42) The End of the Semester

...and this is how the last week feels......





(an irritated nesting Masked lapwing next to the parking lot)

41) Tonight's storm brought to you by.....

Quick update: The exciting video of the Brisbane alien spacecraft-portal is now up. See "The Big City" Post!



It seesm to be the start of storm season - we are told its a bit early this year. This one was very fast moving. Less rain but threat of hail so we bolted from the train station to try and get the car under cover and the plants off the deck. Lots of wind, much electricity in the air.

Photos from yesterdays storm. 250,000 homes without power, only one death, many trees down all over town west of Brisbane. I guess this was a bad one.

Photos courtesy of Antonja Corovic of the EPA in Brisbane

40) Wild weather

A storm - a REAL storm passed through the area last night- I guess these are not that unusual but this was a damaging one. The center was NW of Brisbane so we only caught the edge of it. We got about 3" rain in 17 hrs, but 50 km up N there were tornado-like winds, flooding, roofs ripped off. Its been raining for 3 days.

The damage claims are at $75 Mill so far, power is out for a few thousand people.

Up at the Hinze Dam (our water supply) they have had 600 mm (about 2 feet) more rain this year to date than last year.

Here comes the lightning - again. I have never heard anything like this - it's overhead cloud-to- cloud but it is really concussive - just one enormous BOOM that reverberates, and reverberates, and reverberates, and reverberates just like you hear in the mountains and canyons of the SW. But there are no hills around for the sound to reflect back from. This thunder sounds just like those 4th of July aerial bombs at Folsom field? The ones that rattle your innards? Except, much, much louder.

Molly is not twigged at all. Nancy and I on the other hand... have unplugged everything and are going to go hide in bed - maybe under it.

Fairly intense rain on the way:
"Rainfalls of 80 to 100mm per hour have recently occurred in the Gatton and Rosewood areas." (that is 3-4 inches/hr)

There are locusts swarming in New South Wales.
Flooding in Queensland
Drought in Western Australia

Maybe Tina 'Palin' Fey is right:
"we don’t know if this climate change hoozie-what's-it is man made or if it’s just a natural part of the ‘End of Days."

The Bureau of meteorology warnings map is at the top of the page. The red thing is bad ju-ju - and its coming our way.....

39) Redemption of a sort

(Solo kiter off Miami Beach as the sun sets on the towers of Surfer's Paradise)

After my less-than-stellar kiting performance up on the Broadwater, I needed to have another go at the kiting effort down at Currumbin. At the mouth of Currumbin Creek (http://maps.google.com.au/maps?hl=en&tab=wl&q=currumbin) is a sheltered area protected from big waves by a sand bar. The major down-side is a rock weir protecting the N side of the entrance from errosion -- not a good place to get dragged by an out-of-control kite! Currently there is also a sand dredge - a nasty piece of work parked in the widest part of the creek to pump river sand onto the next beach N and keep the longshore current from eroding the beach away.

But there was some wind and Nancy was willing to be my launcher so I headed up there. There was a horde (well, maybe 10) of kiters at work. Throwing big jumps, flips, leaping up over the rocks, flying over the sand bar. Very talented, very intense.... very ... tribal.

Many tattoos in evidence, piercings, pony tails, serious tans, ripped physiques, and piritanical queues. A parrot...

And then... there was me.

I wondered how I was going to go practice in such a small crowded area. I couldn't stray downwind - the damn dredge was there. Can't go upwind - the channel narrows and the rocks are up there. I needed to go in the broadest, safest part - right where every one else was throwing tricks, carving toeside, making it look really easy!

Not to worry! Nancy helped me get the kite up, I dawdled about recalling last weeks ignominious dragging across the Broadwater behind a hopelessly fouled kite. Here at least I would only get my kite wrapped up in the nasty machinery or accidentally take out some semi-pro kiter and have my flight license revoked. I sat, placed board on feet and took by first hesitant, wobbling run out into the water - lo and behold, the way was clear! The proverbial seas of kites had parted and there was not a kiting-soul in sight! They had taken one look at my prowess....and... all....moved....away!

So I had fun, bumbling back and forth, getting in short runs, only losing my board once -- get dragged back to shore, land the kite, walk windward, dive in and swim out to retrieve it.) I only crashed the kite into one windsurfer (he was a beginner too but I knocked him down anyway - he moved away to a safe upwind spot.)

I continued to putter about with abandon and get in some good practice. I have to get at this because once Nancy gets on a board I will be playing catch-up. As everyone knows, she is much better balanced than I am.....

Unfortunately - rain forecast all week! No after work practice. Nuts....

38) The Big City

We finally succumbed to peer pressure (well, just from one person but he is a Kiwi and bigger than me) who said we HAD to go to the Sat market up in Brissy. As it was dubious weather, no wind, flat surf..... a day in "BRISBANE: The City" seemed like an entertaining option. We first headed to the market in the West End (which may have, at one point, actually been AT the west end of the city. Now it is rather central.) This was where we had been told to start (by our intrepid local - Vandy. Who is actually from NZ. But he knows where all the great food is!)






