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After an 800km drive, including an overnight stop at Raymond Terrace just out of Newcastle, we reached home by lunch-time today. At Newcastle we have a choice between taking the New England Highway, which is generally a good road or the slightly shorter route via the Bucketts Way to Gloucester (nothing like its UK counterpart) and then the Thuderbolt's Way to Uralla and Armidale. Thunderbolt was a 19th century bush ranger (outlaw) who held up stages coaches quite successfully until eventually tracked down and killed. We now tend to take the latter route because it is so scenic and little trafficked, though the surface of the road is horrid in places. Gloucester is transforming itself into a tree-hugger's paradise and lots of good cafes for coffee and/or lunch. The route also has about 160km between Barrington and Walcha with no settlements on the road. The trip is entirely rural through picturesque mountain and river scenery, along with some of Australia's best grazing country.

The photos below show some of the scenery en route from Carsons Lookout. The three pictures adjoin each other and present a vast sweep of countryside looking westwards towards the Barrington Tops, a National Park with vast wilderness areas up to 1100m in height. The Barnard River in the valley below is at about 200m, while the lookout itself - alongside Thunderbolt's Way - is about 920m. So the valley floor is more than 700m below (or c. 2200 feet). It's an impressive view and we often stop for a little R & R on the long stretch to (or from) Walcha. Even at 920m the weather was very hot(!) at 10am, and the humidity low, which is why the images are so clear.

AS

Central Tilba Tilba Tilba

The title of this post is not the result of my going mad or suffering from heatstroke. Our next two destinations were Central Tilba and Tilba Tilba. See http://www.tilba.com.au/history.htm for a general blurb or sites like http://www.maplandia.com/australia/new-south-wales/eurobodalla/tilba-tilba/ providing maps. Tilba may mean water in the Thawa Aboriginal language and its repetition converts it to plural form: many waters. Both places, which are only 3 km apart, are now, like Mogo, thoroughly gentrified and full of eateries and touristy shops catering for alternative, hippie, and green clienteles - both young and old.

They are set in stunning rolling hills and valleys, a lush green colour after recent heavy rains. The first picture shows the general lie of the country south of Central Tilba.

Before getting to Central Tilba, Dot and I and Emily and Greg had a nice lunch in Tilba Tilba at the "Love at First Bite" cafe shown on the next slide. It was surrounded by businesses selling garden supplies or twee household goods, and there was also a botanical gardens to explore.

Then it was off to Central Tilba, another old dairying township, though this one - unlike Mogo - actually had two stores selling cheeses. Indeed Tilba cheeses are available in supermarkets nationally and they're very good. One now sits in our fridge having survived the trip home in an Esky. We visited most of the stores shown in the attached pictures, but bought little. In Emily and Greg's case, that was hardly surprising in view of their impending move overseas. In our case, the household is stuffed to the ceilings with rarely used household and personal items! Still, it was fun looking at works of art, hand-made wooden products, exotic clothing, furnishings, food-stuffs, hammocks, and so on.

Have a look at these photos!

AS

Meringo

One of the joys of the South Coast is its succession of marvellous beaches, headlands and sea-scapes. Our trip down the coast two days ago opened up this landscape in ways that astonished us. Our main coastal destination was the tiny village of Meringo on the edge of the Eurobodalla National Park - which also has a marine extension. The following pictures illustrate my point and I'd dearly like to escort some of my European readers through this region - which we hardly touched and goes for hundreds of kilometers.

We walked much of the length of the beach above and were, apart from two cyclists, the only people on it. The sand was clean and unmarked - totally pristine - and only sea-gulls attended us. The view is southwards.

This is the view northwards from the southern end of the first beach.

The pictures above and below look north and south respectively from the headland in the final picture and show  Honeymoon and Mullimburrra beaches respectively.

Come on down and enjoy this scenery with us and at least tell me what you think of it.

Happy New Year to all my readers.

AS

Mogo

After the morning on the beach reported by the earlier post, several of us headed inland to Mogo on the Princess Highway, which connects Melbourne and Sydney via the coast. It is mainly a tourist route because commerce takes the far shorter route inland. In its previous incarnation a century ago, Mogo was a gold-mining town. It then decayed gently for many decades before commencing a stunning revival as an olde-worlde shopping centre full of counter-culture boutiques. As far as I could tell, hardly anyone actually lives in Mogo, and all the former miners' cottages have been converted into shops, cafes, and art galleries. Even the Catholic church has had a makeover into an art gallery!

We spent much of the afternoon wandering from one store to another, though not buying anything other than fudge and ice-creams. Fortunately, Max stayed behind with Greg playing games. He would have found Mogo deadly dull for someone of his age! For example, one store sold merchandise with cow motifs (pictured) which might appeal to an older generation! In fact, after the expiry of gold mining, Mogo was a dairying area like much of the South Coast.

The following pictures give you a general impression of the town. It's pretty, you'll have to agree.

