Dust storm

One of the most unusual days we had last week was on Wednesday 23rd September when the air filled with dust and the view changed from tropical to eirie.I am not a watcher of the news and weather so the atmosphere that day took me completely by surprise. To begin with I assumed that we were smothered with the smoke from bush fires because the sky was orange but there was no smell of smoke.
Colin came to the rescue with an explanation that this was a dust storm that had worked its way up the eastern coastline of Australia from Sydney and was still moving north.
The picture I have included was taken when the sky was at its most colourful and the visibility at its lowest (which wasn't really as bad as dust storms I had experienced in the Mallee). The shot was taken from my back veranda looking north and the edge of the roof would be about half a kilometer away. From the news that night it appeared that the visibility was far worse closer to the coast and in the city of Brisbane.
AJ

Trains for the boys

Today I took my house guests to the industrial area of Labrador - not to look at industry of any kind but to attend an open day for a model railway club.
We climbed the metal stairs to the upper floor of a building and were met with an array of scenery displays and metres and metres of mini railway tracks.Some of the scenery was really well done - like in the first photo I have attached. The trees and the buildings were almost mini replicas of the real thing, but in other areas the scenery was far more amateurish with unnatural looking trees and buildings that were mass produced plastic buildings that would have suited a child's railway set-up.
The men and the boys who were leaning over their personal trains and carriages were all taking their hobby very seriously. I am not sure if the creation of their trains was what really interested them or the playing with them on the miles of track!Some of the trains were very intricate - such as the two I have included here, and some of them were models of much more modern trains with umpteen carriages towed along behind them.
No one seemed to mind me taking photographs - well actually no one seemed to mind if we were there or not! They were all far too busy with their toys!
Graham set up his tripod and video camera and the enthusiasts he approached to do stuff for him were only too happy to oblige. Graham had a ball! Maybe its a "girl thing" but I really found it very difficult to be excited about the trains! Five minutes and I had the shots I wanted and was ready to go home! Give me the real thing any day! I love BIG trains and BIG steam engines!
AJ

Stitching pictures to make a larger scenario

While looking through my collection of photos to find a picture for a particular purpose I came across my photos taken in the South Island of New Zealand. There were four pictures in particular that made me stop and take a closer look and they were photographs of this modest home only a short distance from the rail track on which runs the "Kingston Flyer". (I suggest you do a Google search for the "Kingston Flyer NZ") Only someone who is a photography enthusiast would stop to take several shots of an unusual fence! And! Of course! I am one of those!
Anyway. Looking at the pictures I realised that two of them were taken in such a way that they could be joined. I will show you the two separate pictures:-
As you can see they do not match perfectly so a fair bit of manipulation had to be done. I actually overlapped the left hand image over the right after reducing the size of it. If you look at the largest wheel that makes up the gatepost on the right of the gate in both pictures, it is positioned over a different part of the house - in the left picture it is over the stone chimney and in the right picture it is over part of a window.
I selected the fence (wheels!) and the lawn from the right picture and made another layer from that selection and pulled it to the top of the pile.
A bit of twisting and turning was necessary to line the house up correctly and the mountains behind were way out of line too so that required a bit of license. (sorry, Mother Nature!). So finally I came up with the picture at the top of this story.
AJ

Toowoomba colour

I was looking through the photographs I took when touring some of the lovely gardens in Toowoomba on Tuesday and picked on this one to share with you. It was taken in the Botanical Gardens - I thought the name of the garden was Queens Park but our coach driver called it the Botanical Gardens. Whatever! As my son would say!
Anyway, the shot, taken from knee height to give the tulips pride of place in the fore-ground, is enhanced slightly in Photoshop to give that cerise colour even more impact.
At the bottom of the Layers Palette in Photoshop is a round button that is cut in half diagonally and one half of the circle is black the other white.
Click on this button and a list of options is given. I clicked on "Selective Color".
At the top of the box that now opens it is possible to choose any individual colour and modify it.
I selected Green first and moved the black slider to the right a llile. This made the leaves of the tulips darker.
Next Yellow was selected and again the black slider was moved to the right a little and this took the brightness off the pale coloured lawn.
The layer was flattened and the beautiful tulips really stand out so much better even though the changes were only modest.
Sometimes a little change makes all the difference.
AJ

