Aussie Bloggers

I thought that it was only in Scotland that you could have sun, rain, wind, cloud and hail stones within an hour, but Ryan and I and a few hundred volunteers got that and more when we planted trees near where the River Murray meets the sea. It was also shocking to note how green everything was given all the talk about drought. From our vantage point, we could see the River Murray as it trickled into the dried out beds of Lake Albert and Lake Alexandrina subject of so much political spin at the state and federal level.

Green Fleet and the South Australia Scouts partnered to plant over 3000 native trees on top of a hill near Goolwa yesterday. The Scouts have been doing this at different sites in South Australia for eight years. Ryan’s Joey mob had fun getting wet and dirty, getting a nature connection and developing some carbon offsets for some organisations. Not that complicated really.

Incredible logistics to get so much done in a few hours at a relatively remote location. I used to grow native seedlings for Trees for Life here in South Australia. It was nice to see the other part of the puzzle, actually getting trees planted.

I liked the way that it was set up, where a large number of people could do a small bit to make a difference. Collectively they had a achieved a lot and by the time that we left you could see an area that was previously just pasture showing the first signs of a return of habitat that has been lost for hundreds of years at that location. People from the Cleland Wildlife Park brought along some friends who used to live in these kinds of habitats and Ryan was introduced to a very nice black headed python. A nice connection for the kids to see.

Now wouldn’t it be good if our proposed Emissions Trading Scheme were that simple.

I have lived in Sydney for just over 18 months since moving to Australia from London and I still have to catch my breath every time I see the bridge. My favourite view of the coathanger is at night when the lighting makes the bridge appear to hover over the dark waters of the harbour. I can imagine myself living in this city for many years and never getting tired of this view!

If you ever get the chance to visit Kakadu, grab it with both hands. It is an amazing place full of beautiful scenery, wildlife and aboriginal heritage. You really need several days to do it justice - and a 4WD to get into some of the more amazing parts.

Kakadu National Park is one of Australia’s original World Heritage areas. It is about 3 hours drive south east of Darwin in the Northern Territory. If you go to Darwin you can’t really not visit Kakadu … in my opinion anyway.

One of the more popular things to do in Kakadu is take a cruise on Yellow Water, where you can see things like this, not to mention crocodiles and birds galore.

Another place that is well worth going to is Twin Falls. Its something like 50 km down a really rough track but worth every bump and rattle. There’s a swimming hole at the bottom of the falls, which we swam in when we visited. However the next year I believe they closed it off for swimming because they found a crocodile in there. Yikes - we were taking it on faith that it was croc free when we went.

Something else well worth doing is going on a tour with an Aboriginal guide. This can help you understand their history and also can enable you to get into parts of the park where you can’t otherwise go. We went into the Cannon Hill area and were able to see things like this.

If you do get to Kakadu, take your camera - you’ll be unable to resist taking heaps of photos. Also, keep your eyes open, as you can see plenty of interesting things in unexpected places.

One of my favourite places in the world is the South West of WA, which the locals call “down South”. You can hike through forests, taste wine at some amazing vineyards, explore caves, eat in fantastic restaurants and visit beautiful beaches.

I recently visited Gnarabup Beach (in the warmer months) - how can you not feel peaceful when looking at that view?

Pile mum, dad, the kids and the dog (if you have one) into the car along with a boot full of gear and you have a classic Australian way of holidaying - the Road Trip.

My husband and I are rather partial to taking Road Trips. There’s a certain feeling of freedom and hope as the car pulls out of the drive and the whole trip lays spread before you like a tantalizing buffet of fun and frivolity.

I’m not sure why I like them so much. I remember as a child the cramped conditions in the back of the car when my younger brother insisted that he needed to take up half of our back seat, irrespective of the fact that there were 3 of us sitting back there. The ongoing fights over where the “line” on the seat should be and who got to have their stuff on which part of the floor. Dad yelling at everyone to be quiet as he couldn’t hear the car engine if something would go wrong.

There is nothing like six people crammed into a car on a 47 degree day with no air conditioning. Stopping at every town to let the overheated engine cool off. Drinking luke warm water because that’s all we had. Eating soggy cucumber sandwiches with crusts that had dried out where the glad wrap didn’t quite overlap.

The fighting and squabbles, the “when are we going to get there’s” and mum singing loudly and very out of tune in an effort to keep everybody from killing one another.

And as the only girl in the family, having to “squat” behind bushes when toiletry needs came up because dad wasn’t stopping in the town where everyone would start asking for ice creams and cold drinks.

