What Floats Your Boat 4

[marron]

Old fella has seen a few fires in his time, I'd say. I don't think my armspan would have made it half way around.

[wendybr]

19 minutes ago, marron said:

Old fella has seen a few fires in his time, I'd say. I don't think my armspan would have made it half way around.

No doubt!

He looks HUUUUGE... and ancient! 

[Smoggy]

Going on a pedalao on the Canberra lake and going right under that big water jet thing..fooking soaked..right through to the undies.

A "how old are you" from the wife who was watching and waiting 

Took a while for the undies to dry out mind......

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by Smoggy

[StringerBellend]

What floats my boat 

the kopites getting bummed senseless 

[Wanderboy]

45 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

What floats my boat 

the kopites getting bummed senseless 

We get it.

[StringerBellend]

16 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

We get it.

Cmon man let me enjoy it, even if I do say so myself I deserve it 

[Wanderboy]

16 minutes ago, StringerBellend said:

Cmon man let me enjoy it, even if I do say so myself I deserve it 

By all means mate, lap it up.

I'd be the same if it were us Geordies vs Smoggies or Sunderland even better. But I probably wouldn't continue to rub it in, considering that some on here are internet mates.

As I said, we get where you are coming from.

[StringerBellend]

46 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

By all means mate, lap it up.

I'd be the same if it were us Geordies vs Smoggies or Sunderland even better. But I probably wouldn't continue to rub it in, considering that some on here are internet mates.

As I said, we get where you are coming from.

It will come back on me it always does 

like I say 40 odd years I should know better 

we will lose the derby and Roderiguez leg will fall off 

 

Edited October 5, 2020 by StringerBellend

[marron]

Heh up smoggy

Here's you come summer:

Quote

Frederick Eccleston Du Faur, Chief Draughtsman in the Crown Lands Office in the 1870s formed a strong attachment to the Blue Mountains landscape "which for sublimity of grandeur, is not to be surpassed in the world." His vision encompassed the opening up of this spectacular region "to tourists and artists" and the encouragement of its use as "a healthy field of exercise for the young men of our own city". His enthusiasm, fuelled by numerous visits, was expressed widely and discussion of "Du Faur's Blue Mountains Craze" was heard regularly in the salons of Sydney society.

From his newly established hut at nearby Mount Wilson, Du Faur mounted regular excursions into the Grose Valley. In 1875 he established a camp in the Grose about fifteen kilometres from the Hartley Vale siding. This was reached via a track constructed by surveyors assessing the region for construction of a railway line in 1857. Du Faur reopened the track which had become obstructed by fallen trees, landslips and undergrowth.

A second artist’s camp was established about eight kilometres further down the Grose at its confluence with Govett’s Leap Creek, below Mount King George [Mount Banks], about which Du Faur wrote in a letter to the Sydney Morning Herald in October 1875: “It may be mentioned that at the time of my leaving the camp on Monday last, Mr Piguenit had secured about 15 subjects. Sketching them in water colours, he intends reproducing them in oils. He and Mr Bischoff, the landscape photographer, will probably remain in the valley for another ten days and quit it with regret.”

The photographer was using albumen plates, which produce amazing resolution (if you go to flickr where these are hosted you can zoom right in).

 

 

 

 

Can't wait to see the watercolours

 

 

 

 

 

 

[marron]

Here's a painting by the artist

 

[Smoggy]

4 hours ago, marron said:

Here's a painting by the artist

 

Meh..if I could be bothered (and mostly I cant be bothered with this oldie style)..I could do something similar to the above..piece of piss.

Edited October 7, 2020 by Smoggy

[marron]

Posted for interest more than as an example of great art

Du Faur was disappointed with it as well I read somewhere today.

I really like the photos though. Looks the same today, almost 150 years later. Except, I carry my phone in my pocket. That poor bastard bischoff would have been lugging a big camera and the full sized albumen plates down, and, more to the point, up.

Edited October 7, 2020 by marron

[Edinburgh]

49 minutes ago, marron said:

Posted for interest more than as an example of great art

Du Faur was disappointed with it as well I read somewhere today.

I really like the photos though. Looks the same today, almost 150 years later. Except, I carry my phone in my pocket. That poor bastard bischoff would have been lugging a big camera and the full sized albumen plates down, and, more to the point, up.

Really!? How long is the cord? And what's that got to do with taking pictures?

[Smoggy]

Snorkeling season kicked off today with the lad...been down with the fishies most of the morning.

