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I’ve been pretty busy lately and I totally forgot to tell you about the time I decided to climb this:  I lost count at around 150 steps. Or maybe I did actually black out. Sure it doesn't look THAT tall, but the sun was out and it was quite warm so you know...it seemed much taller than it actually was. But never fear - your faithful scribe didn't pass out mid-climb so now I'm here to tell the tale. Let's go back a bit, shall we?
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Forgive me dear reader for I have sinned. It’s been over a month since my last confession. I’ve been a bit busy this past month and after fulfilling the time quotas I have for being annoying to my better half, taking naps, inhaling popcorn and generally being lazy, there’s often no time for writing. But here I am, back to tell you about the time I went to Metcalfe and discovered The Cascades. I say “discovered”, but I don’t mean in the sense that a great explorer might have discovered an uninhabited island. Oh no....it was very clear someone had been here before me. Picnic tables!  Well, this is mighty purty! Wanna learn something about history and be the envy of your friends at your next pool party? Get a cuppa then. Lake Mungo is a lake bed that dried up about 15,000 years ago. Aboriginal people inhabited this area at least 50,000 years ago and it’s where Mungo Lady and Mungo Man were discovered (in 1968 and 1974 respectively). It's one of the oldest places outside of Africa to have been occupied by human beings, and Aboriginal people believe that before the Dreaming, there was a ‘land before time’ that was flat and lifeless. A bit like this:  Flat, yes but with some signs of life. View from Mungo Lookout (maybe that tree's photoshopped in) It’s in New South Wales, about an hour and a bit’s drive north of Mildura if you don’t use Google Maps. Imagine my surprise when Google wanted to take me on a 4 hour drive to get there from Mildura. I mean, I know there’s dirt roads and you have to be somewhat careful, but suggesting I go 50km out of my way or that I drive at 20kph? WTF Google??
Let’s cast our collective minds back a few months when the weather was decidedly warmer and butterflies still flapped about like idiots. When the sun wasn’t just for show and actually had some warmth in it. You remember....back when it was a burny bastard and its purpose was to cook us the minute we nipped out for milk? Well, before the temperature plummeted to somewhere between Artic and Baltic, Flashie and I went off to Lake Tyrrell in Northern Victoria for a bit of a look, and we ended up at Lake Mungo. Yes alright, I’ll tell you how that happened...  Sand dunes at Lake Mungo (not even in the same state as Lake Tyrrell) Right, well it's officially Winter. Ugh, I can feel my insides getting colder already. Garden wandering again....this time in Mount Macedon. You'd think by the number of posts on this blog that contain trees, leaves, flowers and other bits of organic-based tat, that I actually enjoy gardening. I don't particularly, and I know stuff-all about it, but I hated the back dirt we used to have so I thought I'd have a crack at growing stuff. I do like the fruits of my labours when I can walk out the back and pick some basil and capsicum, et viola! I'm halfway to dinner! This guy was so perfectly formed, it was almost a crime to eat him so I photographed him for prosperity. Or to show off.  Some people just eat them And now for something completely different: some old looking photos that aren't really old at all but are the product of a misguided afternoon spent messing about with software in pursuit of creativity.  Malmsbury Viaduct over Coliban River circa 2018 I'm playing with a few things lately: my camera remote which had been acting up and which Him On The Couch fixed because he is really quite clever; some camera filters that I purchased a filter bag for, making them easy to access but not scratch); the Nik Collection software and its fancy pants Analog Efex Pro editing presets; and this website and its new ability to resize singular pictures like that one up there, and this one down here:  Malmsbury Viaduct over Coliban River (which at this point is a foot wide trickle of water that you can't even see in this photo). And also, this happened (a month ago!): 11TH ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL COLOR AWARDS HONORS PHOTOGRAPHER CATHERINE BAILEY FROM AUSTRALIA LOS ANGELES 11 March 2018 - Professional photographer Catherine Bailey of Australia was presented with two Nominee titles in the 11th Annual International Color Awards in the category of Architecture, and one Nominee each in the categories of Nature and Still Life, at a prestigious Nomination & Winners Photoshow streamed Saturday, March 10, 2018. The live online gala was attended by over 12,500 photography fans around the globe who logged on to watch the climax of the industry's most important event for color photography. 