Solar Eclipse

Recently there was another solar eclipse in Alice Springs. Unlike the last one, I didn’t know this one was happening and had the strange strange experience of sitting at the kitchen table wondering if I had lost my mind. Actually it wasn’t so much that I had lost my mind, but my memory as I was certain that clouds didn’t block out as much light as was occuring right then (it had been a while since we had had a cloudy morning okay).

Anyway a call from my boss drew my attention to the truth and I set about playing with the eclipse and seeing if I could get photos of the eclipse or the visual effects of the eclipse. The following are the results.

Stage 1: Looking at the Sun.

Okay so looking at the Sun isn’t the brightest thing to do, but looking through the lense of my camera seemed like a good idea. Interestingly the sunspot at the edge of these photos shows the eclipsation better than the photo.

The eclipse was pretty obvious, and certainly visible through the camera.

The sunspot in this photo shows the sun as it’s most eclipsed point, or at least roughly….

This got pretty boring pretty quickly so we start playing with more creative techniques of observation!

Stage 2: Playing with shadows

We tried a number of very conventional and creative methods to see what was going on.

The highest degree of planning and experimental design are demonstrated in out eclipse watching apparatus.

The results of out amazingly technologically advanced apparatus.

Obviously this was a lot of hard work. So we played with bigger shadows instead.

Easily the coolest and easiest way to view the eclipse was through your fingers!

Every shadow was bent and distorted!

It turned out you could see the eclipse in every shadow, so we decided it was easier to play with shadows!

All in all a fun morning, and I got to say I was late to work because there was something wrong with the sun.

Ormiston Gorge Day Out

This gallery contains 3 photos.

All photos courtesy of the lovely Josie.

Snake bite poetry

Poem authored by Louise, Sir Calaeb and myself.

Important note. No human was in anyway harmed in the creation of this tale. Mum do not panic, it turns out I was just being paranoid!

There once was a little brown snake
Who thought that he would undertake,
To rest beside a garden stake.

No shoes was Paddy’s first mistake:

Kangaroo Island Day 8 – The Last Day

The last day, and of course what felt like the longest! The day started pleasantly. The wind had dropped, patchy cloud meant it wasn’t hot, and all in all it was a lovely day to be riding a bicycle.

After a social coffee with a fellow cycle tourist I made my way along the East-West Road to Cape Willoughby. The road itself is a lovely track through farm land, is well graded and generally a very nice ride. As the track cuts across the middle of the eastern end of island the views aren’t spectacular, but this was more than amply compensated by the experience of chasing a flock of turkeys down the road for 500metres.

Chasing a flock of dinosaurs on a touring bike is fun!

A much nicer road to ride than the pervious day.

At Cape Willoughby I had a light lunch before going on the light house tour which was fantastic. The national parks guide was so excited about everything, especially his pride and joy the 3m tall class 1 fresnel lens from an old light house, that it was infectious. I want a light house lens!

Cape Willoughby Lighthouse is at the end of a long dirt road, and the end of a long island.

I want one!

View from Cape Willoughby Lighthouse

Anyway, after the tour I started out towards Penneshaw the end of my ride. Normally I think that the last day of a ride the hardest for mental reasons, but this time the hills were intense and I spent most of the first 20km in my lowest gear, or at most one from.

For anyone thinking about riding this road I would suggest thinking carefully before doing so because some of the steep sections really are impressively steep, irrespective of the direction you are approaching from.

I eventually made it into town, ate, swam and set myself up at the YHA for some much needed sleep and stretching. Next time I will get fit before I start a multi day ride!

*******

Note: The fish and chips at Penneshaw are possibly the best fish and chips in the world! make sure you get some!

Looking back at the mainland after 8 days on the island.

Penneshaw is only accessible by hill. The hills are big!

Sunset on the last day of my ride.

Birthday Full Moon Ride

Last night some friends and I rode out to Simpsons Gap along the bike path for dinner and general good times. As it was a full moon we had hoped to ride home under moonlight, but cloud cover resulted in lights being deployed on the ride home.

Here are some happy snaps…

Kangaroo Island Day 7 – Windy with Sand

Some helpful advice to all those people out there who make and maintain roads.

A road should have deeper sand beside it than on it.

***

This morning was windy. Not just a little windy, but buffet my Macpac 4 season tent, pedal in your lowest gear downhill windy. The wind had started to build last night, but by the morning the “fresh” south easterly was probably blowing at above 60km/h on average and consequently made it a proper head wind, and even worse a cross wind. (Note: I later found out the wind had been reaching 119km/h that day)

The only good thing about thgis wind was that after about 10km of struggle-town it became a tail wind as I turned east towards Penneshaw. I know what you are thinking now. The wind gods don’t give cyclists tailwinds, but as it turned out there was another cycle tourists arriving on the island that day who was less prepared for wind and rain then I. Sometimes it is nice to be deemed less worthy…

Progress was smooth and with a tailwind and sealed roads I looked set to have a crusiy and easy day until I saw a sign with a picture of a bicycle on it. How could I resist a bicycle sign?