Now, weren’t those the days?

Of course, road trips as a parent are so different aren’t they?

We have the luxury of an air conditioned car along with a plug in fridge that keeps drinks cool. My husband is kind enough to stop at facilities when I need them so no more squatting behind a bush wondering if I’m visible from the road.

Instead I have everything AND the kitchen sink crowded at my feet just in case someone needs it. Tissues, towels, paper towel, drinks, books, stickers, food…. you name it and it can generally be found somewhere around my feet. No idea where my feet are… but everything else is here.

A constant crick in my neck and cramp in my side from contortioning myself into the strangest of positions to reach back to the children behind me as they ask for this, that and the other. Mopping up spilled drinks, trying to get a half chewed minty out of someone’s hair and hoping the mice don’t decide to have a feast on the mixture of twisties, apple cores and bread crusts dropped on the back floor.

Adjudacating arguments, answering a plethora of questions about how much further and drawing short straws to see who gets the reprieve of driving (because we all know the front seat passenger job is SO much harder than the drivers).

Perhaps it was no surprise that we were met with many a raised eyebrow upon people discovering our plans to drive the 3000km from our home to Darwin with a 4 year old and an 18 month old in the backseat.

“They say it’s just as cheap to fly you know”

“Have you looked into flying?”

“Do you know how FAR it is to Darwin?”

Were just some of the helpful suggestions we were given.

C’mon people’s, where is your sense of adventure?

There’s no fun in flying.

We wanted to SEE the parts of Australia we were to travel through, not simply fly over the top.

“But the Centre of Australia is SO BORING” people warned us.

Not to us it wasn’t. I think the amazing diversity of this great country of ours is fascinating. And I don’t want to miss any of it.

On this day 6 years ago we visited Ayers Rock on our way up to Darwin.

* image courtesy of http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Uluru-wikipedia.jpg

The experience was nothing short of mindblowing.

To be driving along and come around a bend and be met by this mammoth monolith rising up out of the ground and seemingly reaching the sky was an experience neither of us will forget. And experience we would not have had if we’d flown directly to Darwin. In fact, our days were filled with reminders of why we were taking a Road Trip.

Sure, there are times when everyone gets frustrated with one another and the tediousness of getting to where we want to go. But we always view our trips as starting when we pull out of the driveway and not starting when we reach our destination.

It’s hard to believe it’s been 6 years since our last Road Trip. No wonder I’m getting itchy feet to get out on the road again.

What about you? Are you a fan of the road trip? Or do you prefer to avoid them at all costs?

Camping is one of the Great Australian Traditions. Even if you’ve never gone yourself, to commune with nature, experience the great outdoors, and get away from the “rat race” for a few days certainly sounds like something worth pursuing.

One of my resolutions this year was to go camping at least twice, and this weekend just gone we went to the most beautiful spot just north of Mackay, North Queensland.

Yes, that was the view from the campsite – in fact the view that I woke up to in the morning and stepped out of the tent. Don’t we just live in the most magical part of the world?

Somewhere in there is our campsite. Completely hidden, but with the most magical views.

We were visited by some of the local wildlife

The cheeky beggar tried to steal my lunch.

Saturday afternoon we took our two eldest girls out in the boat and managed to get a spot of fishing in.

Although only my 3 year old managed to catch anything. The husband claims it was because he didn’t actually manage to get a line in, but we can all see that for what it is: a lousy excuse!

On Sunday we got up ridiculously early in some very cold weather to watch the sunrise,

And feed the Kangaroos

The kids had an absolute ball. They made friends with the girls camping next to us, and spent time playing with friends from day care who were also there. Before we left we rebooked in for another weekend in two months time. Of course, this time, we’ve scouted out the best campsites and may even have a larger party coming with us.

I can honestly think of no better way to spend a weekend than relaxing and camping. While the whole weekend was exhausting, I am definitely the most relaxed I have been in a long, long time. So, where’s your favourite camping spot?

For the last 8 years I’ve been living the expat life in North America and Europe. The expat friends I’ve met have been a varied bunch, all on their overseas adventure for different reasons. What’s interesting is how many of them complain about their home and wax lyrical about how much better life is in their adopted country. Some people fall in love with their new lifestyle so much they never go back.

Where we live (in the desert in Northwest Mexico) the weather is extreme. The first day of summer (1^st June) this year, the temperature hit 47C. By July and August, temps will be consistently over 40C, with several stretches of days on end over 45C. It is unrelenting and very difficult to do anything outdoors, specially with young children. But our expat friends don’t complain about the heat (much). They mostly come from the States, and Canada, from places where the winters regularly get to -20C, where they battle snow and sleet and ice on a daily basis and where the summers are mild and short. They extend their stays, putting off the day they have to return to the bitter weather of home.