Recovered photos

Not only have I recovered from all the driving and exploring done during the past 14 days but I have also recovered my lost photos!
Thanks to a malfunction of the laptop as I was about to download my photos from one of my 4G Compact Flash memory cards, I thought I had lost all of my photographs taken over the previous three days,. Many had already been copied to the laptop so were not lost at all but the pictures that I regretted losing were the shots I had taken inside the Jenolan Caves and in the Blue Mountains Botanical Gardens.
I had downloaded a couple of programs from the 'net and resolved to wait until I was back on my big computer to do anything with them. Of course the programs searched for the files and they did find them but it was impossible to save them without first purchasing the program. Very clever! Of course I could not turn away and let this opportunity go! I had to purchase one of them - so I went for the one that worked the fasted and was really simple to use. It is called, very simply, "CardRecovery" from www.cardrecovery.com and costs less than $50 - using PayPal.
This is one of the many photos I recovered - and "yes" the photos are the full pixel count and include the RAW files too.
The pictures I took in the Jenolan Caves were taken without a flash so they were taken using a very slow shutter speed. I do not have a steady hand at any time and after clambering up and down the 950 steps I was definitely not able to keep my hands from shaking! So I used a bendy Gorilla-pod. I would wrap the legs around the handrail and I prayed that it would provide the stability I needed. The Handrail was highly polished after years of hands using it so I would try to get to where the handrail and upright met so that I could utilize that post too.
I have a few blurred shots but I have several very good shots too so I felt that recovering my photos was well worth the money I spent on the recovery Program.
AJ

Homeward bound

Tomakin is a long way south of the Gold Coast so two overnight stops are needed to get us back home safely - without the principal driver (me) getting too tired. Our first day took us via Canberra without actually going into the city to Cowra. After two hours of driving we stopped for morning tea at a small town called Boorowa. There were lots of very old buildings in the town and I couldn't resist taking a few photos before we left. This town apparently has a "running of the sheep" in October! The poster I saw pasted on various walls showed a flock of sheep running down the main street with a crowd of people following - you would hardly have them the other way around as with the running of the bulls!We arrived in Cowra in plenty of time for Graham and Nola to see the Japanese Gardens and for Graham to take video of the place. They had seen my photos of the gardens on my web album and were eager to see the gardens for themselves.Less than half an hour after we had arrived at the Gardens Graham asked if we could return in the morning. Asking "Why" he confessed that he had left his spare battery in the motel room (we had booked in as soon as we had arrived in Cowra). Colin manfully accepted my request to drive back to the motel to get the battery. Nola went with him and did not return, she took the opportunity to grab a quick shut-eye!

As I had taken a camera full of still photos on my last visit to the Japanese Gardens earlier in the year I dragged out my little Panasonic video camera and tripod and took enough shots to be able to make a short movie. It will be interesting to compare my video with Grahams!

After all that driving and then concentrating on taking reasonable shots for my video I was feeling far too tired to even unpack the laptop which is why I am covering two days in one! I would not recommend dining at the Cowra Services Club, it took a full thirty minutes to actually get from the end of the queue to to the front to order and then the food was unappealing- my Chicken schnitzel was as hard as boot leather and anyone ordering from the bain-marie would have half cold dried up food!

It was a very long trip today and I learned a serious lesson! Study a map before you accept the guidance of a GPS! We were taken along gravel roads and up country lanes that were so rough that I think I have damaged the suspension on the car. When we go over even a small bump there is an ominous bang as the car feels as if it is bottoming out!

Along one of the country roads I noticed a flock of sheep that looked rather different from the all white merinos we used to breed. The car was turned around so that Graham could take a shot through the window without getting out of the car but I hopped out with my camera so of course he climbed out too! It didn't matter, we took our shots of the lazy sheep with black faces and soon moved on. The property looked very neat and attractive but we did not trespass and nor did we disturb the sheep.

