Views from a bridge

Booker Bay from The Rip Bridge

Look at that water. Still as. There was a cold cruel wind yesterday but otherwise it's been days and days of still blue skies. Magic winter weather.




Hardys Bay from The Rip Bridge

I love the swirly patterns on the water. Some of them are obviously boat tracks but the big patches seem to be made by the sandbars. Which we have heaps of. Which is why we have the Great Dredging Debate

Ettalong knob/Booker Bay sandbar

Somewhere in my increasingly large photo archive at Flickr is a nice view from the mountain showing most of the sandbars. Can I find the bastard? No, I cannot. Didn't tag the effing thing properly, did I!

The Rip Bridge from Hardys Bay (plus photos of Bustling Downtown Hardys Bay)


Stupid health

I ain’t on death’s door or nothing. Just not terribly sprightly at the moment. Had to have more tests last week. Dr says I’m to stay off the booze for a year, a whole year for fuck’s sake, and go easy on the pizza and bacon.

So I’ve chucked out all the bacon and bought myself a T-shirt that says “designated driver”. Sigh.


Local linkage

First one is Woy Woy hero bunnies at Biker Bunnies.


Second one is some keen bushwalkers have bunged up a new local freebies website called wildwalks.com.au.

They've got “various walks in the Brisbane Water and Bouddi national parks including Warrah Trig, Patonga, Maitland Bay and Staples Lookout.”

It’s got some good local photos and some chat about each walk and you can print out a map to take with you. Holding it up the right way is yer own responsibility.


B day

Shit. I've spent so much time on the first B of the day I'm in danger of missing the second.

Saturday is B day:

Blog
Barbie
Booze
Bonking (if my sex drive is at home to visitors)

(Tuesday is soylent green day.)

All is calm, all is quiet

Went walkies along the western side of Brisbane Water, looking from Brisbane Water Drive across at Green Point and Saratoga and beyond to Kincumber and Avoca Beach and Killcare.

The gentle winter sun shone down, the ducks and heron-type-thingies browsed in the shallows, the commuters wished they were out on the still quiet water.




Wading and snapping. The heron-type-thingy wading sedately with that gawky knees-up walk they have. No idea what this one was eating but he didn't seem to be finding much of it. The ducks were finding plenty, poking their beaks into the sea grass and snapping their beaks in a satisfied way.




What ducks eat. Seemed to be wee creatures in the sea grass or the sea grass itself.




There's very nearly more boats than people around Brisbane Water. These ones looked scrumptious in the soft fading light.

Bonus picture: You wouldn't be dead for quids


Spider bites it



This is Gorgeous. Well, her body anyways. She's dead now.

She was my pet/flatmate. She moved in a couple of months ago, when the nights started to get cold. She hung out in the kitchen during the day and watched TV together and she slept behind a picture in the living room. We chatted when I made my morning cuppa and stuff.

Then a couple of days ago she disappeared. It was too cold outside so I knew she hadn't left. I found her body yesterday. She'd died of natural causes I think and fallen down behind the dish-rack. I buried her under the geranium.

Dark week

From blue blue winter skies to dark dark winter skies. Pissing down again as we speak. It's been a dark wet week in Woy Woy. I've been having the lights on at three in the afternoon.



Boy duck.

Went to Empire Bay when the sun was still with us. Had fish & chips on the foreshore. Bloody lovely day for it.




Girl duck.




Beautiful warm winter sun on water and shore.

And a couple of planes making weird contrails in the distance. See them? Above the boats. They looked like they were over Sydney.


Still missing

Can't find any fresh news about the Woy Woy bloke who went missing last week. They found his surf ski and life jacket and paddle off Saratoga but no sign of him, poor bastard.

Map

Full article at The Australian


Dementia walkies

Regular walkies helped a Dear Old Thing survive when he got lost in the bush last week.

"Dr Fulde believed Mr Ludbrook's regular long walks would have been crucial to his survival.