Our expat travels, however, always had a finite ending. We may have stayed away longer than first intended, but we knew that eventually we would return home to Perth, where our families and friends live, and where the lifestyle is fantastic. So many people I know who’ve moved away from Perth – mostly to Sydney, Melbourne and London - talk about “when they move back to Perth”, like it’s a given. Everyone agrees, it’s a great place to live, and a great place to raise a family.

And the weather! Perth’s climate has to be one of the best in the world. The summers are warm, often hot, but not unbearably so and always with the promise of the Fremantle Doctor sweeping in to cool you down in the afternoon. The winters are mild and cosy. The seasons are defined and there’s no really extreme weather.

It’s a cliché, but in how I feel about home, absence has definitely made the heart grow fonder. As exciting as travel and the expat life can be, it really does bring the things you love and miss about home into sharper focus. Sure, I’ll miss the exotic foods, the challenge of learning another language, the excitement of experiencing another culture and the amazing sights I have seen, but in the end it’s just nice to come home.

So when my expat (and local) friends ask me how I feel about moving home in July, I tell them I’m excited. A little bit sad to go, but excited. I try not to be too enthusiastic about leaving Mexico and them behind, but the truth is, I can’t wait!

I can’t wait for rainy winters snuggled under the doona in front of the fire,

for walks along the beach or the river,

for vegemite toast in the mornings and hot chocolates in the evenings,

for an outdoor lifestyle in summer where my kids can ride their bikes and play in the park,

for family and old friends and familiarity.

I can’t wait to come home.

I’ve always wondered why Perth is getting this reputation for sorts of things, like the blogging capital, passionate web design, uber web events, and general friendly community. Well maybe it’s the isolation.

Being forced to innovate and find new ways to do things, like communication. If you think about it if you have a smaller community, like in Perth, you will get a closer knit community with a fair degree of social and professional group overlap. The rest of the country has a few degrees of separation, we have one degree of separation at best. There is also the “damn the torpedoes” attitude of going it alone, and thinking outside the square, considering that the un-written rules don’t apply to you.

The funny thing is I know the people in Perth don’t consider themselves any different. In a way, it’s the opposite, you can feel a little backward in the town that always sleeps. Yeah we have don’t have deregulated trading hours, the liquor licensing hours are strange at best, in fact we are the Nanny state, seems government even tells us when to sneeze.

You would expect with an isolated city you would get a very happening social scene in the Perth city. Sadly due to a distinct lack of direction and mentality of a small country town, Perth is dead on all nights of the week after 8pm, it just has a few sad outlets and that’s about it.

With this type of “vibrant” nightlife, it is a no wonder that the people of Perth are making their own entertainment with the various meetups and social events. So in a way the isolation and lack of vision by the city fathers is leading to a social cohesiveness.

Now let’s just crack that isolation factor up a notch, and bring it back to person level. If we do this I believe this is going to lead to an increase in online social networks and blogging, especially in places like Perth.

Consider over the next few years the level of social isolation is going to increase. Dictated by the price of fuel. Expect it to be $2.50 a litre by this time next year (Jun 2009). People are going to find themselves more and more working at least a few days from home. Or at least they will be spending more time traveling on an alreasdy overstretched public transport system.

Just think about this, it’s going to have a dramatic impact on everyone’s way of living. Either way the usual 9 to 5 and after work social life is just going to decrease. This is going to lead to the only outlet for some degree of social activity will be online.

Hence with Perth already being isolated and with a vast 100km hinterland, poor outer suburban public transport, increased travel time and separation from family, friends and colleagues is bound to lead to more isolation .

Is this going to lead Perth being about to claiming the online social networking crown as well.

Image: Perth Bell Tower

As much as I enjoy blogging leaving it behind for a few days for a winter break with the family is even more appealing, We are not wandering far and the weather may be cool but a cosy house among bushy hills, close to the ocean is certainly appealing. My two boys are now grown and, although still living at home, tend to go their own ways, even within the house; usually to their TVs or PC’s. Our paths often only cross at feeding times.

This weekend we are going to have our “quality time together” winter break. Winter is good time for us to go away together as we are more inclined to stay together in front of roaring open fire, chatting and playing card and board games and go for the occasional bracing walk by the sea..

