Rising Moon

This photo was taken from the window in our 'top' kitchen, to the East as the moon rose above the Adelaide Plain to the North. I find the lunar mountain ranges along the 'day line' very evocative to my imagination. This shot was taken 12x zoom and slightly enhanced through 'contrast'. It's taken through the mesh of a flyscreen.
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Diver

Yes, the pool's being used!

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Introducing Adelaide's Botanic Gardens

The above photo of Botanic Brook (click here to see it) was taken during a recent stroll through the Adelaide Botanic Gardens, about five minutes walk from the town centre. My bus goes by it every day. I used to come here very often, knew it back to front. It's being slowly commercialised (like all good things seem to be these days), but still contains many beautiful sights. The Botanic Brook, flowing through the centre of the park and feeding several water features, is itself a key feature.

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The following photo was almost an accident, as I was zooming into the creek as the shot exposed. There's a still point roughly in the centre...

Memorial Fountain

The 'Botanic Brook' enters the gardens from the Parklands, and immediately collects in a large dammed (?) pond, complete with fountain. Viewed from elsewhere, the fountain is part of a remembrance architecture (there's an arch as well) to commemorate Australian and American friendship during WWII. It always amuses me to see Japanese tourists standing there for photos, not knowing what it is that they use for a backdrop.

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I fooled around with shutter speed a bit, the next photo looks pretty textured at full resolution...

Elf Tree

When I was a teenager we called this tree the 'Elf Tree', we were pretty much into Lord of the Rings and AD&D! I still think the name appropriate, albeit for different reasons.

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Between the Fountain and Mallee sections, the Elf Tree provides shade from sun, shelter from rain, and somewhere just to climb upto and watch the world go by...

Elf Tree Portrait

This is a 3 shot vertical 'panorama'.

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On the Track

This is a five shot panorama, with the additional feature of me sitting on a log next to the trail through the temperate forest. Thanks to the Panasonic's 10 second delay feature!

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Once you get to know the Botanic Gardens well, there's a site for every occasion. Even on a very busy Sunday, when the car park was full and the main paths crowded, I was still able to find peace in the Temperate forest section.

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There are always pleasant little surprises, if you keep your eyes open...

And there's always a bench to suit if you're feeling weary, with a choice of shade or sun. These are in the 'Classground', dedicated to the monastic dutch pioneer of the science of hereditary, Linneas...

Growing alongside the brook with which I introduced this series of posts lies this grove of swamp oaks (tucked in behind the more famous lotus pond). There's some lovely seating in this spot, if you don't mind sitting at the tree's feet. I read many of my University tutorial readings here...

Dusky Moorhen

A fairly common sight down the Torrens are the Dusky Moorhens. I often see them vanishing from my path ahead, they are pretty skittish. This one allowed me to get a half decent photo before making off to distant reed beds.

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Morialta Conservation Park Hike - 5 Sept2006

Late in the morning during my recent holidays I went for a hike in the Morialta Conservation Park. It lies about 10km from home. Over the years I've had a few hikes in this park, and like it so much I used to occasionally ride my bike from the seaside at West Beach just to walk in the park!

This time, I parked the car in the free public car park (to your left as you first enter (just to the free side of the recently added pay-as-you-go boom gates)). Then, rather than take the typical walk to the old kiosk carpark further up the Morialta Gorge, I crossed the access road and went up one of my favorite and lesser known tracks - Hogan's Track. It just keeps going up for the first half a kilometre.

... This is a view back down the track, about half way to where it levels off as you get closer to Pretty Corner.

View of Torrens Island

Once you've climbed above the steep section of Hogan's Track you get some pretty good views across the North and West of the Adelaide metropolis you thought you'd left behind. It's a multimedia presentation you partake of, as you stroll through the wooded uplands, because when you've got a line of sight you also have a line of sound - you hear the hum of the city when you see it. Then, when you lose the view as the path turns, you are returned to silence, bushbirds and the wind in the trees. Fantastic.

Here's one aspect of the view, Torrens Island. The two chimney stacks are where Adelaide's main (coal fired) power station is. This photo is from maybe 25 km, at pretty full zoom.

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Pretty Corner View

This is the view from Pretty Corner, where Hogan's Trail meets up with a gentler trail which leads to Second Falls. IF you look carefully you can see the straight lines of the wooden bridge crossing Morialta Falls at the top of Second Falls in the middle bottom of the photo.

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This is a bit of a zoom, showing the course of the George above Second Falls in somewhat greater detail...