"Big time. People who walk serious distances - not just the 20-minute stroll with the dog, which is also good - do well in situations like this.

"His heart would have been able to deal with the stress much more easily that the average lounge lizard.

"In the end, that's what hypothermia does - it leads to heart attack - and having a healthy heart from lots of walking protects from heart attach as the patient cools down."
...
For decades, Mr Ludbrook's neighbours had become used to the sight of him walking the streets of Fernhill."


There you go. Us walkers are on the right track. Even when we're demented.


Full article at SMH

Warm winter sun

(Random Woy Woy walkies)



Bloody cold in the wind a couple of days ago, with the gusts up off the snow. But other than that, we’ve had days of blue blue winter skies. The warm winter sun has been glorious. Perfect for walkies and photos.

This picture is from Booker Bay Road Booker Bay. That’s Booker Bay in the foreground and Rileys Bay across the water there.




Taken from the same place. Note the wee cut-outs of cats along the jetty there. They seemed to be working. It was the only jetty with no duck shit on it.





Look at that red. Glorious. It’s been down to 1 degree (about 3 Farhenheit) overnight. Some years it doesn’t get that cold and, if you want a good red on your poinsettias, you gotta put them in the fridge. They’re not native to Australia.

The Rip Bridge

Took me a lot of walkies to get all the angles I wanted on this landmark. Here they are all in one go.




The Rip Bridge from Guyra Street Booker Bay. My favourite view.

It's called The Rip Bridge because it goes over The Rip, which is a bit of fast-flowing water in the narrow bit between the Woy Woy peninsula and Daleys Point. When the ferries go through it their engines have to strain a bit and a kayaker can paddle as fast as they like on The Rip and get nowhere.




Where it is.

The Rip Bridge is a Brisbane Water landmark. You can see it from all the way up Brisbane Water Drive as far as Point Clare. It's one of the busiest bottlenecks on the Central Coast. And when the big fires in 2006 closed the F3 motorway, the fire trucks had to come down the eastern side of Brisbane Water and across the bridge to get to The Bays next to Woy Woy.




Daleys Point end of the bridge. The road that goes over it is called Maitland Bay Drive on the Woy Woy side and on the bridge itself, then it changes its name to Daley Avenue, then at the roundabout at the top of the St Huberts Island ramp, it changes its name again to Empire Bay Drive. This takes some explaining when giving directions to lost tourists.




Just behind the railing about the middle you can see a bit of The Rip. The ridges in the background are the western side of Brisbane Water. The two mangrove islets in the left middle are nameless. St Hubert's is the island on the right (houses) and behind that is the hill of Saratoga.




Fishermans Bay, where the moving speedboat is, and Rileys Bay. Looking east-north-east from the bridge.



Booker Bay from the Woy Woy end of the bridge. Money lives in Booker Bay. It didn't used to.




The Rip Bridge from Blackwall Mountain. Orange Grove Road in the foreground. The houses at the left end of the bridge are at Daleys Point.




Thar she blows. The Rip Bridge from Daley Avenue Daleys Point.


Bloody idiots

There's been a spate of bashings of foreign students of Australian universities. Bashing foreign uni students is a fucking stupid idea. Particularly in a recession. They bring a shitload of money into the country.

International students (what uni's call foreign citizen students) pay around three times the money an Australian citizen pays to go to uni. So if a B.A. costs a citizen 20,000 it costs an international student 60,000. If a medical degree costs 60,000 it costs an international student 180,000.

They pay higher fees which means the uni can afford to stay open to educate Australian citizens when the government is taking shitloads of funding from education to spend on wars. (Former Prime Miniature John Wanker Howard, this means you).

They pay for accommodation. This is money into the local housing market.

They eat. This is money into the local shops.

They phone home. This is money into the local telephone companies, the same phone companies you use.

