Sunday 30 September 2007

Tahune Swinging Bridges - 30th September 2007

Huon swinging bridge at Tahune - obviously swinging, during a thunderstorm - 30 Sep 2007Quick trip down to Tahune this afternoon to see the rivers in flood from the suspension bridges. Quite impressive, although the water has fallen since the peak of the flood this morning. I don't think the flood even got across the Esplanade in Huonville today, but the river at Huonville was still quite impressive. This photo is terrible, obviously I was moving too much! There was a thunderstorm happening at the time too. The Picton bridge had a bout 4m of clear space above the water, but the Huon bridge was only about 2m above the surface. I wonder how these bridges will go in the event of a really big flood, and if a large tree comes down the river. Could well catch on the bridge and carry it away. This of course has happened to every other bridge across these rivers out here. There used to be one across the Picton just a couple of hundred metres further up than this one.

Picton Bridge on Riveaux Rd, flood debris in foreground - 30 Sep 2007Meanwhile, around at the concrete Picton Bridge just around the hill, the water was flowing strongly. There was a lot of debris 2m above the water level, close to the height of the underside of the bridge. You can see it in the foreground of this shot.

Sunday 16 September 2007

Wildsports adverts

These ads appeared in Outdoor magazines in the late 1980s, and were quite memorable. I reproduce them here for a bit of fun. Not sure who the artist(s) was(were) but much enjoyment was had trying to read these ads. I think these smallish jpegs are readable.

I found this link for Wildsports, but there's little information there. They do appear to be still trading however.

Summer Fun - Wildsports advert from Action Outdoor Australia Magazine, Apr/May 1987

Summer Fun - Wildsports advert from Action Outdoor Australia Magazine, Apr/May 1987

Gear you can rely on - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Apr/May/Jun 1987

Gear you can rely on - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Apr/May/Jun 1987

Wildsports Winter Ad - Wildsports advert from Action Outdoor Australia Magazine, Jun/Jul 1987

Wildsports Winter Ad - Wildsports advert from Action Outdoor Australia Magazine, Jun/Jul 1987

The Compleat Bushwalker - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jul/Aug/Sep 1987. This is the ad with the Swiss Army Knife that has a "thing for putting things into horses hooves".

The Compleat Bushwalker - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jul/Aug/Sep 1987

The Compleat Tourers - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Oct/Nov/Dec 1987

The Compleat Tourers - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Oct/Nov/Dec 1987

The Compleat Traveller - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jan/Feb/Mar 1988

The Compleat Traveller - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jan/Feb/Mar 1988

The Very Cross Country Skier - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jul/Aug/Sep 1988

The Very Cross Country Skier - Wildsports advert from Wild Magazine, Jul/Aug/Sep 1988

Now is the winter of our discount tent

This is from an old edition of Wild, page 27 of Issue 25, Winter 1987. The cartoon is apparently by Ian Gunn (Biography here), and has always amused me. I'm not sure of the origin of the word play, maybe Ian Gunn thought it up. It is said that it was first seen in an outdoor shop during a sale. It was used in "The Red Green Show" too, but maybe they saw it in an outdoor shop, as this cartoon predates the show. Ian Gunn's interpretation of it into pictures is priceless.

Saturday 15 September 2007

Mt Wellington - 15 September 2007

Very nice day today, seemed like summer during the morning, sun beaming down, gentle breeze. The breeze was a little cooler than a real summer breeze, but still it was most welcome. Great walk on Mt Wellington ensued, up the Pinnacle Track and Zig-Zag, then across the top and down the Ice House Track. (The opposite of this walk.) Great views, few people.

Collins Bonnet peeks over Thark Ridge from near the Mt Wellington summit - 15 Sep 2007
Dolerite, Mt Welington - 15 Sep 2007
Dolerite, Mt Welington - 15 Sep 2007

Sunday 9 September 2007

The Campaign to recognise Sharlands Peak as an Abel!

Map and contour identification from The List, Tasmanian Government
OK, I'll grant you, this is a bit trivial, and may not get the same level of support as other more worthy causes. However, I've climbed it, and got dehydrated as a result, so I want it properly recognised. Sharlands Peak is 1140m tall. If the ground falls away on all sides to below 990m approximately, then it's an Abel. It didn't make the original list, which I only discovered after I'd returned from climbing it.

What I think happened is that when the original Abels list was drawn up, the Vera 1:25,000 map wasn't yet available. The contours on the 1:100,000 map are very much less detailed, and on that map it does indeed look like Sharlands Peak is joined to Frenchmans Cap above the 990m level, or at least it's very ambiguous. The 1:25,000 Vera map makes it look like Sharlands Peak should be an Abel. To confirm this, I've used the "Info" feature of The List to find the 970m contour, which I can draw all around Sharlands Peak.

I think this demonstrates that Sharlands is an Abel. Sharlands is connected to neither Frenchmans Cap nor Philps Peak within a vertical 150m of its summit. QED. Happy to be shown to be wrong, but I reckon I'm right!

Sharlands Peak (left) and Philps Peak around Barron Pass, from Frenchmans Cap - 27 February 1999
Frenchmans Cap from Sharlands Peak - 1 March 1999