Bart Bear's Blog

We are still in lockdown here in Canberra but can get out for a couple of hours for exercise. Today is the first calm, warm, sunny day for ages so we headed out for a walk near the lake. Of course we had to wear masks; it makes the Oldies look like escapees from a bad movie set but I look cute. Lots of people were walking or riding on the paths but everybody was being COVID sensible. The trees are full of blossom at present. That means that small bears have to be careful of bees when we get our climbing exercise. The sqirtey thing in the pictures is the Captain Cook Memorial Jet which commemorates the bicentenary of his first sighting of the Australian coast. I like it because when the wind blows the other way it squirts onto cars going across Commonwealth Avenue bridge. Meanwhile, on those miserable days when the weather was foul, Dad and I built stacks of card model lighthouses. Most of them are of UK lights, but there 4 Aussie ones in there as well. Here's to more days like today.
 

Labels: Canberra, Captain Cook, card models, climbing, lighthouse, trees

I have been helping Dad with his hobby/craft as well.We have added another aircraft carrier to our fleet of 1/700 scale ships. This is the third Royal Navy ship to be named "Ark Royal". The Ark was the first carrier to have steam catapults to launch aircraft and the first to have the hangars and flight deck as integral parts of the hull (earlier carriers of all navies had them as "add-ons"). She had a fairly short life, launched in 1938 and torpedoed in November 1941, but she served in actions off Norway, the hunt for Bismarck and in the vital Malta convoys. Her aircraft made some of the first aerial U-boat kills. Our model shows her on her last trip,about to launch Sea Hurricanes for Malta and with Fulmars and Swordfish on deck. Another thing we have been working on is our card lighthouse collection. These are 1/250 scale and mostly UK lights. And of course we had to do another dragon. The big green one we made in November left us at Christmas to live with an Asian family, so we made a smaller version to keep our red one company. It is amazing what you can make from sheets of card and a good template.
 

Labels: boats, buildings, card models, lighthouse, models

Here's one of my favourite lighthouses, Warden Head light near Ulladulla. It was built in 1873 and originally put on the breakwater at the harbour. This turned out to be the wrong location as ships kept hitting the reefs outside Warden Head, 1.5 km south of the harbour, so the lighthouse was moved to the headland in 1879. It is a twin of the lighthouse at Wollongong harbour. These are the only lighthouses in NSW made from riveted iron plates. There is a good sealed road to the lighthouse, so we visit it any time we are in that part of the coast. Our last visit was on a wet, wild day in December and you can see the waves breaking on the shallow reefs. There are deeper reefs further out and these are where ships came to grief. The area is a great whale-watching spot and is packed with people in the season. The cliffs of the headland are full of marine fossils and you can pick samples up where parts of the cliff face have collapsed. Of course you need low tide on a calm day to walk around the rock shelf, not a day like this one.

Labels: lighthouse, New South Wales, south coast

This COVID-19 isolation thing has been a real drag on several levels. One of them is that the Oldies are becoming more like old bears in hibernation season every day. By the time I get them out of bed and they have caught up with housework, online browsing and craft there never seems to be time left for me to get computer time. However, better late than never, I will post some images of the last major road trip that we did in Hawaii, the leeward (west coast) road. This completed our circumnavigation of Oahu by road. Tourists are told not to travel this coast on their own as it is the low-income area, has lots of homeless camping on the beaches, and a high crime rate. We went with Kirk, who was our guide for most of our long drives. The road is on a fairly narrow flat strip between the beach and villages backing onto the Waianae mountain range. Our first stop was at Barbers Point lighthouse on the southwest point of the island. There has been a lighthouse here since1888, but this tower was built in 1933. Unlike most of the lighthouses we have visited, it has no lantern room, just a rotating beacon on the tower roof. Nearby there is a batch of communication towers. Actually, as you drive along this road you can see lots of satellite tracking and radar domes on the tops of the hills. On the other side of the range are many of the US military bases. The road ends at a parking bay at Ka'ena Point. There is a walking track that takes you around the point to a parking bay on the other side of the point. There is no road joining these two parking bays, so this track is the only bit of the Oahu coast that we haven't seen.