Living relatively close to the busy city of Melbourne I sometimes dream of residing somewhere less crowded and closer to sea and mountain..Next week I will be living in the area I would choose to live, if it were practical; a part of the Mornington Peninsula just outside of Melbourne that I didn’t discover until years after I started living in here. Travelling by the highway I always bypassed these coastal areas of Mount Eliza, Mornington and Mount Martha.. It reminds me very much of the upper north shore of Sydney where I used to live. Being city girl born and bred my ideal location is not somewhere rural but rolling hills, rugged coastline, and a beach on every cove and at least a good smattering of houses

photo by Long Zheng

www.visitmorningtonpeninsula.org

Apart from the sea the 17 different Markets held throughout the month, Australia’s largest antique centre with art and craft galleries coffee shops and restaurants galore are very appealing. If this leaves you unimpressed there are also over 200 vineyards, 18 golf courses and you can take a swim with seals and dolphins. It is not far to the metropolis to get an occasional hit of large shopping malls or far from open countryside and the quiet surf beaches to completely get away from it all. Of course the skies are not always as blue as in these photos but you can’t have it all and nowadays, unlike when younger, being close to family is more important to me than living in more exotic locations.

It seems I cannot completely get away from the subject of blogging as I want to let know about a new Flickr browsing site I came across last week, CompFight ; which I used while searching for images for this post..It is a definite time saver as you do not have to use Flickr’s advanced search features to produce the results you want and more thumbnails per page are displayed.. Type in a keyword and the results are displayed via quick loading thumbnail images. Hover over these images and the pixel size of the full image is displayed. If the keyword does not provide you with what you want then you can do a text search. A particularly useful feature is being able to search for Creative Commons images only, so that you can be assured that you are not breaching copyright if including images in blogs. The image below shows the site’s search box - with the options available to you below.

Where would your ideal place to live be if you had the choice?

2228m above sea level. Mt Kosciuszko. As high as it gets in Australia.

My husband, 2 kids (10 yrs and 8yrs) and I decided to climb Mt Kosciuszko during our summer holiday. This is something that we had talked about doing for a while but had always been something that we would do “one day”. We don’t normally do a lot of walking but thought that it would be a great experience for us and especially for the kids.

There are two ways to get to the top of the mountain - one is via a track from Charlottes Pass which is 9km each way and the other is from Thredbo and is 6.5km each way. I was amazed at the number of people using the track from Charlottes Pass on mountain bikes. Both tracks meet at Rawson Pass and then there is one track to the top of the mountain.

New Years Day dawned on Thredbo and it was hot - 30° c. Which is unseasonally hot, normally its low 20’s at that time of the year, but there was hot westerlies blowing.

The four of us took off from the hotel to Thredbo at around 8.30am. We psyched ourselves up for what lay ahead of us. The walk is 6.5km each way. I don’t think we truly had any understanding of just how far that was until we had done the walk.

We caught the Kosciuszko Express Chairlift from Thredbo which took us to an altitude of 1930m. Once you reach this height there are no trees as it is too cold for them to survive. The only vegetation is small ground cover. Some of them are flowering and it was beautiful to see them, but almost eerie with no trees around.

Alpine Wildflowers near Merritts Creek (Click on thumbnail for a larger image)

Once you leave the chairlift the first part of the track is paved and quite easy to walk on. After crossing Merritts Creek then the track is a raised metal walkway. The steel is rusty as galvanised steel could not be used as it is toxic to many of the plants growing here. Walking on the path is very easy and because it is raised off the ground it is almost springy.

The path follows the hills and there are some quite steep sections and in one part, several stairs. Once we reached Kosciuszko Lookout we were about a third of the way there. The view from the lookout is amazing, of both the mountain itself and the surrounding area. The disheartening part was seeing the path meander off into the distance with no apparent end.

View of Mt Kosciuszko from Kosciuszko Lookout. The dark curvy line is the walking track.(Click on thumbnail for a larger image)

After a couple of hours of walking, we reached Rawson Pass which since the completion of a permanent toilet block, now has the highest toilets in Australia. Thank goodness we didn’t have to use a portable toilet.

Once you leave Rawson Pass the last part of the walk is 1.5km, which spirals around the mountain until you get to the top. This was also the hardest part of the walk as the path was loose gravel and much harder to walk on. Finally though you come around a bend in the path and there it is - the Top!!!!

Every bit of the walk was well worth it. The view from the top is amazing. And the sense of achievement made it all worthwhile. There was more than a few times during the walk that I wondered whether I was actually going to make it, due to being unfit and have the worst sinus infection of my life. Both kids were absolute troopers. They both made it, with a little bit of encouragement, but not as much as I thought that they would need.

