January 24 Through February 4—TUCSON, ARIZONA: Annual show
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 Post subject: Discovery coast
PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2016 11:37 pm 
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Location: Central Queensland, Australia
Just got back from a couple of days at the tiny beachside town of Agnes Water, about an hours drive from my place. Was going to take more photos of the area but it was damn hot and we spent most of our time in an airconditioned cabin.

Across the road from the cabin......

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The beach in the background across the bay here is the last surfing beach on the eastern seaboard as you head north. From here on, the Great Barrier Reef lying offshore breaks the swell as it approaches from the open Pacific and the surf becomes too small to ride. Not that I've ever been a surfie. Just around the distant headland, English navigator James Cook made his first landfall in what would later become the state of Queensland, in search of fresh water, on May 24, 1770. The tiny township around the corner from Agnes Water is the only town in Australia with a number for a name - 1770.

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There is more of photographic interest in the area but it was too hot - this really is the worst time of year here.


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 Post subject: Re: Discovery coast
PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 2:33 pm 
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Location: MB, Canada
Lefty, that's beautiful. If that's an hour from your place, I want to move in. I'll take a picture and show you what it looks like in Manitoba this time of year. Maybe we can trade places this time of year, ha.


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 Post subject: Re: Discovery coast
PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:50 pm 
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Location: Wylie Texas but in Alaska for a while
Nice views.


This is what passes for noon time sun where I am.....


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It does not rise in the east and set it the west..... more like the sough east and south west.


The really odd one, is that m daughter has been up on the north slope. In the summer there the sun never sets..... it stays on the horizon and does a full circle....

Try to sue that to navigate when you are lost.....



This is the view of the mountains that for the valley that my daughter lives in.

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If I had a choice, I think I would pick your view.....


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 Post subject: Re: Discovery coast
PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 5:58 pm 
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Location: Central Queensland, Australia
I'll swap you the Canadian summer for our winter, there's two pretty ideal climates - pity they don't last all year round :) Canada is on my priority list of places I want to return to, though I have only been to British Columbia and up and down the Rockies - absolutely beautiful scenery! I love the cool, crisp air over there that we only get here early in the morning for a few short months. It's still early here and the temperature and humidity are already beginning to noticeably climb. You can get the tropical version of cabin fever, the climate outside is so draining that all you feel like doing is retreating into an airconditioned room (which isn't so bad for me I guess since I can just sit there and facet).

Few more snaps of the area. This is the swimming pool and view that I will have when I find the giant, flawless sapphire :mrgreen:

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But that's still at Agnes. Just around the headland from Agnes Water - which despite the small size tends to become packed with holiday makers - is the quieter village of 1770. Situated on Round Hill creek, it's protected from the heavy surf the little beach there is ideal to take small children to. This little camping ground can still get quite packed in the tourist season but is usually quieter for the remainder of the year.

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Seventeen Seventy township runs along the shoreline but is hidden in the treeline.

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I'm still not sure what the owners are trying to say here :? ....I guess they mean "No unauthorized camping".

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It was here that Cook's men rowed ashore in longboats and found a freshwater spring at the base of the headland. The spring is still there today but in the 1960's a road was put though going up to the headland where property with ocean views was selling for big $$$. The road cut across the springs feed and interrupted the hydrology and the spring no longer flows to the surface. The little peninsula and much of the coast to the north and south and adjoining hinterland is now national park/historical reserve. 1770 has reached it's development cap, only land already developed may be redevolped so the remainder of the area will remain much as if was the day Cook's men stepped ashore.

Eminent scientist of the Royal Society, Joseph Banks came ashore with the crew, collecting plant specimens not seen before by Europeans. Dendrobium discolor - a hardy orchid found growing on bare rock faces and boulders - was among the plants collected. It still grows there today....

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The wild, almost uninhabited coastline between 1770 and Bustard head to the north, all national park. Bustard head is a very short distance from my place as the crow flies but there is no road access in, only a few very rough four wheel drive tracks.

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This area is more easily accessable by LARC. A tour operator purchased two Lighter Amphibious Resupply Craft which were past their use-by date for military service and converted them into tour vessels/vehicles. They leave from a little terminal in Round Hill creek and go as far as Bustard head.

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The sun sets over the water at 1770, the closest I get to seeing the sun set over the ocean.

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 Post subject: Re: Discovery coast
PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2016 6:08 pm 
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That mountain view is stunning Wilson! Could you send some of those temperatures over this way, just for a little while? :)

Though I think I could have trouble getting used to no actual nighttime. The sun sets very fast here, literally in minutes.


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 Post subject: Re: Discovery coast
PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 12:58 am 
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So I took two crappy pictures with my phone on my way into town today. The first is out my driver side window, the second is out the passenger window. If you'll note the flat frozen waste land of ice to the left, and the flat frozen waste land of ice to the right. Welcome to the Canadian prairie! For 6 months of the year it's a flat sheet of ice and snow that stretches about 1500 km. Hurray! :roll:

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 Post subject: Re: Discovery coast
PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 4:14 am 
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Well you sure ain't gonna die of heat stroke there Wybee! :) Plenty of time to concentrate on faceting.

Obviously not all prarie - a search bought up these breathtaking images....

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Looks like summer is the time to be there :smt026


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 Post subject: Re: Discovery coast
PostPosted: Fri Jan 08, 2016 9:25 pm 
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You won't die of heat stroke, true. But exposed skin will begin to freeze in two minutes on a cold day. Pick your poison I suppose. Right about now that heat stroke sounds mighty inviting.


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