It is a rather large market, I would estimate 4-5 times the size of the Boulder Mkt, with an abundance of local produce, flowers, arts and crafties, lots and lots and lots of food-things.









Some great artistic clothing..











It is good to see all the local produce - many Brisbanites with little trolleys and wheeled things carting away their week supply of 'veg' (as in 'fruit an veg').

We still find the global distribution of food puzzling. At the local grocery this week we saw that AU garlic was 4 times the price of garlic from Mexico! We needed some lemons midweek (when the market was not open - the lemons from the US were cheaper than the locally grown. Given the price of petrol, I can't figure that out!


Haircut as a spectator activity!

























This was the real reason we came - the Langos - Hungarian frybread with garlic, cheese and hot sauce! (hat is extra). They also had tubular crisp donuts - they swore no place in the US made these!


















A refrigerated trailer with dead animal parts!











Brisbane is cut by the Brisbane River (the dratted obstacle to our success on the mighty Fabled Story Bridge!). The city has made good use of it for transport and has a cheap and regular ferry service across and up and down the river through the city. This makes for a fun excursion as you can buy a return ticket and use jump on and off at any point. "Though the city has an extensive network of transportation system, the Brisbane ferry service is what you must avail. To watch the reflection of the setting sun in the water is an experience to treasure for the entire lifetime. "(http://www.asiarooms.com/travel-guide/australia/brisbane/how-to-get-in/transportation-in-brisbane/brisbane-ferry-service.html)




(that is a permanent 'ferris wheel' on South Bank - tourist attraction).



















The inspiring Kangaroo Cliffs climbing destination from the river












We headed down to UQ - (University of Queensland) one of the 'old sandstones' - the first big AU public universities. Which are built (at least in the original parts) out of, you guessed it: sandstone! Quite an impressive campus taking up a whole meander-bend in the river. Numerous Jacaranda trees (from S. America, originally) provide color against the beautiful aeolian cross-beds of the sandstone.






















"The city of Brisbane in Australia has a local reputation of having a significant population of Jacaranda trees. The University of Queensland in the city's inner west has a very high concentration of the tree, and due to the impressive display of purple flowers in mid-Spring, which wind up littering vast sections of the suburbs, local folklore claims that "one won't start studying for exams until the jacarandas have molted"." --Wikipedia




We then headed down river to the Botanical Gardens - a nice city park with displays of native , and distinctly nonnative species. Many birds--

(Kookaburra to the right,
a Bush Stone-Curlew below)



















A Little Corella









It was a festive place - a group playing cricket in the corner, look there's a bride with her entourage and photog in tow. Look there goes another. And another! This must be wedding party photo central! As we walked the grounds we counted no LESS that a dozen weddings in progress or just finishing. And we got there at 3 pm! This Aussie wedding party toted their own Esky to make it through the photo-shoot!






A Dusky Moorhen






























Art in the park...













We headed back upriver to our car, quite glad to have avoided all the downtown traffic. We didn't have the perfect AU sunset but is a pretty boat ride back to the West End

What is not well known about Brisbane is the extent of the alien population. After dinner, we visited one of the original landing craft. Vandy hooked us into this site on the West End and suggested we might be able to get a tour. It doesn't look like much on the outside, but he swears it it is a hyperspace tesseract ("And He Built A Crooked House") inside with gardens, ballrooms, a seafood bar and a pool... So he says....


(Dirk trying to get beamed up by the aliens masquerading as an street-art exhibit...)



Below -I think they started to open the portal for me but then someone walked on on the street and they stopped.... footage captured here!!!!!

37) Fly Girl

Well Nancy has gone and done it - moved to the darkside. Maybe it was my incessant nattering about the lack (or overabundance ) of wind, my constant checking of http://seabreeze.com.au, or my pricing of flights to western AU where they seem to have perfect kiting conditions every day. But she has gone out to 'the bank' in the Broadwater (a large bay protected by Strakebroke Island) and started the steep learning curve for kite surfing!

It was her Day One - where is the wind window, where is the power zone. (above -Iain from Surf FX explaining the darker arts)
how to steer and how to sheet in/out on a practice kite. How to launch a kite, how to land (properly) a kite, how to not get lofted and end up someplace 'not good'.

I bribed the ferryman (Iain) so I could go out and practice in a fairly good learners area (no waves, few obstacles). It was a fairly lightwind day with some periods of gusty slop. I was less than successful and had two non-recoverable water crashes resulting in getting towed among the house boats in the bay by a non-launchable kite ("You Ok out there?" shouts the man with a stubbie resting on his ample gut as I am dragged past the rear deckof his housebaot in slow-mo..
"Yeah, I'm fine!. Bloody kite is flipped the wrong way!"
"Where ya frum?"
"Colorado - US" says I with my thick accent.
"Having fun?"
"Well, not right now!"
"Well, Its right fine - haven't seen a saltie in here in a couple of minths, so yu outa be OK!"

Great. No crocs in the lagoon. I knew that.
Didn't even offer me a beer....


Back on the beach Nancy flying a 6m Best - oops.


Nancy is crashing a 6m Best!










Learning to steer and NOT get ripped off your feet! (note Guy's hand on the back of her harness holding Nancy down!)
















