Wentworth Falls

Wentworth Falls

It won't take an expert to realise that I didn't run in a dead straight line across this gorge in the Blue Mountains - something of a watch failure, or maybe GPS doesn't penetrate deep valleys. There's about 1.3 km missing from the advertised distance - that would be about the 9 missing minutes to make it all balance up. The 6 other minutes were spent lost - you can just about work out where that was, around where the dead straight bearing ends. I tried to run off down the Vera Falls track - fortunately I met a couple of people coming back from the same error before I'd wasted too much time. Well, it wouldn't be a trail run for me if I didn't get lost.

If you assume 6 steps to a metre (about 6.5" per step, I think, sounds fair), then this run involved 3500-odd steps up, and another 3500-odd down. Down is scarier, but up is much, much harder. I'm a little puzzled by this, but since I changed my running to focus on being really, really front-of-foot oriented, I've become much, much better at descending. It still takes an enormous amount of concentration (and regular wiping of the glasses on any dry-ish fabric around) but at the very least I feel much faster downhill these days, leaping from rock to rock like an elderly *gazoat.

* Not actually a word

Usually I try to run up hills, because no matter how slowly you do it, you pass a bunch of people walking and once you get to the top and get a head start on the downhill, how are they ever going to catch you? But hills are not stairs, and I did not run up many of these! I don't think many people did, in fact, except perhaps the first half dozen over the line.

A lot of this suffering was alleviated by the ambiance.

Random view near Wentworth Falls

Really, there was one spot where I emerged from running doubled over through a passage cut out of the cliff and could have run straight out onto that cloud; it was at foot level at the point where the path doubled back around the bluff. I don't have any photographs of the waterfalls - but I'm sure Google can provide some.

At the gun...

Coming in to the aid station @ 12k

Verge garden near birthday

Two angles, you can see it's booming along. The soil's looking a little dry on top, but we've had so much rain I don't think it really can be. You can see the Randwick geranium on the left is doing pretty well, and the knotweed is booming. I'm a little worried about the heath in there somewhere, but maybe when it flowers we'll spot it again. Still not very happy about the tree - and council has warned us not to prune it. They really are idiots - surely it's cheaper for them if we do.

Last January Saturday

Saturday morning means parkrun... It's entirely a volunteer based organisation, and the photographers can be pretty random, but not in this case. What you can see here is the hill at the halfway point, with one of those curious blocks of flats that somehow appears to have escaped planning permission. Oddly, though, it's the  aesthetic making of this picture.

None of those people is me. I ran a PB today (still not under 20 minutes) and there are no pictures of it. I only run for the photographs.

While I was off doing that, Liz was engaged in the bridge-to-bridge, a 14 km "race" from the Spit Bridge at Mosman to Roseville Bridge (right). I didn't get up there in time to catch her at the halfway point, but the bridge wasn't going anywhere so I caught it instead. Actually I've run over this bridge a couple of times as part of the NOSH race - this is an amazing place for running, but not so convenient for me on a regular basis. Sydney has managed to hang on to an extraordinary amount of bush, given that real estate speculation is the true meaning of life here.

Spit Bridge marina - probably there is more than one - is another stunning Sydney vista. These are, believe it or not, the cheap boats. Well, perhaps "cheaper" would be more accurate. They're all very nice. The super expensive ones tend to be powerboats.

This is the new boat in action - you can get an idea of its unique features, to some extent. Note the very wide out-curved sides; this is the tumblehome, which provides additional secondary stability. The bottom of the canoe is a little narrower - for speed - as is the top, to assist with management in the wind.

It's 17'6" long - American made, quaint that they are probably the last users of the imperial measurements in the world. You can see the stabilising ribs through the kevlar stiffened fibreglass, and possibly a hint of the rudder.

It's a very nice looking boat.

Paddler's eye view - feet on steering pedals. This is Deadman's Creek, off the Georges River, at a king tide. It was extraordinarily high this AM.

Federal Highway and a new boat!

 We went down to Canberra, combining a trip for me to catch up with an old friend and bridge partner, a trip for Liz to see her nieces and a trip to Robertson to pick up the new boat.

I took the opportunity to explore the manual operations of the camera as we drove down the Federal Highway. It's a pretty hit and miss business taking pictures from a moving car with shaky hands, but this tree turned out pretty well.

The left hand side of the road.

 The right hand side of the road.

Focus failure. I thought there'd be more cyclists, but we only saw five or six on the entire trip.