11th Annual Jury members included captains of the industry from Christie's, Paris; Grey Group, New York; The Art Channel, London; Ogilvy & Mather, Amsterdam; Publicis Conseil, Paris; Preus Museum, Norway; Art Beatus, Hong Kong; Netflix, Los Angeles; Whitechapel Gallery, London; and Phillips, New York who honored Color Masters with 709 title awards and 730 nominees in 33 categories. "Photography is more popular than ever. Last year around 1.2 trillion pictures were taken. In this awards show we pay tribute to the top 0.0000000001% of them" said Juror Martijn van Marle, Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy & Mather, Amsterdam. Joshua White, Presenter and Producer on The Art Channel, London added "Judging this year's submissions for the Color Awards was challenging. The winning images illustrate the continuing importance of photography as a way of seeing the world around us and understanding human experience." "It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the 5,642 entries we received this year," said Basil O'Brien, the awards Creative Director. "Catherine’s exceptional images represent contemporary color photography at its finest, and we're pleased to present her with the title of Nominee." INTERNATIONAL COLOR AWARDS is the leading international award honoring excellence in color photography. This celebrated event shines a spotlight on the best professional and amateur photographers worldwide and honors the finest images with the highest achievements in color photography. www.colorawards.com Awww, isn’t that nice? That’s the blurb that the Color Awards peeps send to Nominees and Winners for promotional purposes. I’ve never used it before but I’m feeling particularly lazy with all this other writing I’ve been doing, so there it is. I entered 5 images and got 4 nominations so I'm pretty happy with that. And now I must be gone, for there are doors to be widened as my fat head has grown even fatter.  If you've ever been on the Princes Highway going through the Coorong in South Australia, you'll know that it's not the most exciting of places. Yeah sure, it's an internationally important wetland and it's chokka block full of cultural history and birds, but to just drive though it? That's as boring as bat shit, my friends. You have to be able to stop and have a wander around because staring at road and salt bush for 100kms is enough to kill off what's left of anybody's brain cells. And so it was that we found ourselves at a place called Salt Creek, faffing about on Pipe Clay Lake.  Pipe Clay Lake - no boat required Finally! South Australia! We’ve stopped at Mount Gambier (which should be pronounced ‘Mont Gom-bee-air’ ...from the French for ‘half an hour behind’**), for a squizz at the Blue Lake and the very impressive Umpherston Sinkhole.  Well, this IS impressive! **This is probably made up.
Remember last month when I went to Goulburn Weir and took half a day to get there? Well, this week I had another crack at it by researching the directions thoroughly, making a special note to turn onto the M39 instead of staying on the M31, and ensuring I didn’t go via Yea. Look, I know what you’re thinking: “but if you’d stayed on the M31, you would’ve headed towards Sydney and Yea is south of Seymour even, so how in god’s name did you end up in Yea if you were headed north?!?!”  How's the serenity? (Nowhere near Bonnie Doon) Well, that's not strictly true:
I had the opportunity to go to Lake Fyans near the Grampians for a long weekend and it wasn't very busy which was pretty awesome. Each dawn jaunt was calm and quiet, except for the squawking of birds, the quacking of ducks, the buzzing of mosquitoes...  Panorama of Lake Fyans just after sunrise This is the place where I very nearly died. See that handrail towards the bottom of this picture, winding its way downwards? Well, it's there to aid people walking down all those steps. Now....imagine that many steps times about a million more steps and you're starting to get close to how many freakin' steps there actually are to get to the bottom of MacKenzie Falls.  MacKenzie Falls (aka Step Central) Lake Tyrrell in northern Victoria is one of those places that you have to make a plan to see. Whilst it’s off a main highway and easy enough to get to, the closest decent sized town is Swan Hill, a mere 75kms away.  Clouds gathering at Lake Tyrrell Lake Eppalock is another place I’d never been to. I’d always imagined it was at least 300kms away. When I was a kid, other people always seemed to be "going camping at Eppalock". I assumed you camped in places that were very far away from where you lived. I was quite surprised when I discovered that it was just over an hour's drive from my place.  Lake Eppalock and its green goop I can’t ever remember going to Lake Eildon. I’m pretty sure I never went as a kid and I’ve certainly never been as an adult. I think Lake Mountain is probably the closest I’ve got. That’s about 70kms away, so not very close really. I decided to go when I heard there were dead trees poking out of the water (I like a dead-tree-in-lake photo). The lake didn’t disappoint, being quite low in the water department.  Sunset at Jerusalem Inlet, Lake Eildon I recently spent some time working in Sydney with Nic Granleese at offices like these:  Breakfast by the Southern Lagoon / Nepean River after a 5.30am start   Dinner break at Watsons Bay Tragic, isn't it? Somewhat appropriately, this old camera was in the lobby of our digs. We're not talking "this is as big as your head" type of camera. We're talking "this is as big as you" type of camera. My sis and I went on a little road trip to find a place called Sea Lake. I was driving, she was navigating. It's a big lake and I'm not pointing any fingers but.... somehow we missed it (I'm sure it's her fault...somehow!)...  Went on a girlie road trip with my bestie, Balders, who is truly fabulous and not just because she once got rid of a huntsman spider in my house while I hid in the local supermarket. She's also good at killing moths. My contribution to the friendship is that I will kick a wasp in the face if absolutely necessary. We filled the car with petrol, snacks and good tunes and headed up to Eden on the Sapphire Coast (NSW) via Lakes Entrance, Lake Tyers Beach (just for a look), Nowa Nowa, Orbost, Cann River and Genoa. |
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