We are stuck in a lull - apparently quite abnormal for the GC this time of year. We are moving toward cyclone season and should be having hot days with nice steady 20 knots side-shore (coming onshore at an angle) seabreezes.

Instead we have days of no winds followed by southerly gales and rain. Not good conditions to learn in even if there are only a few houseboats to collide with! It is also hard to get to a safe learning place - online forums keep warning about staying away from a certain seawall where a kite could crash in traffic resulting in - it does not bear thinking about. We will happily await conditions to get to to bar where one does not have to worry about tangling a kite with moving cars!

So we await another wind day and I will report on Nancy's progress with body-dragging (yummy!) and her first board day. Now that she is trying this, maybe the wind will favor us. The US election indicates we have turned a corner , right? (Hey - hope is hope...)
Maybe I'll buy her a kite for X-mas (shhh - don't tell her!)

And no pics of me in ignominious lagoon swimming - again! I will overcome!

(All pics from my new Pentax Optio W60 - waterproof! So more ocean sports pics in the future!)

36) A REAL climbing trip!

The guidebook promised a unique and exhilarating experience (only one of four in the world), a full 360 degree uninterrupted panorama, awe inspiring views. This was a real climbing destination (unlike Kangaroo Cliff with its old-world urban charm), a spectacular monolith, an iconic symbol of Down Under itself. A climbing destination worthy of coming half way around the globe.......

After weeks of brutal training and sacrifice, early light saw us trundled into the car, loaded with gear and guidebooks in hand and heading north. We felt pretty fit after weeks of punishing runs in sopping heat, scads of pullups, hill sprints and severely curtailing our Apple Fritter with fresh cream consumption. Little traffic on the MI (which still sounds like a small version of either a gun or a British spy organization) so we buzzed north, ever north, with the haunting call of the Australian outback beckoning us ever onward till finally, after what seemed like an hour, the towering crags of the CBD came into view. A quick consult of the guide, and we headed west. Our destination?

The fabled "Story Bridge" (I can't find the fable actually...)


Opened in 1940 and synonymous with Brisbane, the fabled Story Bridge can now be climbed legally via an award winning commercial climbing operation. Groups of climbers who are fixed to a static line are carefully guided across its structure over a leisurely period of two and a half hours. The knowledgeable guides provide an insightful commentary about the bridge�s history and the characters that built and worked upon it. At the same height as a 22-storey building, the 360� panoramic vista looking across Brisbane and surrounding hinterland is exceptional



In this undated photo from last week, you can see the Australian team topping out on the Wombat Ridge Route (R-skyline) just ahead of the Austrian team (L skyline - the perilous "Windtunnel Arete". The Austrians had been forced into an extended emergency bivy at "The Pass" due to ferocious winds at midday (they were at the one protected spot on the stretch known as "the Abyss"- where a fall will take you and your team dozens of feet down the sheer S face into ---- the river. See detailed route topo below) . This allowed the Aussies, who were obviously much fitter, had better training, and greater beer and sausage sizzle consumption behind them, to sneak a quick refreshing "turp and a slab" to refuel and gain the summit first. We had watched them all day from our bivy at the RiverWalk Cafe - we wanted to have full beta before we made our bid for this elegant and fragile summit. We also hoped to be the first co-ed team to start at the "Point of No Return" and complete the dreaded "Jumping the Shark Tank" traverse down the Koala Ridge--- an incontrovertible prize and well worth the weeks of training and mental preparation - 22 stories - that is a loooong way up! Do we even have enough ropes for the fixed lines the guide talked about? I only brought five 60m ropes over - we may be in for some rope soloing! The morning, which comes too early, will tell!


After a light meal of Grilled Baramundi, crisp greens in an aromatic vinaigrette and a Belgian chocolate mousse with orange shavings we sacked out early in preparation for a dawn start. Nancy was all for making use of the ambient lite conditions but I really felt we would have a better chance not counting on the AU's somewhat sketchy power supply!



We hit our stride early but sadly, the stars were aligned against us. Someplace along the way our navigation went wrong. Nancy, who had the map, told me to turn R so I did. She claims I turned Left (which I did not. I never get those mixed up! We are still squabbling over that.) But at any rate, we were suddenly off the known and planned approach route, on the wrong side of the river and there was no damn place to park! One way streets all over and unreal traffic hazards. People were driving ON THE WRONG SIDE OF THE ROAD! No stop lights - just roundabouts, no signs with speed limits, just "kph" - it was like being in a foreign country!
Now anyone in the right mind, who was writing a guidebook to a famous iconic monolith like this should damn well remember to at least MENTION a frigging river in the guide don't you think!


We did eventually find an approach - of sorts. Here we are geared up at our closet approach point with the icon, the legend , the prize behind us. But it was too late in the day to really make a solid go of it. So close and yet - across the river!

So somewhat devastated we headed for a bakery - after weeks of deprivation an Apple Fritter with Fresh Cream was to be our prize and our solace. We have our memories and some good pictures. It was a dream .. that may still come to pass.

But NEXT time. I bring a GPS navigation unit.

And a boat!