Rai's Photo Album

27th August 2006: Taronga Zoo

Had a great day out at Taronga Zoo on Sunday, here are some of my favourite pictures.

As one of the most photographed cities in the world, I had to pictures of the most photographed landmarks... starting with the Harbour Bridge...

and the Opera House...

and a long distance shot....

...or two...

You forget as you walk around the zoo that it is so close to the heart of the city, until you have moments like this, trying to get a shot of a giraffe... I got other pictures just of the Giraffes (what is the plural of Giraffe?)... but like this setting at that the Giraffe is looking straight at me...

there were bears...

and snow leoapards...

and lots and lots of native Australian animals... Kangaroos

and Koala's - which were by far my favourites... these two were about to face off for the best position on the tree!

this little one won the battle... and then agreed to have his portrait taken...

while away in another part of the park a mother takes care of her joey...

it's such a great day out, there are so many more pictures (many blurred unfortunately, camera shake effects at 12x zoom are really magnified!)...

I hope you enjoyed these as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Pictures from Wollongong

I missed the picture I really wanted, P was driving and I couldn't get the camera out of my bag in time...

The image was really powerful.  If you are ever stood near the lighthouses pictured below and looked south along the coastline you will see a beautiful long stretch of sandy beach.  It looks like a perfect beach.  Until you look up...  At the other end of the beach is a steelworks factory.  Very industrial looking blot on the landscape, belching out thick smoke.  such a shame to see, but as A said - if it weren't for the steelworks then the gong would not be the business centre it is, as we wouldn't have the jobs we do.

anyway... here are the pictures I was able to get...

This is me and A at the little harbour (for those who don't know me - I am in the M&Ms T-Shirt).

The lighthouses from my hotel window

the lighthouses again, but with the full zoom on... (love this camera!)

the harbour again...

Got out today with the camera...

The rain let up a little today and I got out to take a few shots before it started raining again.

I wanted to catch the light on the water through the trees on the bay, catch the essence of the moving water... got the light, not so sure about the water moving...

One for the friends and family back home - I said Sydney Olympic Park was pretty close didn't I?

The weather has been a little changeable of late...

and Finally... this was my favourite picture from today...

Coming soon to a blog near you... Las Vegas February 2004

I have to download the pics from my Mac first, then I can edit and post here... watch this space.  There's loads of other pictures on the mac too - in fact I think the Portugal photo's are there as well.  If I can I will exchange the low-res photo's for the proper ones at the same time.

Thanks for your comments Aries67.   I must admit that I have been extraordinarily lucky to have travelled as much as I have.  I hope I don't bore people with all the pics  :-)

Bessie

I don't have many pictures of Bessie, but here are my favourites...

She's a Collie x Springer Spaniel.  She has curly hair, and the curliest tail for a dog I've ever seen, and she has really long thick eyelashes.

I miss her very much.

We took this one at Christmas 2005, with her Christmas present  (and my Dad)

I've just realised that it looks like she's winking.  She's clever, but not that much!

When we got Bessie as a puppy we also had 2 Yorkshire Terriers, which are small lap dogs.  Bess herself was tiny, and she learned from Molly and Ben that it was OK for her to sit on us... she's never grown out of that, and no amount of telling her now that she is too big seems to work.

She loves to sit on the sofa between me and Mum and lean against one of us, and when she wants to get affectionate, she'll bury her face in your neck.

Yeah, I miss her a lot.

K and T's Big Day - July 2005

This was my sisters big day from last year.  

They say Brides are always gorgeous on their wedding days... it's true.

If only it weren't for the sign on the lampost behind her... Sorry K!!!!

Three generations of my family, as my Dad prepares to take K into the registry office.

My Dad, K and my niece and nephew

I think this is the best picture that the photographer took that day.  Totally unplanned, and timed perfectly.

Doesn't she look like an Angel?

The keyword here is look, the rose she's holding is from the Bridesmaids bouquet that she started to pull apart almost as soon as it was given to her.

The happy couple.  I have this photo on proud display in my unit.

Portugal 2003

Way back in 2003, which seems 10 lifetimes ago, not 3 years... I went on a singles holiday.   I've been on great singles holidays before, but this wasn't one of them.  Portugal is just lovely, sadly my travelling companions on the whole weren't...

These were taken in the days before my digital camera and they've had to be downloaded from another webpage not from a CD.  Anyway...

This is the town where Rai went....

This is the hill that Rai climbed, in the town where Rai went...

The Villa Laranja do Sul.  Something about Oranges I think... which was strange as there were no Orange trees.  We had a lemon tree though, which contributed a great many lemons to a larger number of cocktails.  All in a good cause!

Have you ever seen Dolphins dance?  It's both wonderful and sad to see such beautiful animals perform.  I've seen a fair few dolphins, and even swum with them in Mexico, but they've all been in captivity.  One day I'd like to see wild dolphins... and to swim with them would be amazing.

I've got more pictures of the dolphin show, but sadly the guy in the flat cap in front of me kept standing up to take his pictures every time I clicked the shutter...

Probably one of the highlights of the trip was going to Lisbon for a day.

Like many European cities Lisbon is just crammed full of beautiful buildings.

This building I think is more recent than the church... it's been so long I can barely remember, but I previously called this picture "The Fortress".  The River is stands on was a highly contested area and the Fortress was built to protect against invaders, as most are...

