speedy drivers are in this shot too!
There are many things that I could show you from this trip but I will only include one picture that I took in a small town called Kalbar.
We called in to visit friends today who moved from Kalbar ten years ago. It was partly nostalgia that took us off the main road into the little town but there are some restored homes and businesses that saw their birth well over a hundred years ago – and I love taking photographs of attractive buildings!
I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our travels and seeing a few of my photographs.
AJ
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