Camping and hiking in The Kangaroo Valley.

I had a wonderful weekend at The Kangaroo Valley this weekend with Sydney Explorers.


Highlights of the weekend included:

• Driving down on Friday evening with Srini.
• The wonderful camp-site in Kangaroo Valley, set on huge lawns, separated by giant rocks, and a lovely river running through.
• Being Dave's birthday on Friday night, Rudy brought a sinfully good chocolate cake. So delicious!
• Great fun and hilarity, especially with JC and Srini.
• Wombats wandering through the camp-site after dusk. I'm amazed how big they can get.
• A 14 km return hike on Saturday to an amazing lake and flooded forest. A perfect spot for a group swim and some leaps.
• Elna and Srini's very impressive one legged poses. Very flexible and graceful, both of them! I would have fallen flat on my face.
• Some fun banter with JC, Srini, Anne Maree and Tony in the car after the hike on the way to the pub. 
• Delicious "crossbow" cider at the pub and back at the camp site.
• Scrumptious cheese and crackers and cherry pie supplied by the lovely Rob and Kim.
• Srini's enormous camping chair that I kind of stole. Sorry Srini, I really must get myself one!
• Gorgeous swims in river at the camp site to cool off and freshen the armpits to make up for the lack of a shower.
• Joining some kids to swing into the river on a rope tied to a tree.  So much fun;  never to late to have a happy childhood.
• A very scenic 11 km hike on Sunday to enjoy three spectacular views of the valley, river and dam.
• The enormous bull ants that seemed everywhere on the hike.  I got bitten again but nothing compared to last time!
• The most delicious pie I've just about ever tasted at The World's Best Pie shop. 
• A last drink at the pub before heading off for our return journey.
• The very picturesque and quaint town of Kangaroo Valley. It has a great vibe.
• The most amazing thunder storm breaking out as we left Kangaroo Valley. Amazing clouds and then rain so hard that we had to stop driving.  Only lasted 5 minutes thankfully.
• A much needed coffee at The Shaggy Cow on the way home. What a great name for a cafe!
• Some nourishing heart to heart chats with Srini on the drive home.

Saturday hike

The amazing flooded forest that we hiked to on Saturday.

Quite a surreal place and the perfect spot for a swim ...

... and of course, some leaping!!

Some impressive one-legged poses by Elna and Srini.

Having an awesome swim

Life at the camp site

The camp site with its huge lawn, lovely river and wombats wandering through. Srini and I gave the tree swing a go.

Sunday hike

Our Sunday hike included three great views.

Beautiful cliffs and views of the river below.

Views of the Tallowa Dam.

JC and Srini have fun on the cliff.

The 3 Amigos

The flowers were out in force again, especially on the Sunday hike.

I loved the different patterns and colours in these leaves.

World's Best Pies

For once, the sign didn't lie. They really were that good!

Kangaroo Valley Town

Lots of old buildings and a quaint, relaxed vibe.

Having a well deserved final drink at the pub.

A wonderful group, as always.

Storm clouds on the way home

I love stormy, dramatic skies!

Go Matt!!

Once again, Matt excelled in his exams and walked away with multiple certificates and medals at his school prize giving.  He clearly has a very intelligent mind to go with his wonderful, fun, warm personality.  Must be his uncle's genes!!

From Jo:

Yesterday, Matt walked off with 8 certificates.  He achieved an A (80 % and above) in all his subjects for the whole year.  To top it off he got a bronze medal for English (came 3d in the whole grade) and a bronze medal for science!!

Jo does it again!

Jo is going from strength to strength with her photography!  Fresh from the triumph of her trophy at her photographic workshop, she has now gone on to win the Orms Photo of the Month competition with a gorgeous photo she took during the family holiday to Namibia.  

Orms is South Africa's leading photographic retailer and the photo will feature as the cover photo for a month on their very popular Facebook page .  

I feel so extremely proud of her! And so blessed that we both share such a wonderful passion.

The winning photo

The Orms Facebook page with Jo's photo in prime position.

Hike through Shoalhaven Gorge

I spent a lovely weekend spent with South Coast Campers, hiking along the Shoalhaven Gorge.  I love hiking along rivers where you can swim anytime and this was an absolute beauty.


Highlights of the weekend included ...

