38 posts tagged “australia”

Huge storm last night.  This was after a day where it hit 40 Celsius here in western Sydney.  A day where I went to the city to meet my Economist son for lunch and in my "wisdom" decided to ride the Monorail from Darling Harbour parking over to city centre (Pitt Street). 

 

There was a notice at the "station"  warning that due to extreme heat the a/c in the little cars would not be efficient.    Well,  I got a $9.50 all day ride (cheaper than a return) and got on it anyway.  Holy Moly - it must have been over 50 degrees Celsius in the little tube!!!.   "I can do this;  I can do this"  -  I repeated to myself  - surely it won't take that long....... 

There are more stations now than I remember and it seemed to take a very, very long time though it's probably only 15 minutes - but 15 minutes in that kind of heat and stuffiness is no fun.  I considered getting out two short of where I wanted to go  but that defeated the entire purpose of taking the monorail in the first place as the walk would've been longer but surely it could not have been hotter.

I had images of a news story "woman collapses in heat of monorail"   or worse - the monorail breaking down and everyone expiring before we could be rescued.     

Last night there was a tremendous storm with  lightning so intense I saw us all being fried in our little tin huts.

A one stage there was a large crash as a branch fell and first thing this morning I checked that now not-so-new rental car to make sure it didn't have a bough across its bonnet.
 

So today it is raining and there is a bus strike so it should be fun on the roads - but at least it is cooler. 

 This is Rose Bay, Sydney - I have a friend who lives in this idyllic location:

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For the few days I was here before the manservant I had a cute little Getz rental car but after a 3 hr trip north to see my parents I decided we needed something bigger for our road trip west.   I like to feel a bit more metal around me and more power under the bonnet.  

So back to Budget we went where we were given a brand new shiny white Toyota Camry with only 6km on it - which it probably got driving from manufacturer to truck and then off and into it's parking spot.    

In a week we have put 2,063 kms on it  (10 km = approx. 6 miles)  and made it very dirty.  I drive faster than the manservant and, as I sailed blithely past a speed camera yesterday, I commented to him that as the car was in his name he was probably going to be receiving a lot of speeding tickets in the mail.  At least there won't be any from school zones -  I am always very careful to stick to the 40kph outside schools - of course this is helped by the huge array of warnings and flashing lights and "check speed" neons around schools.   Speed cameras are cunningly hidden around bends and at hill bottoms and just at the exact spot where I have to speed to get past someone driving "weirdly".  Yes, I know there are signs posted saying speed cameras are used in NSW, just before the camera, but sometimes they are not very obvious.  

                           I just feel so insignificant.   

A little like a helicopter flying over Uluru (Ayers Rock) at sunset:

Uluru (Ayers Rock)  is 862.5 metres above sea level,  348 metres high (1141 feet);  3.6 km long (2.2 miles);  1.9km wide (1.2 miles);  and 9.4 km around the base (5.8 miles).  It also extends several kilometres into the ground!

It even manages to look massive from the air:   it is not foggy;  it was just a really dirty plane window!

 

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and nearly out of power.    Full work days sap these old batteries!
 
I took these photos out in country Australia - near Coonabarabran.   It is the same power line running out of town towards the telescope -  different poles, different angles, different time of day:

 

My taxi driver was from Ghana.   "Where're you from?"  he asked,  "Australia"  I replied.  

He immediately burst into song:

 

 

Apparently this was his favourite band and song of all time!!!      It has been in my head ever since!!

Most often seen beside the roadways in Australia are gum trees or eucalyptus along with native shrubs such as wattle, bottle brush, waratah, myall trees.....

Not so often does one come across a cactus!

Between Coonabrabran and Baradine is this magnificent specimen - the Warrumbungle Range can be seen in the background. 

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Continuing on with the random 8 one by one.....   Number 3..

I seem to be missing a critical Aussie gene - the one that screams to the world: Aussies are beer swilling swimmers.

Everyone knows that "Fosters is Australian for Beer"   though I don't know any Aussie who actually drinks Fosters. The friends I have, who drink beer, prefer Coopers Ale or Bluetongue lager.

Captain Cook brought beer to Australia on his ship, as a means of preserving drinking water. On 1 August 1768 as Captain Cook was fitting out the Endeavour for its voyage, Nathaniel Hulme wrote to Joseph Banks recommending that he take -

    "a quantity of Molasses and Turpentine, in order to brew Beer with, for your daily drink, when your Water becomes bad. … [B]rewing Beer at sea will be peculiarly useful in case you should have stinking water on board; for I find by Experience that the smell of stinking water will be entirely destroyed by the process of fermentation."

I probably had my first whiff of this fermentation at a very young age - my mother used to drink Resch's Pilsner in a long neck bottle (though she did pour it into a glass).  Despite people telling me that I would "get to like it" (like one gets to like vegetables), I have never developed a taste for beer!

The town swimming pool was built sometime during my early childhood, as I remember the excitement surrounding the opening - though we would not have gone.

When I was about 9 years old my parents signed me up for a 10 day Intensive Learn to Swim course at the pool during a school holiday.  I have a little card which reads "At the end of the course,  your daughter, (Emjay) can swim 1 yard" !!!???!!

It seems that my mother was no more into sitting beside a communal pool than I am and she dropped me off each morning and left me in the care of "other" parents.

Apparently during the blowing bubble stage (which was probably the first day!) I refused to put my head under the water and the torturer  teacher pushed my head down and filled my lungs with that nasty chlorinated water.

Some "other" parent pulled me out and I basically spent the other 9 days gripping the edge of the pool, refusing to do much. I'm pretty sure I would have mentioned the incident to my mother but my mother seems to have been of the old school of thinking that those things which we survive will build character.

That little card was probably meant to give me a sense of accomplishment and encourage further learning.  It did not!  It does give me a big laugh now though!

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This is my tribute to Earth Day .....     a toilet in the middle of nowhere using solar energy for lighting - during the day.  At night you have to use your car headlights.

I have to wonder about the sign on the toilet though -  who would these  "minors" be who are wandering around in the wilds without a parent!!  

I took these photos on the side of the Castlereagh Highway somewhere between Walgett and Lightning Ridge - Australia.

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I love these traffic lights you occasionally find in the middle of nowhere in Australia.

You can sit at a red light for 10 minutes and eventually an oncoming car will come along and then you get the green.  Or, there might not be any oncoming traffic at all and the road crew is just having their lunch!

These were taken somewhere around Mendooran, Australia. 

Mendooran (current population approx 350) was settled in the 1840's - the oldest town on the Castlereagh River.  The town is mentioned in the poem, The Travelling Post Office, written by Banjo Patterson -  though its spelling was different then.

The roving breezes come and go, the reed beds sweep and sway,
The sleepy river murmurs low, and loiters on its way,
It is the land of lots o' time along the Castlereagh.
The old man's son had left the farm, he found it dull and slow,
He drifted to the great north-west where all the rovers go.
"He's gone so long," the old man said, "he's dropped right out of mind,
But if you'd write a line to him I'd take it very kind
He's shearing here and fencing there, a kind of waif and stray,
He's droving now with Conroy's sheep along the Castlereagh.
The sheep are travelling for the grass, and travelling very slow:
They may be at Mundooran now, or past the Overflow