Last Wednesday night was the annual Advocate newspaper reader snapshot calendar awards night thingy. My little mate Leena landed Miss December, so we wandered on up to the North of the state to partake in some wine drinking and frock wearing. Yeah ok, we didn’t do the frock thing. Jeans and boots and making sure I got the right coloured beanie to bring out the colours in my un ironed flanellete… All class, all class.
Of course we took the opportunity for an adventure, although the weather really had a different idea. It was kind of awful. Not awful in a good way, as I generally prefer the awful type weather. It was that really freaking annoying drizzle that is just heavy enough to leave spots on your lens, but not really heavy enough to actually get wet. One of my windscreen wipers needs replacing too, so there was that awful screeching all the way, you know the one, where it isn’t wet enough for the wipers to be on the slowest they can go and not light enough for them to not be on at all but just flick them occasionally… Rod fixed one a while back, but never got around to doing the other. So the driving chorus went “more friggin rain… screeeeeech…. friggin Rodney!… bloody windscreen wiper”
I tend to like to drive to a destination a different way each time. Of course you need to repeat routes at some point, but as long as up and back are different I am happy with that. I decided we would go the Central Highlands way toward Burnie, up through Tarraleah and Bronte Park, coming out at Miena. I mustn’t have driven that way before because I didn’t realise that it was all dirt roads. My little Hyundai did a pretty good job, probably wasn’t the best on its joints, but hey, the sooner it dies, the sooner I have an excuse to get a tougher car that can bounce better. Once we hit Miena they were doing some road spraying with water and grading or something… Now, I am a pretty good driver, I don’t speed, as in ever, in fact I have been accused of driving at 0km’s an hour, and that’s ok. However… I haven’t driven on mud before, and even at 10km’s an hour I was a little unsure on the sliding. Leena thought this was hilarious, as I was sliding about thinking I was about to die (at 10km’s an hour). She took a photo…
We came through ok, all was well, I didn’t stall going that slow and we didn’t die. And Leena will forever be laughing at my ability to drive over slippery mud…
We pretty much never stopped at all. I think we were just happy driving along, talking about life the universe and everything, how difficult being a parent can be, and how there was so much they missed out in the pre natal classes. Like how to deal with school yard dramas and how to make 5 year olds eat something other than cheese and mayonnaise sandwiches and the weekly Sunday Taco dinner…
I had to stop at the Pine Lake walk though, last time I was there a few months ago I saw the cushion plants and wanted to have a look and see if they were flowering. They weren’t, I took a few photos, but they were shite, I seem to become photographically challenged when I have a cushion plant in front of me. Good excuse to go back up looking for more I guess.
The next leg to Burnie was pretty non eventful. I think we consumed two blocks of chocolate, 8 cans of V and a bag of salt and vinegar chips whilst I stated how awesome all the trees are and how I want to live ‘here’. Mind you, I really do want to live in that little house on the bend, which was actually for sale. I think it is just before Deloraine somewhere. I want to live there each time I drive past it, but then I want to live everywhere I drive past. I also want to live in a Gypsy caravan and drive around and live everywhere too. Like Chris, a fellow fungler, she has the greatest Gypsy caravan.
Finally we hit Burnie, in the rain, and checked into our accommodation at the Chatty residence. It was really awesome of Brett and Yvette to put us up for the night and make sure we had an idea of where we were going. Hugely muchly appreciated. We also had an awesome breakfast the next morning at Palate, in Burnie. Like, seriously awesome, best breakfast ever.
If you are up that way, make sure you drop into Hellyer Distillery and check out the photos they have displayed up there at the moment. They are all the finalists of the Advocates reader snapshot comp, and there are some awesome shots there. I had my favourites, but they were all totally deserving. But you know, by far my favourite, without a shadow of a doubt was Eden Forwards who landed October. She is nine years old and took it on an iPhone 5, and it was really fantastic. Not just because she is nine, but it is a really great shot of a woman (I’m guessing her mum) standing on a beach watching the sunset. Beautiful colours and just really gorgeous.
I’ll take this opportunity to show you Miss Decembers shot, taken at Lake Burbury on our way back from our last adventure to Cradle Mountain a month or two ago.
I always find it interesting to hear or read about the back stories to peoples photography. Nine times out of ten there is some beautiful story about the emotions of reminiscing on childhood, or the serenity it invokes in your soul, etc… So let me tell you about the story behind this photo… We had been driving driving driving, down windy roads after a long exhausting previous day and night running around Cradle Mountain taking photos and playing in snow. Our travelling companion, Steve, was driving and was in desperate need of a poo. Yes, we have open and frank conversations about poo. Much to Leenas disgust. How does the saying go “Good friends talk about sex, best friends talk about poop”. Anyway, we hit Lake Burbury and we thought we stop in and see if we could find a toilet to help relieve Steve of the uncomfortable state we was in. Whilst he was off looking for a toilet we hung around the lake and took some photos. Here is one I took of Leena taking this… So there is the story behind the December photo in the Advocate calendar. A heartwarming story of three friends on a road trip, looking for a toilet so one of them could poop.
Burnie is pretty cool though, we went and looked at little penguins, drive around looking for more toilets, got rained on, decided at 9pm we would drive to Stanley and go to the pub to see Leenas boy who is out there fishing. Stayed for a quick drink and a wonderfully entertaining chat with him and his mate and then drove home again. For my old Melbourne friends – Stanley pub is like a fisherman version of the Birmy, I could have sat there all night.
Next morning we headed out to Guide Falls with our Burnie buddies Brett and Sherpa, got rained on, had a little break in the rain then pretty much just drove back to Hobart… In the rain.
Unfortunately I missed the greatest display of falling in the creek by Leena. I saw it with my eyes, but not my video. I videoed Sherpa walking across the rocks about 5 minutes earlier because I was convinced he would fall in, alas he disappointed me. Leena however… straight on her arse, and then back on it again trying to get up. Of course I rushed to help, got her camera and pulled it out of the bag to check it wasn’t wet, I left her in there though. She was already saturated, couldn’t get any more so. Friends make sure friends cameras are ok before they help friends… Remember that next time you are anywhere with me and I fall in a creek. Camera first.
Not much else really. It was kind of a disastrous trip, but not. The weather was total shite and we didn’t do much photo taking, although it was still fun. It was kind of nice to not have that pressure of good photography weather where you see something cool and then want to rush to get the shot before the clouds move or the light does something different. Or just simply having a good day where you know you only have time to go to one location but can’t make a decision which one. So we just drove and ate crap and drank V and abused tailgaters. Not that they could hear me, but it has to be done. I’ve probably missed bits out, but that was the general idea.
I shall end with the best ever photographing face…
