Categories
general travel

the southest i’ve ever been

Flying into Punta Arenas, Chile, then walking to the beach and looking out across the Strait of Magellan to Tierra del Fuego. Around 53 degrees South.

 

 

Categories
general travel

byron bay – the beach and ocean

Beach views as the sun sinks low over the land

 

Russell the Moose waits on the beach, arms open

 

Blandfordia grandiflora (Christmas Bells – I think) and Pacific Ocean

 

Categories
general

bye sair!

Australia Day was spent on the raft again, moored off Elwood Beach again. We sat in the sun and the wind, and watched the hoards on the beach, and the talented individuals on their jet boats, and then said goodbye to Sarah, who is off in America-land now, and soon to be in Vancouver, where she will be cold, and be able to buy lots of cheap gear.

Categories
general

i’m not a complete twit

On reconsidering the forecast on Friday night (and taking into account my sniffing nose), I came to the conclusion that the Grampians wasn’t the best place to be on the weekend – with a forecast of high winds, high temperatures, and lightning strikes, I decide I would spend my weekend somewhere that wasn’t a stinking hot bushfire breeding ground.

A wise move, with over 100,000 hectares now burnt in the Grampians area (no need to get started on the huge amounts of the rest of the state that are on fire), the campgrounds evacuated, roads into the national park closed, and Halls Gap and other towns under threat, as well as sections of the Western Highway being closed due to heavy smoke and poor visibility.

So instead I had a sedentary weekend, lazing around in houses with no air-conditioning, and seeking out water whenever I could, as the ‘mercury’ (as the newspapers insist on referring to it) reached over 40oC. On Sunday, we took to the sea at Elwood Beach, paddling our trusty craft a few hundred metres from shore and mooring ourselves at a buoy. We sat back, enjoyed our esky full of cool beverages, swam around, and enjoyed the view as the wind grew stronger, and the clouds grew darker. We were finally safe from the bushfires.