Festival of the Solstice..earth, water, wind & fire.....

I took these shots during the huge bush fires southwest of Perth in February 2012. Started by a lightning strike Perth felt the residue of nature's fury as the flames roared through thousands of hectares of bushland destroying everything in its path. With no hope at all of any rain the fight was left in the hands of the many brave firemen who worked day and night to put out the flames.  Five minutes away from me on the beach, the sun going down a fiery red, the sea breeze enticing the smoke up along the coast, the waves crashed onto the beach unaware! Looking down the coast below it's almost impossible to see the houses on the hill behind the point, it made me smile that despite everything the youngsters here were having fab fun in the surf. I sometimes wonder if disasters like this are Mother Nature's way of reprimanding us for our negligent treatment of our environment..c'est possible oui! Enjoy more Festival of the Solstice images here. Happy Wednesday, take care.....

Monster waves and Megamouths.........

Another shot of the ceiling design of the Maritime Museum in Fremantle, this time from the upper viewing level showing the tips of the sails rising to reach their counterpart above. Like the Australia ll, the adventures of Jon Sanders aboard the Parry Endeavour are probably the better known of the exhibits here in the museum. Setting off in 1986 he was the first person to circumnavigate the world three times in just under 2 years, not stepping on dry land for 658 days. Wonder how long it took him to get his 'land legs' back in working order after that :)

The two shots above were taken left from the above level and right from ground level, the explanation for the extreme angle is this... 'It was 3am on 20 Nov 1987, Parry Endeavour is approaching Cape Horn for the third and last time. A storm is building and Jon Sanders must go up on deck to slow the yacht down. He hoists his smallest sail, the storm jib and puts out a sea brake to control the speed of the yacht. While on the foredeck he looks aft and sees a wall of water towering behind Parry Endeavour. He clings to the mast as the freezing water smashes over him!' Dear lord please let me never see a wave like that coming at me :)

 ...and just when you think it can't get any worse, you discover there are these creatures swimming around under the sea! Never fear (?) the Megamouth shark is very rare and a vegetarian, although just the sight of it may cause an 'untoward' reaction :) From whaleboats to pearl luggers these are just a few of the many fascinating sailing vessels in the museum, it took a while but I'm well pleased that we have been in and explored this truly excellent venue. Hope your week has started well, take care...

'the Greek guy who helped me out'.....!

The first thing that strikes you when you walk into the Maritime Museum in Fremantle is the design. From the fabulous ceiling to the three tiered viewing levels. Architects Cox Howlett & Bailey Woodland (excellent link alert!) 'in their own words' describe the ethos of the museum so much better than I ever could. Home to Alan Bond's Australia ll winner of the 1983 America's Cup yacht race, I remember the dispute re the design of the infamous 'winged keel' and enjoyed the story that when Ben Lexcen was accused of stealing the design he countered with "I have in mind to admit it all to the New York Yacht Club that I really owe the secret of the design to a Greek guy who helped me out and was invaluable. He's been dead for 2000 years, bloody Archimedes". Laconic Aussie humour :)

That's it below, the controversial keel that had the yacht world reeling, personally I don't know what all the fuss was about, but then again I wouldn't know my keel from my boom haha! Just a few more bits and pieces to show you from the museum before I move on, hope that you're not getting too 'nauticaled out'! The weekend zipped by much too fast for my liking, how was yours? Happy Monday, take care.....

Maritime Reflections .....

I'm a little embarrassed to say that despite many visits to Fremantle over the years, we've never ventured inside the WA Maritime Museum, that is until Friday, it's seriously fantastic inside and out. I thought I'd start with the outside and head indoors tomorrow, and yes the sky really was that blue, there were no 'touch ups' at all. Below, the steps leading to the upper level viewing area, in the shot to the right you can see how the museum is situated on the tip of Victoria Quay, designed to look straight out to the entrance of the harbor with the two lighthouses on each mole.....

The museum opened in December 2002 and in 2003 won the 'best new tourism venue', you'll see why when you visit :) Even though the rounded structure of the museum isn't anything like the more spiky outline of the Sydney Opera House, the white against the blue, blue sky and water always makes me think about it..... 

Sitting on a slipway built to service submarines during WW2 gifted to the museum in 1998 is HMAS Ovens (if you scroll right down you'll see her sitting here in her new home), one of over 160 submarines served from Fremantle, making this port the biggest allied submarine base outside Pearl Harbor, did you know that? I didn't! You can have a guided tour inside the sub but due to my claustrophobic tendencies that wasn't an option:) Do you find that since you started blogging you've discovered so much more about the city you live in than ever before? Hope you're having a good weekend, wee bit chilly here in Perth, take care.....have a look here for more Weekend Reflections.....

One hundred and ten years on......

Oh how I wish I'd taken this shot before last month's theme day :) Below, the Green Lighthouse on South Mole and if you look closely in the distance you'll see the red lighthouse on North Mole. If you scroll down on the link you'll see what the harbour entrance looked like in 1903 when the lighthouses were first built, interesting to see that the basic structure hasn't changed much. The buildings by the lighthouse are the remains of an observation post used during the war.. anti submarine nets were lowered by steel cables to let ships into the harbour and then winched up again, hard to imagine what it must have been like in those times. Hope that you're all set for a wonderful weekend, I'm hoping for a quiet one, catch up today. Take care and stay safe.....

BR, before ROA ...!

The original graffiti artist. The Great Southern Roller Flour Mill built in 1922, heritage listed in 2008 is more often than not referred to as the Dingo Flour Mill, a familiar sight to regular visitors driving along the coast road into North Fremantle the four storey high sign comes with a wee bit of history. Rumored to have been painted by Alan Bond, a signwriter pre 'tycoon' days, it was actually painted in 1940 by artist Les Nash who according to wiki was a British racing driver, hmm! sounds a bit iffy to me :)  The sign was painted over during WW2 (a target?) leaving just the faintest outline and later repainted, the whole mill was restored beautifully in 2010 with the dingo now getting a fresh coat of paint monthly, seems a tad excessive, but I guess it does get the brunt of a full salty sea breeze! Happy end of the week, take care..p.s. so ROA wasn't the first to paint oversized wild animals on buildings...interesting oui! 

Mechanical giraffes.....!

Where there's two there's usually a herd grazing nearby n'est pas? We went down to Fremantle for lunch yesterday so it's possible that a 'nautically' themed week may lie ahead :) Fremantle Harbour is the busiest port in WA and these 'giraffes' were poised and waiting to unload the many sea containers that come into port every day. Even though there was a long line of ships waiting in Gage Roads there was only one ship actually in port..haven't heard about any strike action so I'm not sure why that was. Btw the weather forecast for yesterday was rain with the chance of storms...I rest my case, the weather is definitely being 'outsourced' :) Happy Thursday, take care.....p.s. isn't that a great spot to sit and read in the bottom shot!