Labels: Hawaii, lighthouse

Mid-way through our stay on Oahu, we flew across to Maui for a couple of days. Flying out of Honolulu to other islands you sometimes get great views of the Oahu coast. Mum took lots of photos on the way and despite the dirty windows of the aircraft she got some good ones. Here's one of Diamond Head and suburbs between it and the Koolau range. If you click on the image to get a larger zoom, you may see the lighthouse (on the coast, mid-image) and two of the old gun sites (higher up to the right). Maui is actually 2 shield volcanoes (classed as dormant) joined by a low plain. In the second photo you can see Haleakala shield volcano, a wide rounded mountain rising 10,020ft. There were 2 locations the Oldies wanted to see, Lahaina the old capital of Hawaii, and Haleakala Observatory. Being astronomers, their first target was the observatory. You can just see the white domes of the observatory on the closest volcano, above the cloud. The observatory is 10,000ft above sea level and is the forth-highest observatory in the world. The drive to the summit of Haleakala (House of the Sun) is steep in places and has great views over the island. We were above the cloud while we were there so the view below the summit was not visible, but on a clear day there are spectacular views of the crater and cinder cones of the volcano. The domes in the images house telescopes of the University of Hawaii, the USAF Space Surveillance Complex, and overseas observatories. The largest dome will house the 4m Daniel K Inouye solar telescope, due to be completed next year. Daniel Inouye was a Hawaiian war hero; the Honolulu international airport is named after him. The lower slopes of the volcanoes have some spectacular scenery, lava slopes and canyons. We stayed at the Four Seasons Resort, a great spot to relax on the lanai, sipping cocktails and watching spectacular sunsets.

Labels: astronomy, Hawaii, lighthouse, telescopes

What to post when the Oldies have stopped travelling for a while? How about some photos of how they fill in their small bits of spare time? Here's some of what Dad and I have been up to. Normally we make plastic models and had a collection of over 1300 1/72 scale aircraft before we moved into the (smaller) apartment. Dad's eldest son, my big bro Andrew, has a huge garage and the collection moved into that. Then we started on 1/700 scale ships, a real test of Dad's ageing fingers and eyes, but some photos of these (the ships that is) will appear soon. However, while reading a modelling magazine we noticed an add for card models of 4 Australian lighthouses we have visited. We always try to get to as many lighthouses as possible on our trips, as my long-time readers know, so Dad ordered the set. Before starting on them, we found a site on the web where we could get free downloads of some UK lighthouses at the same scale as the set, 1/250, to practice on. So here's the results. The first 2 images are of Cape Byron lighthouse - the real thing and our card model. This is the most easterly lighthouse in Australia. The second 2 are Green Cape light in southern NSW. This one is a the end of one of the worst roads we have ever driven.The middle row is Hornby, Mum's favourite lighthouse on the south head of Sydney harbour. The first 2 on the bottom row are of the small lighthouse at Tacking Point near Port Macquarie in northern NSW. The last image shows the difference in size of these lighthouses. This sort of comparison is the great advantage of building to the same scale, so the obvious next step for us is to build some 1/250 card ships to compare with the lighthouses.
The other thing that has been happening is another trip/adventure being organized, so we will be away again soon.

If you would like to try your hand at card models the sites we used are:
http://papermodel.com.au/  for the lighthouse set
https://www.papershipwright.co.uk/ for free downloads and lots of sets.