This evening we are at Armidale. It would be good to stay here and take some photos - the place is full of interesting buildings. Maybe I will return another day.

AJ

Central Tilba homes and gardens

Today we drove to Tilba - Central Tilba and Tilba Tilba. Central Tilba is an unspoiled little village that is made up of so many old buildings that the entire village has been classified by the National Trust and the village is protected by a National Heritage Listing. Arriving at the village at eight thirty meant that we were there before the coach tours started rolling in and I was able to wander around with my camera and get lots of photos without a soul on the road or too many vehicles parked in front of buildings. In spite of the early hour there were people about and many of the shops owners had already put a few things out on the pavement so there was plenty of interest.

One thing that really made the place look wonderful was the colour of all the shrubs and flowers on narrow nature strips in front of the buildings.

I do wonder how the people who actually own these building manage to keep the weather out of them - one thing that makes the town look so old is the unique rusting tin of the bull nosed verandas and the irregular battered look of the old roofing iron - but how weather proof is that roofing iron? What happens when the rain comes in, are the residents allowed to re-clad the roof? Can the roofs be painted to seal them? They are not painted so I assume this is NOT allowed.

From a tourist brochure I found that there was a garden behind a nursery that is open to the public. This garden is called Foxglove Spires. We drove through Tilba Tilba and found it right on the outskirts of this smaller sister village to Central Tilba.

An hour was spent wandering through the rather unkempt but fragrant and colourful gardens that spread over three acres of land. Apparently the garden was created from grazing farm land in 1984 so when that is taken into consideration one cannot help but be full of admiration for a place that feels as if it was established a hundred years ago! There is a woodland with bluebells and forget-me-nots, arched arbours of espaliered fruit trees and arches draped with glorious blue and white wisteria and lots of old fashioned rose bushes and so much more! I loved it!

I think I must be a frustrated gardener! I enjoy my own garden but it is quite a simple thing when I see something like Foxglove Spires. my garden is a couple of years older and is no where near as full of interest. But I think it would be a much easier garden to care for!
AJ

Delicious dinosaurs

I have always loved fossils and dinosaurs, our family have taken many trips to scratch in the soil for rocks and fossils since our boys were quite small so this enthusiasm has been active for a very long time!
Passing the building called "Dinosaur Museum" on route to Cockington Green, I really wanted to go in and take a look around. This opportunity came since I had been around the entire display of the miniature village and ridden on the miniature train by lunch time and since we had a couple of spare hours to kill Colin and I hopped in the car and went over the road.
It was fabulous! The displays were cleverly laid out in a logical way and colourful dioramas were set up to give an idea of how life might have looked in the time of the dinosaurs.
Unlike many museums the display was not immense nor was it scattered all over the place involving lots of walking. Imagine a long room that has a stair case that takes you first to the centre of that room. then walk anticlockwise around the room to finish back at the top of the stairs. We were hardly aware of walking any distance because there were so many times we stopped and looked, photographed and read the interesting signs that accompanied the fossils. Unlike the stuffy details of museum artifacts of the past, the text was amusing short and interesting too.
The walk around the display took us from the start of life with the fossils of stromatolites and other tiny non bony creatures - such as jelly fish, through the different dinosaurs from small to absolutely immense and right round to the big bang that ended the life of the dinosaurs and opened the window for the mammals to develop.I am so glad that I managed to get to see all this.
many of the photos that were taken were taken without a flash even though the light was very low. I used Aperture setting and although I did not have a tripod there was only one shot that I have to discard.
AJ