The return trip seemed to be much quicker than the walk up. A lot of it is downhill on the way back, but don’t be fooled - there are still some uphill sections. The guidebooks suggest about 4-6 hours to complete the walk and we took 5, including a fair bit of time at the top of the mountain.

If you do the walk, be sure to take lots of water with you, insect repellant (I have never seen so many flies before) and smother yourself in suncream. And keep smothering yourself. Everything they tell you about the effect of the altitude is true - its much harder to breathe and you burn very quickly. And more water than you think you will need - about as much as you think you can carry.

I highly recommend this walk to anyone that hasn’t done it. Go on, get out there and explore our great country.

There’s something about Western Australia that seems to nurture geeks. Perhaps it’s our isolation from the rest of Australia, or our seemingly constant need to prove we’re “just as good” as the East coast. Whatever it is, one of the by-products is a thriving blogging community and some great innovations coming from the bottom left hand corner of the country. Just some of the many internet-famous Perth bloggers include:-

• Bronwen Clune, founder of PerthNorg, a citizen journalism site and second home to many Perth bloggers, as well as one of the organisers of the Perth Bloggers meetup-

• Jon Yau, founder of AustralianBlogs.com.au amongst other internet ventures - an avid collector of blogs rather than a prolific poster-

• Miles Burke, founder of the Australian Web Industry Association-

• Simone of Enjoy Perth, the most switched-on what’s on guide in the city, and one of the meetup organisers-

• Matt from Abstract Gourmet, the blog that quite often makes me physically drool-

• Gary Barber, the Man With No Blog, who actually took out the best blog category in the 2007 WA Web Awards

I asked a few of these esteemed individuals if they could guess at the source of all this creativity. Over Twitter, Miles Burke succinctly ventured that “because of our physical isolation we have a great desire for collaboration and a community of sharing”. Hmm, I knew someone would say that!

Gary Barber gave a longer version, suggesting that Perth is just the right size for a great community of bloggers. “Perth also has a very close community of bloggers that span various interests with very little clique that is experienced in smaller and larger cities. I guess the real thing is people in Perth ignore the norm, and for the most part don’t pay attention to the norm”.

Simone cheekily added “well obviously Perth is Dullsville, so there’s not much else to do but blog!”. She also pointed out that there’s a long tradition of bloggers meetups in Perth, as they were started way back in 2004 by Richard Giles - long before blogging hit the mainstream. Perhaps that kind of community encourages new bloggers to start or to keep going.

Abstract Gourmet Matt was more matter of fact - he said “I live in Perth, so I blog in Perth. Basically it’s as simple as that. I think I blog along the lines of that crappy catch phrase, ‘think global, act local’”. Like Gary, Matt thinks the size of the community and lack of high profile bloggers (in the food niche, at least) means that “if you’ve got something to say, and put it across well, you get noticed. I’ve had the chance to have an influence over some actual businesses who have benefited from things I’ve written about them… Which is a nice feeling”.

Me personally, I’m a big fan of the nice feeling. As I sit here, sipping coffee with my laptop in my favourite beach-side cafe, the sun shining and the ocean so close I can hear the waves breaking, I have to ask myself if there is any better place to live in the world. And I may be biased - in fact, I’m sure of it - but I don’t think that there is.

You’ll often hear Australians say that something is “in the middle of nowhere”, or “beyond the black stump”. This photo is of the place I reckon is the most “middle of nowhere” that I’ve ever been. It is out in the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory. I was there in 2000 on a trip from Alice Springs to Broome. The Tanami Road is the direct way between them. It’s basically 1,100km through the middle of the desert from Alice Springs to Halls Creek in Western Australia, and another 800 km to Broome once you hit the relative civilisation of the Great Northern Highway at Halls Creek.

The spot pictured is actually not on the Tanami Road, but just off it. The year I went, the main road was cut by floodwater - it had been a big wet season in the Kimberly, so we had to take a detour via Lajamanu and Kalkarinji, 2 aboriginal communities in the west of the Northern Territory. The photo is on the Lajamanu Road. We had camped overnight near here, and it truly was in the middle of nowhere. You could stand on a hill behind our campsite and see no sign of civilisation. No houses, no cars, nothing except us. At this point, we were roughly 650 km from Alice Springs and 500 km from Halls Creek - which barely qualifies as civilisation. The night sky is incredibly clear and beautiful when there’s no manmade interference with your view of it.

What’s the most remote place you’ve ever been in Australia? Or overseas for that matter?