Hi everyone, sorry about the lack of posts.
I do actually have heaps of interesting stuff and photos to put up online but I have no way of fiddling with the photo's on the computer in Sydney.
So unless I figure a way of resizing without photoshop, you'll all have to wait until I get back to Tassie when there will be heaps of posts put up at once.
Cheerio...
Ben
Here is a small sample of the several dozen banners I grabbed photo's of throughout today. Some were simply texta on cardboard and others were total works of art that must have taken the author ages to make...
Wilderness society's entry...
I really like this one, very clever and very strong...
Ivan the woodchopper on the left with their entry...
Not quite Queensland's tourism slogan but accurate none the less...
One for the communist party... Da?
The photo doesn't really show it but this one was done really well...
Kangaroo court??
Even the crew at Wendy's was getting into it, just dont tell their boss...
Good 'ol Peter Cundall from Gardening Australia leading the charge against the timber industry. Good on him...
How this bloke rode a bike with a gas mask is beyond me...
Even the local artwork was getting into the action...
The Rally reaching council chambers...
The War Drums...
And the drummers... It sounded so cool and kept everyone pumped!
Nothing like the feeling of some political action in the morning...
Whats a good way to relax after spending the entire day being what could only be called "screwed over' by a stupid little man and his stupid little ego!
Anyway after belting a bucket or two of golf balls at the driving range for "stress relief"...
So here is my new Asus 22inch widescreen monitor hooked up in parallel next to my old monitor. For those with little computer knowledge, both monitors are running off the same computer opening the door for a new level of multi tasking. meaning two or three programs can be run at once with all the windows visible at the same time.
Hope you like the wallpaper :)
Anyway back to getting myself shitfaced and forgetting about today...
I'm so fricking bored at the moment that i'm looking for even the slightest thing to do that could possibly entertain me. So I got up early, packed my new bag and headed out to the Tamar Island nature reserve for a gander...
It was so bloody cold I had what could only be called an iceberg nestled on my car. 10 minutes with the heater going full ball and I could see enough to safely drive down the road. Theres nothing like throwing snowballs around...
I'm not a bird watcher so I have no idea what it is but it was cool and this was about the closest I could get to it.
'Plough-in-a-tree'... oooooh...
Some cool pictures of one of the black swans out there. They took a while but they got up nice and close after a bit of waiting and being still...
Here he/she is again...
Some ducks...
Here is a friendly German greeny I bumped into and had a chat about the 'rape' of Tassie's forests. How cool is the Volvo? One for you Benny!
Dont forget you can click on the images to get better quality. They're not full resolution but you can email me and i'll send them to you...
Ooh I almost forgot, I'm fiddling with some new HDR images, they should be out soon when I get my lazy bored arse into gear :)
How cool is this, the bloke from door came around to collect some apples from the tree next door and a few hours later, to a knock on the door, he reappears with a piping hot apple crumble. We've been dining in style these last two nights. Well I have, Dave ate his half in one session.
After the pain in my back that developed after Mt Roland I finally took the leap and invested in a proper daypack. Here she is! I've got a proper frame, space for my water bladder, a proper waist strap to take the pressure off my lower back and even an inbuilt rain cover. I've fitted it up and I cant wait to get out and break it in.
Plenty of room on top or on the sides for my camera so I can get at it without unpacking everything...
And a proper mesh fitted frame for my poor 'ol back... Hopefully this will stop all the pressure being exerted in one spot...
From that point on unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse and due to my concern about the camera getting wet, the photo's rapidly stopped. Sorry no piccies of the harder trail.
The good news is that I have managed to con some of the lovely people I call friends that it will be a great idea to leave Launceston at 2am, hike up the mountain under lights and be there for sunrise at the top of the mountain and for some bizarre reason I have recieved a very enthusiatic reponse, Bugger!
So keep your blogging eyes open for the upcoming epic adventure, of which there should be a few over the next 3 weeks.
Back to it now, from the rainforest trail we continued to head up the hill...
The good thing about the rain was that all of the waterfalls were flowing beautifully... I loved this one...
Underneath the log bridge over the falls, a unique view...
Three forest monkeys in the jungle... That should give you an idea of the size of the trees. How they log it so much down here is criminal. Pulp the Mill! I say...
More groupy shots of me running to be in the photo, bugger me its slippery when your in a hurry :D
The sinister Mt Roland all covered in fog and rain. Unfortunately this is where the camera went in the bag and was covered by my waterproof. Last photo of the day from me folks. Phill got some higher up the mountain which i'll put up when I get them...
Stay tuned for round two with the Mount!!!
Well, Phill, Benny, Ash and I headed of early this morning towards a threatening sky in the hope of climbing Mt Roland. At 1237 vertical metres (I think) it wasnt going to be as tall as Cradle but rumour has it the view is even better from the top as you can see the coast and Devenport and so on.
I was really keen to try this out and I had been watching the weather closely the few days before hand. Those in the loop will know that there has been so much rain over the last month, coincidently starting the day I joined as a member in the local golf club. In fact the month just gone has been the wettest May in the recorded history of Launceston. Uggh!
Here we are after a few kilometres into the trail. Written in pencil on the track to the north of the 'you are here' sign was scrawled 'very difficult' so we decided to bail and head up the so called 'easy' route. Easy my arse!
Some friendly sustenance for the trip up the hill. Some of these looked downright deadly with all different sorts of colours even metallic looking ones. Others just looked, well, 'magical'?
Another crazy natural contraption. If anyone wants to buy me a 100mm Canon Macro lens i'd gladly accept as I really want to get into some close up photography.
This tree was huge, I should have put someone next to it so as to get an idea of the scale.
Get out of the way Benny!!!
Ahh Much better, beautiful rainforesty sort of trail. So so green...
Woohoo! The website just cracked 500 posts!
Thanks everyone for showing some interest in my life!
Ben