Cockington Green miniature village

Leaving the coast at eight in the morning my passengers were moaning about the heavy cloud and how it looked as if it would rain. "Its only coastal cloud" I reassured them, "It will evaporate as we climb over the hills." How confident is that? And I don't watch the weather on the TV either! I believe in being positive and didn't want our excursion to be marred with moans! Perhaps my optimism did the trick, who knows, but the clouds did break up and by the time we reached Cockington Green on the north side of Canberra the sky was blue and cloudless - just look at this first picture I took as we clambered out of the car.Cockington Green is named after a National Trust village in the UK - a real village with very quaint cottages, most of them with straw thatching on their roofs. The Canberra Cockington Green has among its collection of miniatures a tiny replica of the name-sake village, however there are miniature villages and castles of places in many different parts of England.
The first time I visited this display was in 1974 and it was amazing to find that not very much had changed - there were the same characters and the same buildings - but they all were looking fresh and bright and the gardens are what make the place really special. The miniature grass that is used is amazing. The plants are chosen so that they do not dwarf the scale models but are colourful and complimentary to them.
What was new from so long ago was the international display. The shot I have included with this blog was taken from the miniature train (I am a big kid and have to take a ride on the train!) This collection covers so many different countries, sometimes there is one outstanding building represented and sometimes two but the detail on them is incredible.
Most of my photos are of individual displays or of details within the display but since I took over 100 I don't think you would appreciate me showing them all!
AJ

Mogo gold rush

Mogo might be a small town, a tiny dot on the map of Australia, but tucked behind the few houses and businesses on the main road to Braidswood is an amazing collection of old buildings that have been accumulated to create a representation of a Gold Rush town of the 1850's. The "theme park" is called Old Mogo Town and it was begun in the mid 1990s. Colin and I visited this place when it was still in its infancy in 1996 and since then it has more than doubled in size and really does look as old as it is intended to look.
When I last visited I was shown the shed that contained the old gold stamper - the shed (back then) was so full of junk that no one could climb through it! I also was taken through the part of the tunnel that was part of the actual gold mine and told how the roof was to be strengthened before tourists would be allowed through it. The rails and the small carriages that carried the rocks out of the mine were still in place and they moved over the rails.
On this visit the strengthening was very evident and the rails were buried in dust and grit and the carriages did not move at all. The elevated tracks outside had gone. But the young guide gave an excellent description of what went on in the mines and which tools were used and how.
Outside the mine was the stamper and to everyone's surprise it was turned on (with an electric switch) and the stamper rattled and thumped and created a lot of dust - but no quartz was put under the hammers to be crushed.Cameras clicked and video cameras rolled as the small crowd watched this stamper in action.
The buildings around the stamping shed - which is now free of all that junk and instead has a working water wheel splashing comfortably and attracting interest - looked authentic with their timber and shingle cladding.
Inside there were a few artifacts to show what the building was to be used for. It is an interesting place to visit. It is also a good place for taking photos that are intended to look as though they were taken before cameras were invented!
AJ

More Floriade pictures

The main reason for my trip south was to visit the Floriade so I really cannot let this blog go by without adding another couple of pictures! I will not be returning to it as I had hoped - when you are part of a larger party of people you have to fit in with their desires rather than insist on following your own. (sob)
Living in the sub tropics, as I do, I see very few of these temperate zone flowers except in the supermarkets - the southern nurseries make money from the plants that everyone kills off in the wrong growing zones! The tulips in the Floriade displays were gorgeous. There were lots of people with SLR digital cameras crouching down and taking macro shots of them! The colours were as varied as the arrangement of the petals. I had not realised there were so many different sorts of tulips. Likewise the daffodils, there were the usual pale yellow with the darker yellow trumpet and every other combination of yellows and oranges and whites that I could possibly imagine. There were individual heads on a stalk and multiple heads, there were doubles and singles and fluffed trumpets and short trumpets. It was fascinating just looking for different ones!
Yesterday I wrote about how the flowers were looking as if they were being viewed too early.
Well here is a photo I took which is how the gardens look from eye level. I did find that if I got down to the height of a six year old that the gardens looked absolutely amazing. The difference was worth the bending down!
How it was possible to grow all these plants and produce them as they are just opening on display in the Centenary Gardens I don't know. There must be some enormous green houses located somewhere! When the Floriade is over the plants will all be returned to where ever it is they came from to be nurtured and re-potted (every plant is in a pot under mulch) and brought out and put in a new arrangement next year.
Being an energetic sort of dude, I wandered away and found the the display went even further - right down to the lake and half way around it. As the afternoon was wearing on there were a few more people wandering around but I was amazed just how few people there were admiring the displays. One of the volunteers who was manning one of the gates told me that the weekends were so busy that people could hardly move for the crowds.
I hope we can take another look at the displays before we leave this area of NSW.
AJ

