Friday, July 4, 2008

Around The Ridge 1 - 25 June 2008




You know you can spend hundreds of hours & take thousands of shots, then when you least expect it, wham, you jag the perfect shot. The shot taken above was initially uncomposed & in my opinion, is the best I have ever achieved so far in my short time as an amateur photographer.


We had settled into our new digs at the Chasin' Opal holiday cabins the previous day & so the first thing on the agenda after breakfast was to head to Hebel (which is actually in Queensland) on the recommendation of the cabins' operator & go have a feed at the historic Hebel Hotel. So we jumped back into the car & drove the 65klms into Queensland. The town of Hebel , is a one horse town, that is apparently kept alive because it is a changeover point for trucks heading between FNQ & Melbourne. Unfortunately we arrived too early for lunch, so instead of hanging around for an hour, we decided to go to the cafe across the road, grab a coffee (International Roast ... yuk!) & work out our next move.

Our next move was to actually head out across the black soil plains towards Goodooga, only because I had seen that the Post Office is up for sale (only $165,000, but I couldn't convince Jude to commit, lol). What I love about our adventures, is we get to appreciate just how lucky we are to live in the cities, especially when you see these isolated rural communities out in the middle of our rugged country. E.g. the nearest Big W is at Dubbo an 820klm round trip, even for the kids to go to high school or TAFE, its a 100klm trip!

That afternoon we decided to observe the sunset from the lookout at Nettletons First Shaft, located just west of the town on the Green Door self drive tour (it's a local thing, lol). When I was just about finished shooting a 4WD turned up & a young woman got out, unloaded a professional camcorder & proceeded to film the last rays of sunset. It turned out that they (Monica & Sophie) were from Imparja Television & were on assignment. Monica asked me if she could film me taking some shots of the sunset & so I said no prob. After the that was done, I was heading back to the car & I turned around to see this wonderful shot of Monica on the ridge, silhouetted against the dusk skyline, it was perfect.

A perfect end, to a perfect day.

4 comments:

Kate said...

it wasnt a perfect day by the sounds of that international roast coffee john! love the photos of your trip thus far. enjoying reading the the stories behind the images :)

Unknown said...

Even International Roast coffee couldn't ruin the day .... mmmm, now that you did mention it, that coffee did cost me $3.00! BUGGER

Kate said...

damn that $3 could have gone towards our xmas lunch! LOL

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't even pay $3 for a coffee in Sydney!

The Post Office is a bargain at $165K - what is Mummo thinking??