Chasm

The opposite (Northernish) side of the Gorge is rent with numerous valleys and canyons, with trails on the upper slopes. Here's the head of one of the more spectacular canyons (sadly the light wasn't right to show it to its true majesty).

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Deepview Lookout

This picture was taken from just a little further along the track from Pretty Corner. You can see the 'high trail' on the other side of the gorge, which eventually meets up with the trail I was on at Second Falls. The stairs going down from the main trail to the cliff face lead to Deepview Lookout.

... One morning my wife and I were on this rocky platform. It was the coldest day Adelaide had had since temperatures were recorded (max = 6' C (?)). We had climbed through a layer of fog to get there, from where normally you can see the city and sea to the West. We then watched the icy cloud band undulate, alternatively above and below us. Spectacular. But it's always spectacular.

Kangaroo Tail

What initially drew my attention to this scene was the play of light and dark on the hills across the Gorge. But it's not a bad photo of a Kangaroo Tail flower either (albeit a bit dark).

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Rockman

Down the track from Pretty Corner, along a detour which somehow I found myself on, I saw this impressive rock formation (of which there are many in Morialta Park). Looking at them, it shouldn't be a surprise to recognise that the area was of deep significance to the original inhabitants of the land. The blue sky is perhaps the closest of all my Morialta photos to the true colour that day.

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Detail ...

Eagle Lookout

Descending on my little path I eventually joined a larger trail, connecting the old kiosk carpark with the Second Falls, winding around the valley beneath the peaks. The trail cut across the tops of many smaller ridgelines, upon the most prominent of which is located a (posted) lookout. From my perspective, having descended towards this point rather than ascended (as most viewers would), I wasn't as impressed with the view as I might otherwise have been. But the lookout itself mades an interesting subject for a photo.

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You can see here why they call it the 'Eagle Lookout'.

Cliff Climbers

This is another view of the same stark rockface I'd earlier seen in the distance from Pretty Corner. As I descended the trail I could make out a couple of climbers at the foot of these cliffs.

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The rocks of Morialta act as a magnet to Adelaide's climbing community. They claim a life every year or two. Here's a bit of a zoom.

For interest sake, they were climbing at a site not too far down stream from where I eventually reached prior to turning around and returning home (just beneath Third Falls).

Descent to Second Falls

Continuing my descent along the trail past Eagle Lookout I found the view alternating between burnt out swamp oak groves and open expanses into the valley. Where there was sun, I could usually see at least one venerable Kangaroo Tail, sometimes in precarious positions.

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Almost before I realised, the trail descended to the top of Second Falls. This was the view looking almost straight down off of the wooden bridge which crosses the creek at that point.

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Upstream

Moving past the second falls I walked steadily up the path towards the Third Falls, and the limit of the park. There had been recent rockslides, so there was a warning sign to evade and less other travellers. Idyllic. This was the view upstream from where I had lunch in the sun on a warm rock in the streambed.

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Sadly, I caught the scent of woodsmoke and decided that I'd rather not be caught in such an isolated location should the first bushfire of the season decide to burn up this particular valley. So I turned around before reaching the final falls and retraced my steps. I couldn't help but stop and take a shot of some of the rockpools in the late afternoon light.

Smoke in the Valley

Ever since turning around at the first scent of woodsmoke I'd been steadily walking down the opposite side of the valley to that which I had arrived on. It was nice, being in the sun, but occasionally the setting sun before me and the white woodsmoke of what turned out to be a Country Fire Service burn-off in the next valley, it was hard to see at times.

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First Falls (Exit Morialta)

Having walked widdershins around a loop of trails within Morialta, I passed above the First Falls shortly before my final descent to carpark and road.

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Skink

While sitting on a rock near the Torrens recently, this guy came and joined me.

... The lighting is natural.

This was the scene for my meeting with the skinks. I sat on a rock near some Torrens stepping stones and was nice and quiet.

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Before too long I could see a skink admiring the river view...

And another sun baking on a favorite rock.

Skinks can be quite amorous!

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...preferably after a bit of rough foreplay...

Bee Swarm

This is a closeup of a swarm I recently passed on one of my Torrens walks. It was in the evening, so they weren't too active and allowed me to get within a few feet. When I went back the following day at midday, most of them were swarming in the air, quite aggressive and unphotogenic.

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To see a brief video of the swarm, click here (it may take awhile to download without broadband).

Here's the above swarm on location, alongside a path near the Torrens just upstream of the O-bahn overpass by Stevens Terrace.

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Duck Families

These three pictures are of native duck families along the Torrens. The colours are true to life.

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To see a video of two duck families in the sun, click here (may take awhile unless you use broadband).