Flowers in Canberra

This is what we came to see! The Floriade in Canberra! The car was packed and we had a wonderful relaxed drive over the hills and far away to the nation's Capitol. We made a brief stop at historic Braidwood to stretch the legs and buy a loaf of bread for lunch. (Which we brought "home" because we ended up buying something for lunch!) Thanks to the GPS we managed to find a wonderful place to park the car that was just across a foot bridge from the Floriade. We could not have found a place closer to park if we had tried!

Four hours was spent wandering around the thousands of tulips and daffodils and taking photos and chatting to people.

Nola was instructed to move one of the wheelbarrow displays - well not really! It was just a fun photo idea - that worked! A couple of people saw what I had staged and immediately moved in to do the same thing so I relieved them of their camera and got the two of them pretending to move two wheel barrows full of red tulips, they were delighted!

Inside one of the marquees I discovered an unusual competition - a fashion show of clothes made from plants and flowers. What a strange idea. The two shown here were winners, but there were lots of interesting ideas. The floral displays outside were colourful and yet (to me) a little disappointing. I think the flowers were either "passed it" or else needed another couple of days to come out. At least the weather has been kind so far and it looks as if the rest of the week of the display is going to be free of rain and strong wind so the displays will not get damaged by the elements.
The mechanical organ "Australia Fair" was playing jolly music next to the fun park, A school choir was singing joyfully under a large marquee and the University orchestra was playing interesting contemporary music on a stage under a "Shell" so as well as visual delights there were audio ones too!
Plans were to stop at Braidwood on the return trip and take a few shots of the very interesting buildings but when we reached the town the clouds were back in place and it was dull and cold so we happily decided to delay this photographic pleasure for another day!
We shall be making another trip to Canberra so there should be a few more photos to add to my collection.
AJ

A beachy day

Brad, Tracy and their handsome son, Billy drove from Canberra to Tomakin for the day.

After time spent chatting and taking family snaps as well as tucking into a simple feed of home made hamburgers followed by cheese cake and apple pie we admired the wonderful things that Tracy's Ipod could do! What a wonderful toy. While we were having lunch we heard a fire truck scream past, then another and then another. We assumed there was something serious going on but really did not take much notice. Tracy asked if we could go to a beach so Billy could play in the sand.
We piled into two cars and headed north. Our planned beach was not to be for us today. The fire was across the road and the fire brigade was turning all cars around. We did not want to be casualties of a fire so we about turned and drove in to the settlement of Tomakin to check out the beach there. It was a good choice. There were only a couple of other family groups on the beach. Trousers were rolled up and Billy was given his first paddle in the sea. I think you can see for yourselves that he enjoyed it very much!
After managing to get Billy's clothes wet the young family returned to shore to play in the sand. But after finding that Billy was not only getting all the sand stuck on his wet skin and clothes but trying to eat it too he was returned to the sea to wash it off!

A helicopter with a bucket dangling from a long rope flew over our beach so we assumed that it was heading for the fire just north of us.

We waved farewell to Brad, Tracy and Billy at 3.30pm and we headed further south to search out more bays for more photographs. Our travels took us back to Moyura where we had visited the market yesterday. This time we did not go into the town but turned around to return to our holiday accommodation and to cook the evening meal. It had been a great day and even Graham and Nola enjoyed it - it can be difficult to entertain family and keep non family members happy at the same time!