They go places on buses and trains. This is money into the local bus-drivers' pay packets.

Think you're doing Australia a favour bashing international students? You're doing it an injury. Grow a brain, numb nuts.


Right! I'm off for the long weekend. Running a mere 24 hours late and with a premature case of title="Ducktionary">shagger's back. Argh.

Have a good one, Straylya.

Warm winter beach

(Random walkies in Woy Woy)



Right now it's pissing down again but a few days ago the winter sun was blazing and the dogs frolicking and the locals popping down to the beach.

This is looking out from Umina Beach through the heads of Broken Bay.




Box Head, the northern head of Broken Bay.

Box Head gave its name to the crowd who make Box Head surf gear. Or made. They don't got a website so maybe they got bought up. Anyways, they used to have their office in a house in Memorial Avenue right near Bustling Downtown Ettalong.




View south from Umina Beach. Mt Ettalong on the right, the arse end of Lion Island on the left edge of the photo, Pittwater and Commodore Heights (Ku-ring-gai) in the middle.




Lion Island from Umina Beach, looking south.




Geraldton Wax blooming in the winter sun. Proper name Chamelaucium uncinatum. It's an Australian native but is actually from WA (Western Australia) not NSW. I love it.

"[O]ne of Australia's most famous wildflowers and is widely used as a cut flower in Australia and overseas" says ASGAP. Pop into yer local Interflora today.

ASGAP fact sheet & photos


Second wave

We're well and truly into the 2nd wave of the swine flu now. The peeps who know about this sort of thing said it's normal and would happen and so it's happened.

But it's still not time to panic yet. Relax, eat yer vegies, lay back on the sofa with a DVD on and for fuck's sake don't watch those panic-merchant news reports on 7, 9 and 10. Bloody half-witted commercial TV channels. Switch over to Aunty and yer blood pressure will go down. ABC news is at 7pm.


What can you do?

"Influenza is spread from person-to-person through coughing or sneezing of infected people. There are many things you can do to prevent getting and spreading influenza:

* Cover your mouth when you cough, and wash your hands regularly.
* Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the garbage bin after you use it.
* Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hands cleaners are also effective.
* Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread that way.

Try to avoid close contact with sick people.

* Influenza is spread from person-to-person through coughing or sneezing. Stay away from people who are sick.
* If you get sick, stay home from work or school and limit contact with others to avoid infecting them." (More at NSW Health Dept prevention info)


"Department of Health and Ageing swine influenza information...

Advice for returned travellers
...
Travel advisory" (Swine flu advice at the NSW Health Dept)

"Swine Flu Symptoms

Since swine influenza infections typically present in humans as seasonal influenza, most of the cases are detected by chance through flu surveillance. Swine flu symptoms, similar to those of seasonal influenza may include:

* Cough
* Runny nose
* Fever
* Headache
* Joint aches and pains
* Fatigue
* Nausea
* Vomiting
* Diarrhoea
* Acute pneumonia

The Federal Government has set up a swine flu hotline for public information: 1802007" (Aunty on teh interwebs)

Bloody wet

It is too bloody wet and too bloody dark for walkies. It is this dark. Took that in 2008 but it's the same dark this week only wetter.

Anyways, here's some I took last week when the sun was out.



Rocks and yachts at Koolewong.

Looking north-north-east up towards East Gosford/Springfield. The low ground in the left background is the low bit of Tascott/Point Clare and Longnose (Pt Frederick) and the flat hill on the right is Kincumba Mountain.




Mangroves beside Brisbane Water Drive. The bare-branched one isn't bare-branched because it's winter. It's just dead. Mangroves are evergreen, like most Australian trees. It's mostly the imported species of trees that are deciduous.




Jetty building equipment near Woy Woy wharf.




Jetty building equipment near Woy Woy wharf.

That's Pelican Island in the near background, with the pointy hill of Saratoga behind it.




