26 August 2013

Another afternoon down the drain

To celebrate a hard day of work at home (I mean it!), I celebrated by going for a skate. But halfway to the skatepark, I thought why don't I go for a wander at the drains instead?

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I was there with my trusty sidekick Tess. She was loving it just as much, if not a tiny bit more than me.

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We had to clamber up the sides through some parts when it got a bit wet, then we'd run down the banks and start skating/skittering along on four legs.

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Interesting bridges. It's a different world down there!

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A dark hole. On the way back walked on the other side and I nearly slipped over going past this hole on the mossy wet concrete. Tess slipped over a couple of times: hilarious.

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More dark holes. As we followed the drains further north, the skate-friendly concrete banks were replaced by charming cobbled ones.

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As the houses and bike paths disappeared, the vistas reminded me of lovely impressionist paintings, but with a gritty urban edge.

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Without much warning, the drain ended. Well, the water continued, but there was no more concrete or track. And it suddenly started feeling sinister, like someone was watching me. I took a photo of this cactus and turned back.

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I noticed lots of debris hanging off branches and things on the way back. A reminder of how much water can appear down there, I suppose - and the wastefulness of our society. I liked the look of this silver paper though, and stopped to take a photo of it. Then my camera battery went dead. So you may as well forget about the rest of the walk.

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6 August 2013

Hangin' at Hanging Rock

The car works again so we thought we'd take a little sojourn out to Hanging Rock. It was cold and rainy, but we were like 'what the hell'

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There is a track around the base of the rock that you're allowed to walk your dog 'on a lead'. Tess was in heaven.

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Mossy rock with Rosie looking odd up the top there

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This photo was taken moments before Tess chased a rabbit into the bush and disappeared for what seemed like hours. It would have been only about 10 minutes, but it freaked us out good and proper.

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Then she just rocked up. We had been walking around through the bracken like fools calling her name, sort of like the movie.

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Speaking of rocking up, we decided that since we had broken the rules already, we should just climb up the rock. Tess was on the lead this time.

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It's a very surreal place. I think it was nice to go up there when it was all misty and rainy, because it felt even more otherworldly.

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Back at the car, Rosie spotted some kangaroos having a go on the nearby racecourse.

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Back at home, Tess tried to apologise for the whole thing with the rabbit

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Actually she just wanted one of the pistacchios I was eating

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