AJ

Markets and shorelines

I was so exhausted after so many hours of driving yesterday that when I turned the light out I was instantly asleep! I think what really helped was the fact that I had downloaded a program from the 'net and there is a glimmer of hope regarding that card that had all the photos wiped from it. The laptop is not powerful enough to do the job but from an hour of scanning I could see that it was actually able to locate pictures on the memory card even though the computer and the camera both told me that the card was empty. I have now put a scrap of paper with the words "do not use" in with the memory card. Fingers crossed that I can actually retrieve those cave pictures!
I went to sleep thinking positive thoughts and woke prepared for a great day.
Reading about a market at Moruya, just a few kilometres down the road from where we are staying we decided on a look-see. It was a great decision! We were able to buy our fresh vegetables for the weekend as well as a couple of jars of jam! Graham found himself a leather belt for $3. It was a fun morning.
Just around the corner at Moruya Heads we found the perfect picnic spot, near the Surf Lifesaving Club but completely free of people! The sun was warm but the wind was a bit chilly. But that did not stop us enjoying our "make it yourself" meal! I gave everyone a plate, put the bread, butter, meats and cheeses on the table and told everyone to make their own! I then discovered that I had been underfeeding my husband! He had two rounds of sandwiches today, I normally only give him one!!!
Having exhausted our guests I suggested we return to the unit for a rest before heading out again with the cameras. This proved to be a popular suggestion and when we shut the front door of the unit there were two sleeping beauties within minutes!
Around three thirty we roused the sleepers with a cuppa and three of us clambered into the car. Colin decided to stay at the unit this time, I gave him a few instructions concerning the evening meal and off Graham, Nola and I drove to take a few pictures of the afternoon light on the rugged coastline. Forgive me if I am reluctant to put the compact flash card into this laptop to show you the pictures I took. I don't want to risk losing another lot of pictures! The market shot was taken with the Samsung camera - my back up camera! I didn't think of taking a shoreline shot with it, so I will have to remember tomorrow!
At five I rang Colin and instructed him on starting to cook the meat for tea - it involved chopping onions and adding a jar of sauce but he has watched me do it so many times I was sure he could manage ok. Graham was having a frustrating time with his tripod and wasn't enjoying taking his video as much as he expected. The tripod head had come loose and it was wobbling so that he could not pan.
When we reached the Unit again we were greeted with the lovely aroma of our meal so Colin was dismissed from the kitchen and sent to find a screw driver to fix Grahams tripod and I took over with preparing and cooking the vegies. He fixed it the tripod is solid as a rock again! And you are up to date with our adventures!
AJ

From the Blue Mountains to Tomakin

This was our last day in the Blue Mountains, we never did get back to see the Three Sisters in the late afternoon so our view of this famous landmark was with the sun behind them. The cost for parking was pretty steep too - minimum cost was $4 regardless of whether you were going to stay five minutes up to an hour. The platform area for viewing the Three Sisters is fantastic - large and able to accommodate hundreds of people comfortably - and spotlessly clean. So really the cost for parking is not dear when you consider what else you get for your money.
One thing we were very aware of was the cold wind that swept up from the base of the cliffs. It felt as if it came straight from the south pole! This is why poor Colin looks so unhappy!
We had to be at the Sydney Domestic terminal by 11.10am so we had to leave our accommodation at Faulconbridge reasonably early. We did stop at Penrith briefly for a break and when there spotted this amazing wisteria climbing right up a large tree. Of course, being the driver I was able to stop the car and grab a photo! Isn't it fantastic? Just in case I have another calamity when downloading my pictures, this one was taken with the Samsung! I hope I don't have any more traumas like yesterday with my photo saving!
we picked up Nola and Graham from the airport and headed south as soon as we had loaded their luggage. We were all feeling ready for a feed when we pulled over at a small town on the coast for lunch. What a steep road down! It was amazing! Fed and watered we were ready to get back on the road again. I did not realise how far it was to Tomakin from Sydney and it was five by the time we drove into the "resort". It actually wasn't so much the distance as the speeds that were allowable on the roads. Slow! We were either limited to 80 or 60 and very rarely were allowed to speed up to 100k for maybe up to five kilometres!
I am looking forward to being able to use the camera again tomorrow, so much driving is not what I really enjoy!
AJ