Woy Woy from Brisbane Water Drive

The pines are at the war memorial on Brick Wharf Road, the white building with the dark side is the fish and chip shop, the red-roofed building is a storage thingy either for the fish and chip shop or the commercial wharf in front of it. I forget.

The square white building is Roma (now St. Vinnie's), the two-storey building beside it is the pub (Woy Woy Hotel, the CWA is the low grey roof in front of the pub.

The ferry wharf is all those white pylons in the water and that big gum is in Anderson Park, a wee park behind the other pub.


Not drowning, wading

As soggy as it is here in Woy Woy, our rain is fuck-all compared to what they're copping up north.

"The worst drought in South-East Queensland's history is over." That's what the Queensland Premier said about the flooding in Brissie. Give that pollie an award for understatement.

Brissie (Brisbane) is a fucking disaster area. Brissie is one of Australia's bigger cities. It has about 2 million peeps. And it's built on a flood plain.

Thousands of peeps around the Queensland/NSW border were told to pack up and bugger off to higher ground. And maybe something has been learnt from the Victorian bushfires because they went and they went without a murmur. (Apart from a few argumentative types of course, but you always get them.)

The good news is Lake Eyre is filling with trickle-down from the flooding in Queensland a couple of months back (during the Victorian bushfires). Lake Eyre is a fucking huge salt lake in South Australia. Since 1885 it has filled six times.

Mappage:

Australia, with Queensland highlighted (New South Wales is immediately below Queensland)

A river runs through it (Satellite photo showing why Brissie is currently flooded)

Luscious satellite photo of Lake Eyre


Speaking of water

Lately I've been hoicking my carcass up to North Gosford and Wyoming and the like for walkies.

And not loving it. They are too far from the water. I like walking near the water. There's no two ways around it.

So I'm temporarily re-focussing my walkies to only towns and suburbs that border on the water.

That includes, from south to north:

Pretty Beach (started but not finished)
Hardys Bay (started but not finished)
Killcare
Killcare Heights
Empire Bay (started but not finished)
Bensville
Kincumber South
Kincumber (started but not finished)
Green Point
Rocky Point (part of Green Point)
Ironbark Point (part of Green Point)



(Walkies Map May 2009)

The purple bit is what I've temporarily crossed off my list.

The orange lines outline my walkies target area. The filled-in orange bits are already walked.

The blank islands are uninhabited and have no roads. The green lines are landscape contours lines indicating hills and ridges.

Walked so far:

Woy Woy Peninsula:
(clockwise from station)

Woy Woy (station)
Blackwall
Orange Grove
Booker Bay
Ettalong
Umina, Ocean Beach & Umina Beach
Pearl Beach
Patonga, Dark Corner & Brisk Bay
Woy Woy South/Correa Bay

The Bays:

(where the fires were, next to Woy Woy)
Horsfield Bay (Deadmans Bay)
Phegans Bay
Woy Woy Bay
Parks Bay (old/semi-official name, part of Koolewong)

Clockwise round Brisbane Water from Woy Woy:

Koolewong /Murphys Bay
Tascott
Noonan Point (old/semi-official name, part of Tascott & Point Clare)
Point Clare
Fagans Bay
West Gosford (started but not finished, outside revised target area)
Gosford (started but not finished)
Point Frederick (Longnose)
Caroline Bay (part of East Gosford)
East Gosford (started but not finished)
Peeks Point
Springfield (started but not finished, outside revised target area)
Erina (started but not finished)
Yattalunga
Saratoga
Davistown
Kincumber (started but not finished)
Empire Bay (started but not finished)
St Huberts Island
Daleys Point (started but not finished)
Fishermans Bay
Hardys Bay (started but not finished)
Pretty Beach
Wagstaffe
Kourung Gourong Point (part of Wagstaffe)

'Started but not finished' doesn't mean I've abandoned that walk. It just means it's now outside my revides target are. Plus I'm just a random bastard these days.