Water still a bit cold mind. The lad really has gotten in to it, diving down in the really deep bits..good to see.

Edited October 9, 2020 by Smoggy

[Wanderboy]

59 minutes ago, Smoggy said:

Snorkeling season kicked off today with the lad...been down with the fishies most of the morning.

Water still a bit cold mind. The lad really has gotten in to it, diving down in the really deep bits..good to see.

Where did you go?

[Smoggy]

1 hour ago, Wanderboy said:

Where did you go?

Original plan was Shelly Beach Manly on the ocean side as under water reserve is there and it is amazing, can recommend. However the ocean side beach was closed because of the conditions today, some big sets rolling in. Even the usually more sheltered Shelly beach was a bit choppy and churning things up.

So went around to Fairlight Beach on the harbour side and did some there instead, the water was clearer than I thought it would  be.

[Wanderboy]

2 hours ago, Smoggy said:

Original plan was Shelly Beach Manly on the ocean side as under water reserve is there and it is amazing, can recommend. However the ocean side beach was closed because of the conditions today, some big sets rolling in. Even the usually more sheltered Shelly beach was a bit choppy and churning things up.

So went around to Fairlight Beach on the harbour side and did some there instead, the water was clearer than I thought it would  be.

Well, you're braver than me. Good stuff mate and a great thing to do with Smog Jnr.

I've done a bit of snorkeling before but in waters far warmer than what you did. 30 deg's rather than 17-18 deg's

Nth Qld, Vanauatu and New Caledonia. 

The snorkeling I did was however, unbelievable. It truly looked like the scenes in the movie Finding Nemo. The colors of the coral and fish seriously blew me away in real life.

[Smoggy]

20 minutes ago, Wanderboy said:

Well, you're braver than me. Good stuff mate and a great thing to do with Smog Jnr.

I've done a bit of snorkeling before but in waters far warmer than what you did. 30 deg's rather than 17-18 deg's

Nth Qld, Vanauatu and New Caledonia. 

The snorkeling I did was however, unbelievable. It truly looked like the scenes in the movie Finding Nemo. The colors of the coral and fish seriously blew me away in real life.

Mate i grew up with the north sea in England where smearing yourself in lard to keep the cold out was the done thing...

The waters around Sydney are tropical enough for me.

[marron]

2 hours ago, Wanderboy said:

Well, you're braver than me. Good stuff mate and a great thing to do with Smog Jnr.

I've done a bit of snorkeling before but in waters far warmer than what you did. 30 deg's rather than 17-18 deg's

Nth Qld, Vanauatu and New Caledonia. 

The snorkeling I did was however, unbelievable. It truly looked like the scenes in the movie Finding Nemo. The colors of the coral and fish seriously blew me away in real life.

Where'd you snorkel in Vanuatu WB?

[Wanderboy]

15 hours ago, marron said:

Where'd you snorkel in Vanuatu WB?

Champagne Bay/beach on the Island of Sanma.

It was a diversion on a cruise I was on when we couldn't get to Fiji due to a cyclone.

[marron]

Santo, I think maybe? Oh wait, yeah, Sanma was the province, Santo the island.

Yeah,  that was about 45 minutes from where I lived as a kid. We used to drive up there regularly, the snorkelling off the jetty was very nice, just had to watch out for sea snakes

 

From memory the the coral was all to the left of this picture, around an old concrete jetty. We used to spear fish too.

 

Can just see the jetty in this one looking the other way, altough you can see some coral up this end too, dead looking though.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 10, 2020 by marron

[Smoggy]

8 minutes ago, marron said:

Santo, I think maybe? Oh wait, yeah, Sanma was the province, Santo the island.

Yeah,  that was about 45 minutes from where I lived as a kid. We used to drive up there regularly, the snorkelling off the jetty was very nice, just had to watch out for sea snakes

 

From memory the the coral was all to the left of this picture, around an old concrete jetty. We used to spear fish too.

 

Can just see the jetty in this one looking the other way, altough you can see some coral up this end too, dead looking though.

 

 

 

 

 

Who the **** are you? lol Your like some Jekyll and Hyde character that slips in and out of die hard mountain man to tropical paradise childhood loving kid lol

[marron]

My trajectory basically went

Mountains -> Vanuatu -> Sydney -> Mountains

We went to Vanuatu when I was 7. Then back to Sydney in my teenage years. There was a bit of travel after that, a couple of years overseas kind of thing (UK doing the thing, the biggest chunk of it).