Jenolan Caves

A wonderful warm and sunny day was the start of a full and enjoyable time for both Colin and me. I must have taken over 200 photos today both before and inside the Jenolan Caves and afterwards when we visited the Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens. I had a wonderful time taking hundreds of photographs - its a wonder I saw anything at all!
Colin also was in full photography mode with his little Kodak point and shoot - no buttons to press or wheels to turn, fully automatic - but the results of his snapping are what I am using today so neither he nor I are complaining!
Neither of us realised just how far away the Jenolan Caves were from where we were staying at Faulconbridge but we enjoyed the run through the Blue Mountains and through the Valley on the other side. The winding road to the caves was really narrow and we were pleasantly surprised that there were no other vehicles to pass us or overtake us. Somehow we knew that when we arrived there would be plenty of tourists - and we were not wrong. When we arrived there were half a dozen large tourist coaches as well as several private cars.
We joined the 11.30 Lucas tour. Each tour has a different name and is of a different degree of difficulty. Our tour was for one and a half hours and had 950 steps to climb (not all UP) so it was a grade two of difficulty!
The guide gave us plenty of information and lots of time to take photos. I did not use a flash and was truly amazed at the quality of the pictures I was getting. I was so looking forward to showing them off.Colin was taking lots of pictures too but was complaining about how dark they looked in his screen so I told him not to worry about taking any more because he might be wasting his time.
I am SO glad that he took as many as he did because I have had a major calamity. The laptop froze when I put the card reader into it and when I removed it and put the card back into the camera all the pictures had been wiped off it.
I am so relieved that I had managed to save all the other photos from previous days to the hard drive on the laptop because they were all still on the card too. I was going to keep them on the card to copy to my main computer when I returned home. Too late for that!
I also had fun with the camera in the Mount Tomah Botanical Gardens - you need plenty of time to go there and plenty of time to explore the place. We arrived at four - an hour and half from the Caves - so only had an hour to look around, The gardens are the highest botanical gardens in Australia and specialise in alpine plants. There was a colourful display of rhododendrons and proteas as well as plenty of unusual flowering plants.It has been a long and interesting day but still there was time to detour into one more lookout! The sun was going down and the colour on the cliff faces is "to die for" as they say! Evans Lookout proved to be an excellent evening lookout, lots of wonderful rugged escarpments catching the late afternoon light. I shall have to rely on Colin's shots because all of mine have gone!
There are always going to be mishaps but it doesn't make any difference if you get angry or disappointed, you cannot change things. so I will put it down to experience and take even more photos in the coming days!
AJ

Missed the post

Yesterday there was a problem with the internet - maybe I am in a touchy sort of place, I dont know. Anyway I could not post the blog or edit it or send any emails. I am so releived that everything is working again today because I have lots to tell you! I must download my photos from the camera first so I will be back!
Come back and visit later!
AJ

Sun and fun in the Blue Mountains

The sun was out for most of today but the icy winds made it very uncomfortable up on the escarpments of the mountains. I think that the rock formations created an up-draft so that anyone standing on one of the multitude of lookouts would really have a problem holding themselves and their cameras steady!

Feeling a little guilty that we had not taken our Motel owners suggestion to go to Wentworth Falls lake to see the sunset we decided we had better check the place out to see what we had missed.

The lake is a place that has plenty of children's swings, a boat ramp and lots of funny sculptures to add a bit of interest - the one that is in near Colin looks a bit like a whale poking up out of the sea! The water was alive with water birds, three large geese took an active dislike to me and came out with necks outstretched and making hissing noises. They were most annoyed that I would not run away!

It was much too cold to stay beside the lake for long so we moved off to see some of the more well known sights and to take a few photos. For the day I managed to take around 125 photos with the Nikon and when I came to look at them on the computer I found that only one of them was not worth keeping. Pretty good percentage of "keepers"!