Windmills on Lake George

This is the new boat. The key difference is the rudder at the back, but it is also 2 feet longer than the last one. Longer boats are faster. The physics of steering are that sitting in the middle of a boat is probably the worst place to try and steer from - we got the hint from a Canadian guy a couple of years ago; he'd had a rudder added to his canoe prior to setting a record on the Yukon. This is Liz's boat for the Hawkesbury.

2015 so far

Finally I saw the photographer in time to pose for the picture! This is one of the best volunteer photographers parkrun gets - it's an excellent shot of Sydney Park, looking south. Under my left elbow you can see the Cooks River and to my right is a reasonable sample of the building that's going on around what used to be the purely industrial suburb of Alexandria. I'm pleased to announce that the guy behind me stayed there all the way to the finish line. Sadly, the park is under threat from roadworks.

Pebbly Beach

 Stayed with Jill and family at Bawley Point - the new definition is no mobile phone access - for a couple of days. This is the view from the balcony. Somehow I've missed fitting in any kangaroos, which seems almost impossible given that they were present in not quite plague proportions, Routinely they were present in groups of 10-20.

Slightly down the road at Pebble Beach we were attacked by killer parrots. Perhaps it was the pastel stripes. Check out the beady eye on that bird! Of course, despite the signs saying not to feed the birds, there was bird seed all over the

ground.

The shininess of the tap suggests that this beach shower is still working under the fine patina of rust. There's a rapid transition from bush to dune to sand, with an eye catching variety of vegetation.

I hadn't noticed this plant (a wort, I think) until about a month ago, when I first saw it at Curnell. I've never spotted it north of Botany Bay, maybe because the beaches around the inner city are so heavily used.

The star picket doesn't appear to have any function.

You should get some quite interesting information on the area from the link below.

http://www.morning.com.au/fod/part1a.htm#DUNE

Tourist heaven, but to be fair I never get sick of them either.






The panorama of the whole of Pebbly Beach - it's completely serendipitous, but I can't help admiring that arching cloud effect.

The opposite view - looking back from the dunes through this whatever it is into the scrub behind.

A

The rock formations along this part of the coast are special - if you are interested the link above can connect you to some quite detailed geological information as well. One of the features of interest is the richness of the fossil bearing rocks - you can hopefully make out some worms, molluscs and seaweed in these pictures.

On the right is a picture of a rock pool today.
It's not impossible to imagine how this is what the fossil record preserves; it's own kind of camera.

The strata in rock always fascinate me.

I don't know what the pole is doing. But in this picture there is biology, geology, technology and astronomy - if that can be used for the study of the day sky.

Week 47

 This guy has a lot of cheek - it's less than a metre from my phone lens to its eye, but the attraction of the nectar far outweighs any fear factor. These wattle birds - this is a baby - are actually a mixed blessing, because they are very aggressive and keep smaller native birds out of the garden. We've planted a few trees/shrubs to try to provide protection for the smaller birds, but as yet the surviving ones aren't big enough. Someone in the neighbourhood has spotted some fairy wrens, so there are smaller birds around, if you're lucky.

 Here we have the interior of the Nowra cinema. As with most cinemas, the original interior large scale cinema no longer exists, and has been subdivided into 5 smaller cinemas to provide a wider variety of viewing. These have been retained (I guess - somebody might have gone out and bought them, I suppose). It's a pity not to be able to find a way to display them more sympathetically.

Anyway, it's a perfectly adequate cinema, 15 minutes walk into town.

 More Nowra colour, somewhat obscured by the fact that it is technically night time. The phone does a pretty remarkable job of capturing anything at all, under the circumstances. The moon is not full - that's my hand shaking. There are a lot of these trees all over the Shoalhaven. Interesting note: people call it "The Shoalhaven" - a somewhat idiosyncratic use of the definite article. I was teaching the principles of this only last week. I would have made the analogy with "harbour", myself, thus no article, but it appears to have followed in the footsteps of "The Shire". Or maybe it's "the Shoalhaven district". I will have to update my lesson notes for next year.

Finally, a present from students on the final day of class. It's a rather elaborate and extremely rich cheesecake - enjoyed by all. I haven't tried to play the decoration yet.

It's one big big bonus of the job - not the cheesecake, so much, but the warmth of the student body. In the "closed classes" (5 or 12 week periodic entry only) everybody builds up very strong bonds. Well, more or less everybody.
First exam is today - fingers crossed!