Trucks, hot rods, waterfalls and moments of fame

Sunday was the annual Truck and Hot Rod Show, which started with the traditional fog covering the town. I sat inside my warm lounge room wondering whether to tempt fate and venture out into the hordes of Bundaberg Rum drinking truck-heads. Eventually, I sort of rugged up and headed out the front door and soon I was amongst it: big trucks, small trucks, red trucks, blue trucks, old trucks, new trucks, and a steady stream of country and western music. 

I’m not sure how many truck shows there have been, but they keep getting bigger – more people, more checked flannelette. And generally cold with rain as an optional extra. I took my new camera – an Olympus TG-280 – a nice small, point and shoot type with the added bonus of being waterproof and shockproof, suitable for surfing and climbing and truck shows. Sadly, I am not all that inspired by painted duco.

The next day was warm and sunny, the sort of weather that the truck show organisers would love but seldom get. It was quiet in town; it seems people only come for the day and not many hang around for the Monday Queen’s Birthday holiday. (It isn’t even her birthday – Queen Liz was born in April – the holiday is traditionally around June to allow for nice weather – in England! In Australia, we celebrate in June, when it is cold, except in Western Australia, where it is in September, or maybe October.) I decided to make the most of what might be the last of the nice weather and do a short walk somewhere. My first thought was the Cathedral Range, because it is nice and local, but in the end I headed further south to Marysville to see the redeveloped Stevenson Falls.

The falls area was very heavily burnt in the 2009 Black Saturday fires. I had only been there once since then, shortly after the fire. The area was very black; a mess.  A lot of work has now been done repairing and reshaping the carpark, walking tracks and so on. First stop was to the top of the falls, a shortish walk to a small platform with views down the river valley. Trees and scrub were sprouting throughout the forest of dead trunks. In one or two spots, the regrowth was lacking a bit, probably from landslips. Back at the bottom of the falls, I took a few pictures, wandered over to the other side of the river for a couple more shots. There were lots of tourists around, with a number of accents and languages being spoken.

I set up my camera for a long exposure shot. My wife wandered away, a bit embarrassed to be seen with the guy mucking around with cameras and lenses and tripods, so I rushed a couple of shots and we headed back into Marysville for a coffee.

Looking through the pics later I found one or two that I thought were okay and loaded them onto my Flickr page (you can have a look at my Flickr page via the link at the side).

A few nights later, I’m watching the ABC news on the television. The weather section comes on. Each night they choose a photo from their Flickr group as a background to the weather report and they had chosen my photo of the falls.  My phone buzzes a minute later, and then again, and again. Thirty-six seconds of my fifteen minutes of fame has now been spent.

A week or so later I made it to the Cathedrals, hiking up Ten Fathom Ridge from Neds Gully to take a few photos. At the top I basked in the sunshine and took in the wonderful view of the fog-laden valley that is home. The birdsong was amazing. I could hear cockatoos, kookaburras, magpies and lots of others, all coming from a single lyrebird somewhere in the bush. I came across two or three in the short walk I did, all in top voice. Sadly I couldn’t get close enough to get a good photo but I managed a recording using the camera’s video function. The file is too big to post but here is a link to the recording on my Soundcloud page.

LYREBIRD NOISES