Whenever we saw a brown tourist road sign we followed it. We really enjoyed the "Tourist Route 5" that took us all around Leura and down roads where there was a viewpoint almost every few hundred metres.

We spent a wonderful half hour at the Leura Cascades where this peaceful shot was taken.
The camera is full of mountainous scenery including lots of the very famous "Three Sisters" More from the Blue Mountains tomorrow
AJ

From Port Macquarie to the Blue Mountains

If you have ever wondered where the people of Port Macquarie have gone - I think I have found the answer. Very few people were about this morning and I was enjoying having the parks and the ocean views to myself when this very large dog appeared. Wow! Was he big! I thought that my two hounds were large until I met this fella! So I think I have found the solution to the dwindling population! He must eat huge meals! I managed to catch up with the owner and he told me his companion was an Irish Wolfhound. I asked him if I could take a picture of him with his dog so that I had some means of showing how big it was. It must rival the great dane for size!

The storms that heralded our arrival in Port Macquarie had all evaporated through the night

so I was able to take a few photographs in sunlight after all.

The drive to the Blue Mountains was uneventful (fortunately) and we found our motel easily, thanks to our super GPS. It would have been much harder if I had to rely on my not so good map reader in the passenger seat!

After exploring the area a little to check out where to get our groceries and where we could go for meals and that sort of thing, I decided I wanted to get a sunset shot before we had our evening meal. The owner of the motel advised us to go to a lake at Wentworth Falls but once we were in the car I decided I would prefer to go to the Three Sisters because we needed to be on a western face. I think the locals have forgotten about looking at their own scenery! The Motel owner was really stumped for quite a while when I asked him for advice!
Anyway, the trip to the Three Sisters took just that bit too long for me to catch the sun going down - as Special Agent Smart would say "Missed it by that much!" however I used the gorilla pod as my tripod on the railing at Echo Point and managed to take a few pictures - but I shall return and take shots in daylight!!! I just had to prove I was there!
AJ

First day on the road

I am not good at early mornings! After driving for two hours I found that I could not stop yawning so pulled in to have a wake up cup of tea at "Little Italy" and push Colin into the drivers seat for an hour. We found the BEST place to stop for lunch! Nambucca Heads is beautiful along the water. This wet shot was taken from where we ate. A fellow was casting a line out into the briny but he was either using the wrong bait or wasn't holding his rod right or something but he caught nothing in the 30 minutes we were there! I know nothing about fishing but he had no float on his line so he was after some bottom feeder fish, no wonder Aussie fishermen hook rocks and other snags! A float is good, not only does it hold the bait higher in the water but it shows when something tugs on it. Those are my memories of fishing with Dad in the Rivers of the UK! Oh yes! in the UK not a sound or movement is made when trying to catch a fish - a bit different to the noisy blokes I have watched here in Oz! Radios blaring and the snap and hiss as the ring pulls are yanked of the top of cans!

Just beside our river view was this little nook in the same waterside park. I thought it looked so peaceful and inviting.

Yes, Nambucca Heads appealed to both Colin and me and we vowed to visit another day.

Out stop for the night is at Port Macquarie and we were greeted with a change in the weather. Just as we drove in to the Internet booked motel a few splashes of rain hit the car. Determined to see something of the place we had a quick cup of tea and hopped back in the car - I wanted a couple of photos. "Place of Worship" is one of the topics for Visions this month so I needed a church. Just as I clambered out of the car to take my shot the thunder gave an enormous belch and the rain started in earnest. I managed only one picture before I got the lens wet so we got back into the car and did an American tour of the town - seeing the place from the car without stopping.

The motel we have chosen is cheap and cheerful and we wont be returning to it - I had thought we might on the return. We shall go to the Bowls club for tea since it has been recommended. Tomorrow we should be in the Blue Mountains and that is where I intend to really make use of this camera of mine (Steven's! It's borrowed!)

AJ