I wonder about those first 7 years and the impact, or whether it's just rubbish, you know, but here still is what feels the most home like.

 

[Wanderboy]

8 minutes ago, marron said:

Santo, I think maybe? Oh wait, yeah, Sanma was the province, Santo the island.

Yeah,  that was about 45 minutes from where I lived as a kid. We used to drive up there regularly, the snorkelling off the jetty was very nice, just had to watch out for sea snakes

 

From memory the the coral was all to the left of this picture, around an old concrete jetty. We used to spear fish too.

 

Can just see the jetty in this one looking the other way, altough you can see some coral up this end too, dead looking though.

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, that's the one.

I snorkeled at the end of the beach where you said the coral looks a bit dead, only because with 2000 passengers being transferred to the beach via tender, it was the least crowded spot. The spot in your last photo was pretty colourless, but there was plenty of colourful fish. Probably damaged by tens of thousands of carefree tourists every year. Most of my time there though was right up the end in your first photo where the sand ends. It was much better. I'm glad I didn't know about the sea snakes back then though!!

However, the best snorkeling I've ever done was at Brampton Island in the early 2000's when it was a thing. Now, that was amazing!!!!

That was my Finding Nemo moment.

[marron]

A couple of times when the cruise ships came - it was the fairstar I think at that point - we used to go up there to go on the ship when all the tourists were off it for a bit of a taste of western civilisation Woo! Hot Chips and Double Dragon!

[Wanderboy]

6 minutes ago, marron said:

A couple of times when the cruise ships came - it was the fairstar I think at that point - we used to go up there to go on the ship when all the tourists were off it for a bit of a taste of western civilisation Woo! Hot Chips and Double Dragon!

Two questions.

1. What were you doing living in Vanuatu back then?

2. How did you get on to the ships to eat my hot chips!!

Edited October 10, 2020 by Wanderboy

[Wanderboy]

By the way, throw 2000 people on to that beach and it doesn't seem as idyllic. The perils of a cruise.

Anyway, it was good for local business. There were all sorts of food, arts and crafts and souvenir stalls all in the park behind the beach. My daughter got her hair braided there and she looked amazing!!

[marron]

1. Dad was teaching

2. The school somehow had a deal with the Fairstar I guess that they would take students on board for an excursion. It wouldn't be allowed these days I'm guessing but we just rocked up and hopped on the tender. I don't know what the logistics were and I didn't question them!

And yeah, mostly when we'd go though it would be empty (including the stalls - from memory most of the stall holders came from a place called Port Olry a bit further up the coast, they only were ever there for a cruise ship). There was a gate at the back with a "Kastom Tabu" sign and a tin can which basically meant you had to drop 5 bucks in to use it (this was the same on most beaches). I can remember one time dad having a protracted argument with someone who came down who thought we hadn't paid the Kastom.

Most of the beaches there were pretty amazing and usually deserted, but that one really was the pick of the bunch, it was clear why it was a favourite for the ships. Such white sand.

Incidentally on that island there was only roads on the east and south coasts, and a track up the middle. When we'd go to town it wasn't uncommon to see fellas having walked for days out of the jungle in full traditional garb just walking up the street to get a bag of rice or whatever.

A bit like where I live now.

 

[Wanderboy]

5 minutes ago, marron said:

1. Dad was teaching

2. The school somehow had a deal with the Fairstar I guess that they would take students on board for an excursion. It wouldn't be allowed these days I'm guessing but we just rocked up and hopped on the tender. I don't know what the logistics were and I didn't question them!

And yeah, mostly when we'd go though it would be empty (including the stalls - from memory most of the stall holders came from a place called Port Olry a bit further up the coast, they only were ever there for a cruise ship). There was a gate at the back with a "Kastom Tabu" sign and a tin can which basically meant you had to drop 5 bucks in to use it (this was the same on most beaches). I can remember one time dad having a protracted argument with someone who came down who thought we hadn't paid the Kastom.

Most of the beaches there were pretty amazing and usually deserted, but that one really was the pick of the bunch, it was clear why it was a favourite for the ships. Such white sand.

Incidentally on that island there was only roads on the east and south coasts, and a track up the middle. When we'd go to town it wasn't uncommon to see fellas having walked for days out of the jungle in full traditional garb just walking up the street to get a bag of rice or whatever.

A bit like where I live now.

 

Fascinating. How times have changed!!

[marron]

I daresay, ships just letting anyone on aside, that things are mostly pretty much the same there! Would love to go back one day, mum and dad went last year.