Skye

Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing

Onward the sailors cry

Carry the lad that was born to be king

O’er the see to Skye.

So goes the first verse of the Skye boat song and Skye is inextricably linked to the Bonnie Prince Charlie legend.

Skye is an island of deep fojds and sounds, rugged mountains and quaint villages.

Faery pools

When leaving Stirling I met a Spanish couple on a BMW. Who had said the beauty of Skye bought a tear to their eye.

View of Portree

And it is hard to disagree.

The vistas on each turn of the road surpassing the previous.

And the Scottish weather continued to smile.

A Renewal

P4121230e — Queen Mary Fall, Border Ranges, Qld Australia

Storm

Rain

Flood

Then from the destruction and devastation

Renewal

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — View from Carrs Lookout

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Border Ranges

The water in the rivers and waterfalls flow

The land brown and bare only weeks previous now an emerald green

The birdlife active

In the trees

and on the ground

The power of nature’s regeneration

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Boys Big Bike Bash in Tassie

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — big boys on a dirt road at Poatina

It was a boys big bike bash

looping Tassie like it was a race track

Roaring bikes

From the cold damp west coast

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Misty wet Queenstown

settled in the heart of the wild west coast

windy roads in the mountains

constant dam filling drizzle and rain

looping across to the east coast

St Helens Tasmania

St Helens Tasmania

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The beautiful fishing harbour of St Helens at dawn

Fresh fish washed down by local beer and wine

The mountains

Elephant Pass and St Mary’s Pass clinging to the side of the mountains range.

From the coast climbing the past Poatina

Up onto the high plains

Winding through Bothwell

The home of the worlds best merino wool

and the high plains lakes

P2261180 — Great Lake at Miena

The nature was not the only thing of beauty

In Hobart there we visited a magnificent collection of classic bikes

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Perfect for a Boys big bike bash

Melbourne can be a little different

As the rest of Australia Swelters

In Melbourne has a top to day of 19c

As the Lunar New Year Celebrations draw to the end

There was Chinese dancing at Victoria Market

chines-ny2 chinese-ny-1

With traditional music and movement

Then in a change of pace the music for the chicken dance came from the speaker.

Not very Chinese I think

As kids got up to dance to a familiar tune.

chinese-ny3 — Doing the Chicken Dance

But, of course, this is the Year of the Rooster

So why not use a European Drinking song which has chicken in the title!

Only in Multicultural Melbourne

Where cultures and traditions blend happily.

Tassie (Tasmania)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Looking past Wineglass Bay to Schouten Passage in the Freycinet Peninsula

I’ve looked at Tassie from both sides now

from in and out

and still somehow

Its Tassie’s illusion I recall

I really don’t know Tassie at all

(will apologies to Joni Mitchell)

I’m going to Tassie again

I place I can always go back to

find something new and beautiful

In Australian smallest State

An island State, part of an island nation.

p2041116e — Looking out to sea over the remains of the old jetty in Bridport NE Tasmania

Looking out across the blue clear waters that surround Tassie.

Looking in from coastal anchorages at

hobart116 — Storm over Maria Island from Chinamans Bay,

At storms rolling past

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At the play of the light on the rocky shoreline

hobart188 — Sleepy Cove, Freycinet Peninsula

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Looking in to tight harbour entrances

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Hells Gates the entrance to Macquarie Harbour in perfect conditions

Sitting safe in historic ports

summer-2006-7-067e — Futura in Constitution Dock, Hobart

copy-of-summer-2006-7-038 — Looking down on the Stanley Fishing Harbour from the Nut

Travelling through beautiful wilderness

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Gordon River Wilderness

p2091182e — Looking towards Frenchmans Cap in the South West Wilderness

And a quirkiness that is only Tassie

p2041095e1 — Ship’s dog watching passers by

p2071166e — Blue Man in Salamanca Place Hobart

Next month I’m going back to Tassie again

Taking the mighty Breva down for her second trip

I hope the sun never sets on my Tasmania adventures.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Sunset over Coles Bay TasmaniaSouth East Tasmania