AS

Kiama and Ulladulla

The trip down the south coast from Sydney to Batemans Bay and Broulee is highly scenic and one of the most popular tourist sights is the blow-hole at Kiama. The trip was marred by persistent and fairly heavy rain, but in between the showers we were able to see the blow-hole  in action. The first picture shows part of the local coastline, the second is a general view of the blow-hole area - a rock platform under which the sea has gouged a cave system ending in a vertical shaft through which spray is ejected. Waves, especially at high tide, surge through the cave and force of the water sends a column of spray up through the vertical shaft. It was very impressive. The final picture shows the harbour at Ulladulla alongside where Dot and I had lunch.

AS

A Day at the Beach

Dot and I met up with Emily and Greg and Rebecca and Max three days ago at Broulee on the NSW South Coast. It is a beautiful spot with glorious beaches, quaint villages, impressive headlands, and nearby mountainous scenery as backdrop to rolling green hills. This, and the next few posts, deal with these dimensions and the things we did together for the few days after Christmas.
On the first morning we all headed for the beach which, like all in the locality, was clean and sandy. It was also crowded by Australian standards as the first picture shows. That's me in the middle -suitably attired.

The first thing we did was to erect the beach house we bought with us. The picture shows Emily, Greg and Beck trying to fathom out the construction process, while Max looks on wishing someone would take him to the water with his body-board. I joined them to supervise the process and install some order as the third picture shows.

When we first arrived, by the way, we were pleasantly surprised that the beach was pristine. The day before, the high water mark was strewn with the corpses of bluebottles of the kind shown in the fourth photo. These jelly-fish come with a long poisonous tentacle attached and pop like a gun when one treads on them. The previous night's storm must have swept them away to our great relief.

Max, who is now a good swimmer, had lots of fun with Greg's body-board and caught several good waves which propel the rider fast towards the shore. Beck and I also used this piece of equipment to advantage. In fact, I spent a wonderful 90 minutes in the moderate surf trying to stay upright as the waves crashed towards shore. I had to duck under several of the bigger ones to avoid being tumbled about by the conditions. In between the breaking waves I was able to float on the surface or swim outwards a little.

After this, Max decided to dig himself a pit in the sand in which he could sit and cool off. Alas, he didn't factor in the rising tide and a large wave swamped his pit and virtually cemented him in place amidst much mirth. It was quite a struggle to free him, but much easier to clean him up. All he had to do was go back into the surf and the sea did the rest.

Later in the day we went for a long walk along one of the local beaches, posing occasionally for photos and to jump up and down on expired, but still deadly, jelly-fish. The animals themselves may be barely alive, but their sting can still pack a punch. So footwear was needed for this task.

The final picture shows the stream separating Broulee from Mossy Point, which had some fine beach houses. This was the farthest park of our joutney in the evening sunlight - the end to a perfect day.

AS

A Lovely Exhibition

We're in Sydney for Xmas and having a day to spare headed off by train and taxi to an exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. And, wow, it was a great exhibition called The First Emperor. The gentleman concerned was Qin Shihuang who became king of a very small state at the age of 13 and spent the next 25 years uniting China into more or less its current configuration less the western one-third (including Tibet). He was born in 259 BCE. Qin is pronounced Chin, so guess what:  Chin became China. Much of the exhibit contains pottery, bronze and gold (or other precious items) of the 200 years or so preceding Qin's rise and on to his rein as the 1st Emperor.

Interest - indeed spectacular - as that was, the centre-point of the exhibition was the collection of terracotta warriors created to defend him in the afterlife. Their existence was discovered in a field near X'ian in 1974 and subsequently archaeologists worked until today - the work is continuing - to unearth thousands of items of which we saw just a few.

They're magnificent, and Dot and I are now planning to visit X'ian and also Beijing where we'll walk on the wall. Watch this space for further details. If you have a chance, please go. The exhibition runs until 13th March. I now have a replica of the general leading the parade which will stand in my office for inspiration.

AS

Wild Weather

We've been intrigued by the awful pictures of snow-bound Europe and people holidaying in exciting airport terminals. Yet we're having our own wild weather. A few parts of NSW had a frost last night and even Armidale got down to 3 degrees C. It was distinctly chilly pedalling to work on the bike this morning even though things had warmed up nicely by mid-day. Over the last few weeks we've had endless dull and wet days and temperatures well below normal. This culminated 3 days ago with a massive storm that brought wintry temperatures - only +15C during the day - and huge winds up to about 100 kmh. So, we've accompanied the northern hemisphere in its weather travails. Today, however, became lovely after that cold start, with cloudless skies and low humidity, so envy us going into Christmas. Sydney and the south coast should be 25-30C and the water will be about 21C.

AS

A Sojourn in Melbourne

We are nearly home after a 4-day trip to Melbourne. Like most things these days, the 3,000 km round trip (by air) was a rushed affair, with me being in conference most of the time and Dot, who accompanied me, seeing the sights of the city. Dot, for one had a good time and the highlight was a trip to Philip Island to see the fairy penguin parade just after dusk. The penguins, which are protected, nest in burrows on the island and come ashore in the twilight to rush across the beach and up to feed their young. They fish during the day and cannot be seen. Otherwise, Dot's time was a parade of shops, art galleries, parks, museums and lovely old buildings. She also enjoyed riding the trams. Melbourne has an extensive network of tram lines, much like most European cities.