And then if you turn and face left of this picture with your back to the fortress you can see the Monument of the Discoveries...  the distance between these two buildings is much greater than it appears.  We took the coach from one to the other, and this is as close to the Monument as we could get with our coach. 

You can just make out at the top some small specs of black.  Do not adjust your screens, it is working normally.  Those dots are people.  Which just shows how big this Monument is.

A little more detail, a little bit closer.  Of course we are still a few minutes walk away, and the statues are far larger than life size.  They are all Portugese explorers, with Christopher Columbus at the front (at least I think it was Christopher Columbus).

This is from the rear of the Monument.  You can just make out a giant cross carved into the structure.  And you can see again the black spots at the top of the structure... people.

The people in the foreground are stood on this:

If I remember right it has marked on it all the places that Portugese explorers went to and the boats that they sailed in. 

Maybe if someone sees this and knows differently they could point it out?

More South Africa Photos

Here are some more of my photos from South Africa... I won't post anymore, I took about 300 photos, but won't bore you with them all...  I think these will probably be the only one's I will post on the net.

In short I had the most amazing time in Cape Town.  I thoroughly recommend it, it's now one of my most favourite places on the planet, and I've seen a few sights over the years.

First weekend I was there we went to Gansbaai, this is where the whales can be see from the shore, apparently they come really close to the shoreline.  One day I am going to go back at the right time of year to see them.

Meet my great friend Pip

This is me and Pip (I am the one with the red skin)

Pip and Rob in Rob's parents' back yard

The two buildings on the mountain (one at the top, one further down) are the Cableway buildings.  I hope to get in a day at the top of the mountain when I go back at Christmas.

One day I spent on a Game Reserve, and we did a Game Drive (Safari).  This guy really is the Daddy... and is not yet full grown.  He started to walk towards us, but then changed his mind... thankfully!

In another area of the park - 3 Lion Cubs visible trying to hide in the shade.  It was 40 degrees that day.  Bad enough without a fur coat!

In the afternoon heat it's possible to go into the Cheetah enclosure and pet them.  Their fur looks so soft, but is really wiry and rough to the touch.  Although they look asleep they were quite alert.  We weren't allowed to take in bags or sunglasses, as the cheetahs don't like either... that, or they like to play rough

a few days later I did a tour of Cape Point, taking in...

...Hout Bay...

... Chapman's Peak Drive...

it confused the Guide and us to hear that Gravity is holding up the later part of the tunnel!

... Cape Point National Park and the Lighthouse...

Cape Town and surrounding areas were having problems with power supply, so when we got there the cable car wasn't working.  It was about 40 degrees again, so I decided not to walk to the top!  Maybe next time....

... Cape Point has it's own native resident Baboons, spot two of them here.  They like the tourists, and thanks to tourist generosity in the past the Baboons think that they can help themselves to your dinner.  When they get chased away they often climb the rocks waiting for another opportunity to steal food.

Apparently in Baboon culture the subservient baboons give food to the alpha leaders and so when humans have fed the baboons in the past they have come to believe that we are subservient to them... so they are not afraid to approach humans and steal food, or even get into your car if the windows are open.  They can also be quite violent if you try to stop them...

Cape of Good Hope - Most south westerly point on the African Continent.  A few minutes before this sign was crowded with dozens of people... wait a few minutes and it's so quiet and peaceful, and I got the sign and the backdrop virtually to myself.

then onto Simonstown, and Boulders Beach.  The smell was a bit toxic, but otherwise cuteness abounds.... mostly the (hundreds of) penguins were lazing in the sun, but a few were interested in us, and some took a dip... Penguins get all the best beaches!

A few days later and it's almost time for me to leave.  But first a trip to Robben Island. 

I can't think of many natural phenonmenon that are so instantly recognisable... maybe the Grand Canyon, Great Barrier Reef and this......

and to top it off.... me and the Mountain.

One of the last pics I took on Robben Island was the first Free Parliament locations!!  Seriously this is the limestone quarry where the political prisoners on the Island were forced to work.  The guide told us that this place is the reason that so many of the black politicians in South Africa wore glasses...  Years of staring at the quarry walls up close...

The cave is where the prisoners would go to the toilet, eat and the only safe place to discuss politics... and what they would do when they were free

This is one of the most emotive places I've ever been fortunate enough to visit.  I'm only sorry that my words can't really convey the feelings that this place brings forth.

Wai-o-Tapu (Sacred Waters) photos - 11-JUN-06

These are a couple of the many pictures taken when I went to Wai-o-Tapu near Rotorua, New Zealand.  Here is the website for the park: http://www.geyserland.co.nz/

"Artist's Palette"

My friend's lovely daughter Tori overlooking "Devil's Bath"

The colour doesn't really show well here, it is the most vibrant lime green I've ever seen, I remember it being much brighter than in this picture.

My Photo Album

I decided today that after figuring out how to resize my pics (Thanks Antony), and how they attach to the blog (D'Oh so easy!!!) that I wanted to post my pics here instead of on fotango site. 

They never appear very large there and so much detail is not visible... so this is the place I will be posting my pics from now on.

so keep them eyes peeled for updates......

I hope also to be able to find a picture of me that I can use for my avatar - rather than the clip art I have at the moment...