So along dirt roads and over hills I went to American River. The ride was actually rather pleasant and aside from one patch of road was good so I would recommend Red Bank Rd as a cycle route to any future travellers.

After a pleasant lunch I started riding out to rejoin the main road towards Penneshaw when low-and-behold a second bicycle sign presented itself. Bouyed by my previous success I followed the sign blindly through Muston and towards the main road via an unknown route.

Needless to say this road wasn’t as good. For most of the time I was riding on the right hand side of the road, or even right down in the ditch beside the road. At one point while trying to pretend my LHT was a Puglset I ended up with my front wheel 4 inches into a sand pile I was never going to pedal through.

Once I reached the highway it returned to smooth sailing for the rest of the day. the sensation of accelerating every time you take your fingers off the brakes didn’t stopped amazing me all afternoon, though it was concerning when I wanted to stop!

Browns Beach campsite is an amazing campsite with hot showers and a great shelter so cyclists, stop there!

Browns Beach cooking shelter

Browns Beach campground has all the mod-cons including hot showers!

Guest Cooking Posts

Hi Guys!

As many of you know I like to cook, almost as much as I like to eat in fact! A good friend (with whom I have shared many cups of delicious tea) has started up a cooking blog called Caitlicious Cooking.

So in the theme of sharing I am going to be adding some of my favourite recipes to the site. I will be adding lots of dairy free recipes that I have worked out over time, as well as recipes that are just awesome.

Kangaroo Island Day 6 – Dull with Great Views

Today started with a climb, not a particularly steep climb, but a climb that persisted well beyond what felt like a reasonable amount of time. I think within the first 15 minutes I’d climbed 100m if that give you any idea of the grade I was working with.

Anyway this moorings ride along the north coast road was lovely. Once I’d reached the ridge line the road followed the ridge the ride was punctuated by sneak peaks at the magnificent coast line I was riding along and of the rolling pastures that dominate this part of the island.

The amazing views of the northern coast of Kangaroo Island that became visible every now and then.

Morning tea all set out and laid out. Irish breakfast tea, fruit cake and a great view.

By 10:30am I’d ridden a good 17km so I stopped for a break and spoilt myself with a cup of tea and some fruit cake. Riding on I descended towards Smiths Bay where I had hoped to find a nice little picnic spot. Instead I found an industrial scale Abalone Farm (complete with high fences and security cameras galore), so I pushed on to Emu Bay where I had intended to camp for the night. I arrived to find the bay looking weedy and dull, but as I made lunch it looked quite lovely. I checked out the camping facilities and was confused by the request for $15 for a gravel car park, which also allowed you to use the beach toilets several hundred metres away as a bonus, so I pushed on again.

All these jetty’s have barriers so you can’t easily ride your bike down them. Highly unfair me thinks.

Bird on a pole. That is all.

The ride into Kingscote is punctuated only by salt lakes and very dry farmlands until you hit the main drag into town which is poorly maintained. Kingscote itself is an odd little place, again with some bad beaches and was even worse because it only offered bad coffee. The campsites were equally joyous and had an odd smell of of decomposing stuff.

Anyway I’ve booked the bus back to Adelaide from Cape Jervis so I’m on the home straight. 3 more days and then it is home time

Drunken Devonshire Pasties

So awesome. Three types of stout went into these!

The most delicious pasties around.

So we did make these up as we went along, but roughly the process was…

1. Slow cook 6 lamb shanks in a mix of Amber Ale and Stout for 4 hours. We used 1x Squires Amber Ale and 1/3 of a Kilkenny at this stage. We recommend testing the mix of beers prior to adding to the shanks.
2. Make a sour-cream based semi-short pastry, about 3-4 cups of flour worth.
3. Remove lamb meat from shank. Add remaining Kilkenny, 6 potatoes, and 1 bottle of dark stout (Paddy’stout from Ireland). Transfer mixture to a pressure cooked for 30 minutes.
4. Eat remaining meat off the lamb shanks in a way reminiscent of Neanderthals.
5. Cut pastry into four lots, roll each one out and layer as per puff pastry using olive oil and spices to layers. Return to fridge.
6. Steam carrots, swede, fennel, turnip until cooked. Transfer to a bowl and then season and butter to taste.
7. Shred pressure cooked lamb and potatoes muscle strands are broken down.
8. Eat remaining meat of any remaining lamb shanks. Test all products thoroughly.
9. Assemble pasties.
10. Bake at 180C until delicious.

Arm Chair Bike Racing! – Mawson Mega Marathon

An amazing “Not Race” is occuring in South Australia at the moment. The Mawson Mega Marathon runs 900km across SA, with the 5 contenders riding unsupported the whole way. Have a look at the following sites for info:

http://trackleaders.com/mawson13

http://www.facebook.com/events/list#!/events/535657373129360/

http://mawsonmegamarathon.blogspot.com.au/

http://solonutter.org/