• Lovely people as always on South Coast camping trips including the wonderful regulars; Kim, Chris, JC, Anne Marie.
• My first delicious swim in the river after our hot descent into the gorge from Longpoint Look Out.
• The amazing place where we had our first group swim - a huge expanse of water, so deep we couldn't touch the bottom.  The only drawback of this perfect spot was the boiling hot sand that scalded our feet!
• Doing several exciting river crossings. On the first day, many of us did it bare foot (ouch, the rocks hurt!) but on the second day, we wizened up and kept our boots on (much better!!)
• Our great camp site in the trees on soft grass by the river.
• Launching ourselves down a little stretch of rapid on Jimmy's lilo; a lot of fun!
• The relief of sitting my burning posterior in the river after sitting on the top of an ant nest and being bitten to smitherines!
• Great French movie recommendations from Rahima.
• A great night's sleep - I don't usually sleep so soundly in my coffin of a tent!
• Very wisely getting up early (6 am) to get an early start on Sunday morning to try to avoid the coming heat (35 degrees by noon!)
• The beautiful reflections in the river as we hiked.
• A last dunk in the river to cool ourselves down for the mega climb ahead.
• The elation at the end of the steep and exhausting 90 minute climb out of the gorge in the sweltering heat. 
• The stupendous view from Badgery Lookout, looking down on the big climb we'd done.
• A delicious (and very good value) meal at the pub in Marulan and feeling so dehydrated that I forsook delicious cider for copious glasses of orange juice.
• Laid back Ben, who looked like Ryan Gosling's younger brother.  Sorry, Jo, he's taken!
• Some great philosophical discussions with Howard.

All in all, another fantastic weekend.

The hike into the valley from Lonpoint Look Out

Arriving at the Shoalhaven River.  I was the first in!

Enjoying the river, eating our lunch.

The Spring flowers, still out in abundance

Our first group swim at a perfect swimming spot.

 

Hiking on to our camping spot.

Our first two river crossings, sore on the feet!!

What a great spot to camp!  Just don't sit on the ant nest!

Local wildlife. The blue dragon flies were exquisite, but I didn't manage to get a great photo of it unfortunately.

The section of river where we camped was fast flowing ..

... perfect for some fun in the rapids

Beautiful reflections in the river.

Crossing the river on the second day, wearing my boots this time.  

Kim wearing her yellow socks, Rahima crossing the river

The hot, steep climb out of the gorge.

The beautiful view from the top (Badgery Lookout)

Rahima, me, Sara

Watching "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"

Oh how I cried during this beautiful movie. It provided a wonderful way to release some of the grief I was still holding. 

Yikes!!

Matt, my new house-mate, is quite a manly kinda guy.  So when I heard him scream, I knew it must be pretty bad. Ventured down to his room to find this enormous specimen occupying his bed, after just running over his leg.  After the essential photos, we set it free, protecting it from the very interested local butcher bird who obviously fancied a large meal.

Sam's project

Here is an almost finished art project Sam had for school. They had to draw themselves in profile and fill it with things that have meaning in their lives. Great job, Sam. It looks amazing!

Watching "Finding Vivian Maier" at The Cremorne Orpheum

I went to see "Finding Vivian Maier" with Sue last night.  A fascinating documentary about a nanny who, when she died, left behind a legacy of over 100,000 undeveloped photos.  When they were developed, they turned out to contain some of the greatest street photographs ever taken.  I've put some of her photos up on a separate post.

The movie made me want to grab my camera and start snapping.  Very inspiring. So I scratched that itch a little by taking a couple of snaps of the beautiful Cremorne Orpheum Cinema, my favourite local cinema, where we saw the movie.  It's a beautiful cinema with stunning art deco finishings. 

Email to Colin about the movie

Wow Colin, thanks for some great thought provoking reflections. Inspired me to think about it more deeply.

I can only project her motivations from my own experience so am probably way off base as I realise we're not all the same.

But anyway, for what it's worth, I have this often overwhelming compulsion to record moments from my life. It's the motivation behind my blog and more. It's not just an enjoyment thing, but deeper than that.  A way of gaining some sense of "control" and "order" over life which is inherently messy and chaotic and unpredictable.

Maybe she had some kind of similar urge?  Except not just moments from her own life but moments from the wider world around her. Might also explain her obsession with collecting newspapers and clippings and video footage and receipts and memories wrapped up in trinkets etc. etc. ?

She may not have had a strong urge to develop and show the photos because once captured, the "moments" were safe and secure and stored for posterity in her film cartons and boxes.  Her sense of "control" was gained through the capture itself, not the editing and presentation of the results.

Whatever her motivation, I don't think she had any choice in the matter. She was driven by a creative impulse that drove her; something greater operating through her, as it does through so many artists, especially the truly great and original ones.

One of my takeaways?  Obsessive tendencies, even if driven by inner demons, aren't necessarily all bad and can even have their gifts. If harnessed, they can be a catalyst to create something remarkable. An extreme example: Would Van Gogh have ever created Starry Night if his soul had been all perfume and light?

Cheers,
G

The amazing iPhone 6

The iPhone 6 is a real step up from my iPhone 4 in terms of its display and camera. I'm starting to use the camera more and more instead of my SLR. It's just so convenient and the image quality is incredible for such a small device.