Fractal Blog

For our snorkelling tour yesterday we bought us a disposable underwater camera. An old-style film camera, would you believe, with actual film in it! So we had to wait until today to see the result. Not surprisingly, the first thing we saw was fish!

Lots of fish, in fact, in beautiful colours. The pictures are ok but don't do the experience justice. The fish aren't bothered by the human observers, and one went on audibly crunching coral while nearly touching our noses.

Fish photographed from just below the surface. The Accomplished Fin Operator gets the credit for shooting these, as I had sufficient trouble managing all my equipment (mask, snorkel, fins) without the added complexity of a camera. And I wasn't swimming slower with fins; I just took my time appreciating the scenery. Is my excuse, anyway.

Beautiful coral on display too, for the fish to munch on.

After the windsurfing was done it looked like it might be a nicer day than we had had to get used to recently. So we decided to go down to the local target shooting range by shuttle bus, the long way around the island. This is One Tree Hill, a local beauty spot where drinks are served at the pavillion at sunset. Normally, that is. Since there hadn't been any sun lately there wasn't any point. But the views are fantastic.

At the shooting range we started with handguns. I'd never even held one before. However, some of us have natural talent, or, as Experienced Shooters would have it, beginner's luck.

Don't I look like a pro?

This is the result after shooting a rifle for the first time. Bullseye!

On leaving the shooting range, an unusual sight greeted us: The sun had come out! For the first time since our arrival. It transformed the feel of the island. So this is what it is meant to look like. We promply repaired to the pool, arriving accidentally in the middle of Happy Hour, and had a cocktail each. Cocktails are meant to be had in sunshine.

This rainbow lorikeet decided he wanted his share of our breakfast this morning. It would not be dissuaded so we let it have a muffin.

It's been the time for getting close to almost-tame wildlife. These cockatoos congregated on our balcony yesterday evening as the people in the room next door were feeding them. Notwithstanding the notices to Keep wildlife wild! posted everywhere.

Assuming that yesterday's blog about chilli ice cream had an attentive (or possibly revolted) audience, this is what it looked like.

Despite the freezing cold weather they actually opened the beach today. The Resident Sports Obsessive promptly decided to try out windsurfing. Did quite well, too, even considering the baby sail.

There is a small zoo-like wildlife exhibition here. It offers Breakfast with Koalas. The idea was irresistible so we went there for breakfast today. Cuddling a koala was an option but on reflection I declined when the Resident Zoologist explained their hygiene habits. They do look cute though.

A Giant Crocodile, behind two fences, was also on display. It looked rather inactive, probably because they keep it well fed. An impressive array of teeth. The double fence meant photographs were out. So I shot a cassowary instead. It looks a bit like an enormous turkey. So far I'd only seen them on road signs.

These are poteroos, sort of like a cross between baby kangaroo and rat. They were very shy and tried to hide from the camera.

Cockatoos, too. Apparently they're as smart as the average two-year-old child. This one thought he was gorgeous.

Hamilton Island is 2,000 miles further north than Melbourne. The temperature should be in the low 20s. It's 10 degrees colder than it should be. Some guests haven't seen the sun in a week. And it's raining. But, look on the bright side, the scenery is gorgeous.

There are 20kms of walking trails here. Yesterday we climbed all the way up to the second-highest peak. This is why our leg muscles don't work today. The person who wrote the grading for the trails ought to be shown a dictionary to explain the meaning of moderate, challenging and steep. This one was graded moderate. I'd post a picture of steep but we didn't have any breath left to take photographs.

But the views were gorgeous.

Audacity, having finally reached Level 58, has had her first sortie into Outland. Populated with scary Level 61+ beasts. Still, neither she nor her Other Half Vehement, actually died in the process. However, we decided to maybe gain another couple of levels elsewhere before going back there.

It's been a horribly cold winter weekend, with grey skies and leaden clouds hanging low in the sky. So we spent a large part of the weekend playing World of Warcraft. Lately, Blizzard have started allowing enormous queues on our default realm, and are not responding appropriately to our furious complaints (after all, they get paid on a monthly subscription basis so they don't care if the queue to get in is 500+). So we started new characters on a different, less full realm. This is my new Blood Elf Warlock, called Impunity, on her very first ride on a bat.

Also, I beat Impunity's counterpart, a Blood Elf Rogue called Rapscallion, at pool in the pub tonight. All in all a successful day.

We awoke to thick fog this morning. It didn't clear all day. This is the top of our apartment block, seen from the ground. Or, more accurately, not seen from the ground.

Looking down from the apartment, the ground is almost invisible.

Today Australia celebrates the Queen's Birthday, or at any rate everybody gets a day off work. Despite the cold we had a look at a nearby wetlands reserve.

A duck with a blue beak. It was probably cold.

This picture was taken by my little camera. I pointed the fram at this group of ibises, hoping one of them would take off at some point. Eventually one of them did.

I tried for ages getting a recognisable shot of these tiny birds. They fly very quickly and not at all in a straight line, hence are hard to photograph. At some point I got lucky.

On the way back to the car, half-frozen, we spotted this hawk looking for a mouse or similar. It was hovering in the same spot for a long time, allowing for a photograph to be taken. A moody shot, with the cloud cover and just over the refinery burning methane.

It's winter, and Melbourne lets artists indulge their spring fantasies. These fake pink birds are evocative of spring despite the tree being in autumn mode. The winter sunshine made for a beautiful and colourful shot.

Today was a beautiful, cold, sunny winter day. What passes for winter here anyway; ~15 degrees. It was also uncharacteristically calm so I got some beautiful reflections. This is the view west from the northern bank of the Yarra.

The Eureka Tower reflected in the river.

And a (slightly photoshopped) picture of the full moon over the MCG.