14th June 2010 Coles Bay

That is an outrageous falsehood Poor Federal Hotels, I should be ashamed of myself. They are legally going about their business of creating poverty and a greater burden on society in general.

If Pinochet were still alive I’m sure he would stay there, as a prominent share holder.

Both Pinochet and the Saffire Resort owe their success to the misery of the poor masses for the benefit of the wealthy few.

Pinochet and the Saffire resort would surely and appropriately complement each other.

It is a despicable and sad thing that the Labor government negotiated the creation of this resort as part of a deal that gives federal hotels a 20 year monopoly on poker machines in Tasmania. There is already a lot of poverty in Tasmania, and apparently in the first six months of this year (2010) Tasmanians have lost over 100 million dollars to the Federal Hotels group. That means around 200 million dollars a year from Tasmania alone. This will put a huge cost on social services; in effect, we’re all footing the bill, we’re contributing to the wealth of Federal Hotels and their share holders.

I don’t think much of the share holders either.

The biggest difference between business associated with illegal drugs and business associated with poker machines is one is legal the other isn’t.

The photo is of Nathan doing a handstand on the beach at Coles Bay. You can see the Saffire Resort in the background.

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4^th July 2010 Moulting Lagoon

Moulting Lagoon is near Coles Bay. It is shallow and calm. When the tide goes out it goes out a long way leaving a lot of exposed sand.

Because the slope is gentle the water drains out slowly, creating these channels in the process.

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12th June 2010 Coles Bay

The Sound of Music – boring.

Alladin – good.

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4th July 2010 Coles Bay

I feel for this fellow. He was struggling along with two of his legs tangled in seaweed. He waited patiently and trustingly while I removed it. Not long after this he started doing the soldier crab thing of spiralling into the sand on some sort of universal soldier crab signal. They all disappear within 15 minutes or so.

It wasn’t till looking at these pictures that I saw he has a bung eye.

They are so tiny that people walk on them, often indifferently or without even knowing.

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14th June 2010 Coles Bay

We were walking along the beach into Coles Bay. Vanessa was trying to get Zed, her big Labrador, to carry a small log that would have been close to 10kg. It is a form of exercise that Zed likes.

From the other end of the beach, about 300 metres away, this fearless maniac looking dog came sprinting straight at us. I haven’t seen a dog run so fast since Ella, a whippet who used to live with me, was in her youth. He wasn’t wary in the least of Zed and Chai (Chai is another Labrador); he zoomed straight between them. He zoomed around like an elite athlete; Zed and Chai didn’t have a hope of keeping up.

Then he picked up the log that Zed was struggling with and sprinted back down the beach, 300 metres, as though the log weighed nothing.

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14th June 2010 Coles Bay

Anyone who owns a dog will be familiar with this shot. Vanessa is ahead with two of her friends and Zed, the other labrador. I’m lagging behind taking photos. Chai is just on her way back to Vanessa. Chai and Zed have been running back every now and then to check on me. They (the dogs) would be much happier if we were all together in one group.

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3rd July 2010 Coles Bay

These shots fascinate me. Water suspended in mid air by a fine spider web. The web itself was only about 5cm square, and hanging horizontally just off the ground. I’ve always thought water a strange medium especially when swimming through it beneath the surface. To see it like this, encapsulated and surrounded by air, seems weird.

These are probably the first shots I’ve enjoyed taking with a frustrating macro lens that cost me more than the camera and lens combined. The lens is frustrating because it is rarely able to focus for macro shots – isn’t that stupid for a $1,000 lens made just for macro? So, what I do is manually focus to the closest focus point – not easy, then move the camera till the subject looks in focus. One millimeter too near or far and the subject is out of focus. There is a lot to be said for compact digital cameras; they are so much easier for macro photography.

I was exploring on my mountain bike some of the tracks around Coles Bay. It is an adventurous and scenic place to ride. Some of the downhills are really steep and rocky; the sort of descents that you have to commit too because trying to stop part way down will somersault the bike. And there lots of sandy patches where you move your weight back, try not to control the steering too much, and try to keep the speed up.

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20th May 2010 Coles Bay

We went for a walk into the township of Coles Bay from Swanwick beach. It was a beautiful morning, but on the way back the clouds started looking ominous.

Changable weather is typical of Tasmania. The great thing about it is that it teaches you not to take good weather for granted and to make the most of the day.

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22nd May 2010, Coles Bay

I lived for a while on the beaches between Cape Tribulation and Cooktown. This area is famous for the water coming right up to the trees at high tide – there are no beaches. But, at low tide there are huge expanses of muddy sand flats. The whole of the north of Australia seems like this; because the water is so shallow when the tide goes out, it goes out a long way.

At low tide on these beaches you would see a patchwork of blue and pink; two different types of soldier crab. There were so many, it was hard to walk without stepping on them. They moved together in large groups of hundreds, big patches of pink and blue moving across the sand.

This crab was at Swanwick beach in Coles Bay. Not as colourful or in the numbers of the Cape York Peninsula crabs, but otherwise similar. I started taking photos of them at about quarter to four; by four they had all buried themselves.

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