I, meantime, was holed up in the suite of conference rooms we hired at a hotel near Melbourne University. I presented the ANZ Regional Science Association's accounts for 09-10, resigned as treasurer, took over as the journal's editor with another colleague, chaired a conference session, presented an award, gave a paper (on quantum mechanics and uncertainty), drafted an article with a colleague and designed a research project. All this was intellectually exciting, but tiring as discussions sometimes went into the late evening and I met several good colleagues from all over Australia, and the US and New Zealand. Moreover my US visit in July will now take a detour via Missouri!

I'm typing this while delayed in the Qantas Club at Sydney airport. It looks like my home district had some wild weather today!

AS

If Music be the Food of Love

i have just returned from a highly unusual concert performed by the Armidale Symphony Orchestra for its last concert of the year. It contained three works, all twentieth century English, connected with Shakespeare's plays and had two actors reciting large slab's of the Bard's works. So it bought together music and drama and a beautiful way and all participants performed well - all 100 of them! Yes, there was a 60 piece orchestra and a choir of 40 who also supplied the various soloists required. One of the two actors was actually dressed in battle fatigues for reasons that will be apparent shortly.

The first piece was Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music, first performed in October 1938. The words of this rather beautiful work are from Act V of The Merchant of Venice and it pieces together various lines penned by Shakespeare on the subject of music including, for example:
How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
Creep in our ears: soft stillness and the night
Become the touches of sweet harmony.
Williams selective used the text, picking, choosing and re-arranging the lines that appealed to him.

The second work was William Walton's film score for Henry V starring Brian's some-time neighbour, Olivier. This was completed in 1944 and apparently the motivation for the film was a morale booster given that Henry defeated the French at Agincourt on Friday 25 October 1415 and it was hoped that the same was about to happen to the Nazis. The orchestra performed most of the film score including: the Prologue, at the Boar's Head (a pub), the Interlude after Falstaff's death, Harfleur, the Night Watch (not Rembrandt's painting of the same name), and Agincourt. All of these required orchestra, soloists and/or choir. Just before the last item there was a large orchestral interlude depicting the battle, which was well orchestrated and quite vivid. The actor in fatigues was, of course, King Henry preparing for battle and his orations included the well known "Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more"; and "This day is called the feast of Crispian"; and "The day is ours!". This performance brought thunderous applause and it was very well done. By the way, one of my doctor's - Bruce Menzies (correctly pr Mingies) - was the conductor.

Bruce came out for the final work wearing a pair of wings, as did quite a few of the cast! It was part of Benjamin Britten's opera "A Midsummer Night's Dream". I last saw the play in spectacular surroundings - in the open air on the banks of the St Lawrence in Montreal. The finale we heard this afternoon feature two school-boys singing the roles of Cobweb and Mustardseed. I don't know if they were embarrassed being dressed as fairies! They were joined by Puck, Oberon and Titania. Britten's score was not as striking for me as Williams' and William's.

It's great that we Armidalians have some many opportunities of this kind. And the local orchestra is always willing to do the unusual, this time the mix of opera, film score and concert piece, together with exciting and dramatic recitations of key passages from Henry V. The package was a great success.

AS

Awash

We have heard about heavy snowfalls in Britain and sympathise with those affected. But spare a thought for Australia's farmers. Some places have had a decade of dry conditions and even the worst on record. But 2010 was shaping up as one of the best years in last 35 with ample rainfall in the growing season. Now that is turning to disaster in some cropping regions as 2010 is now shaping as Australia's wettest year on record. In our part, we have to go back to 1917 to find a wetter season.

It's great news for Armidale because this district has little cropping and livestock are not in danger of drowning in flood-waters because of the hilly nature of the terrain. On the plains 200 km west of here, however, the water ponds up disastrously after very heavy rain and the land is so flat that flood events may take 3-4 months to reach the sea through the Murray-Darling system.

It might be surprising to those in Britain to find that our part of the driest continent makes much of your country look a bit like Saudi Arabia. Just south of here had about 120 mm of rain yesterday - that's nearly 5 inches. Armidale had getting on 50 mm over the same period and lots more is forecast today.  Over the month of November parts of the Northern Tablelands had over 200 mm, or c. 8 inches. The downside of all this is lack of warmth. My British readers would probably rejoice at temperatures in the low 20s, but that is something like 6 degrees below normal for the start of summer (officially the 1st December).

I guess we should head out to the gorge country and have a look at the massive waterfalls out there. For overseas readers, this region is about 50 x 50 km of dramatic scenery as water tumbles over the edge of the Tablelands into steep-sided valleys up to 300-400 mm deep.

AS

South America

Emily and Greg returned nearly a week ago from 6 weeks in South America. From all accounts the trip went brilliantly and the pictures they've brought back make me want to get on a plane immediately to visit the same spots. What are we doing sitting our boring homes leading humdrum lives when we could be out there enjoying spectcular experiences!!?

Don't believe me? Well go to the following web-site and see what I mean!

http://flickr.com/gp/93675103@N00/oW872p

Life's too short to sit around familiar cultural and visula landscapes. Let me know if you disagree.

AS