Labels: lighthouse, models

If you were sailing from mainland USA to Honolulu, you would be guided into port by these 3 lighthouses. The first one you would see is on Makapu'u Point, the southeastern point of Oahu. This small lighthouse was built in 1909 and is on a clifftop 183 metres above the sea. It has the largest lens of any lighthouse in the US. It is a long walk from the road to the lighthouse, so the photo was taken from the next beach to the north. Because of its isolation there has been a lot of vandalism of the light and associated buildings, including an idiot shooting a hole in the lens. Today the area is state park and a great hang gliding site. The second light is at the foot of Diamond Head, at the eastern end of Waikiki beach.There has been a lighthouse here since 1899, warning ships away from the Waikiki reefs. The present tower is the result of major modifications of the original tower in 1917. It is easy to get to this lighthouse, it is just off the seaward side of the road that goes around Diamond Head. At the other end of Waikiki is the entry to Honolulu harbour. Ships are greeted by the 10-story Aloha Tower, a lighthouse built in "Hawaiian Gothic" style that came into operation in 1926. For around 40 years it was the tallest building in Hawaii. The area around the tower is being redeveloped, but I am not sure just what that means. The ship in the photo is "Pride of America". It takes you on a week-long cruise around the Hawaiian islands, stopping at a different port each day. Next time we are in Hawaii, I am putting pressure on the Oldies to do that cruise. The guy in the last photo is Kirk. He was our "guiding light" on a fantastic full-day tour around the east and north coasts of Oahu. If you want to see the best of the region, you can't do better than book Kirk through Tours By Locals. Tell him Bart sent you.

Labels: Hawaii, lighthouse

Labels: cruising, lighthouse, Tasmania

First port of call on our Tasmania cruise was Burnie, on the Bass Strait coast. Burnie was founded in1827 and by 2011 it was the fourth largest city in Tassie. It once was the site of Australia's largest paper mill and also several smaller industries including a paint pigment factory. Pollution of the city and the harbour became a huge problem and most of the manufacturing industries have closed. Today, forestry and farming are the major industries and the port is the largest cargo port in Tasmania. One of the chief exports is wood chip, and there was a large pile right next to where the Sun Princess docked. I watched the conveyors dumping chip into a pile and a bulldozer spreading it out to make room for more. The Oldies hired a car and we zoomed off to Bev's Cross Craft, the largest and best craft shop that I have ever seen (photos in posts from Feb), and then on to Anvers Chocolate Factory for lunch. There was another "target" for us in Burnie, the Round Hill lighthouse. We failed to find it in February, and only caught a quick glimpse as we drove past it this time. Fortunately, lighthouses have to be visible from the sea and we managed to get a look at it in the distance as we left port. It is a tiny one built in 1923, never manned, and automated in 1980.

Labels: boats, cruising, lighthouse, Tasmania

Here's a lighthouse that is a bit different. Instead of being built on a clifftop or near the bank of an estuary, it is on the top of a 100m high hill 500m from the ocean. The lighthouse is only 20m tall, much easier for visitors to climb the stairs for the view from the balcony. It is the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse in Western Australia. It was built in 1904 and went into service the next year. It is built from limestone which was quarried nearby. It is one of the few lighthouses that still use their original Fresnel lens. I like these lenses because they are a clever way of making a big lens that is much lighter and flatter than a conventional lens. If you get the chance to look closely at a lighthouse lens you will see that is a lens that has several steps ground into it, sort of folding the lens into itself. Fresnel lenses were actually originally invented for lighthouses. Mum still aims to get to every accessible lighthouse in Australia, including historic lighthouse ruins and ones that have been deactivated and moved into museums . This was number 91.

Labels: lighthouse, Western Australia

Cape Leeuwin lighthouse is on a headland that is near the spot where two oceans meet. To the right is the Indian Ocean and to the left is the Southern Ocean. Now I should mention that geographical nit-pickers will claim that the Southern Ocean is only south of 60 degrees latitude and the cape is only at 34 degrees. But there is only ocean south of this point until you hit Antarctica, so as far as most Aussies are concerned this is indeed the meeting of the two oceans. I reckon that I could see the churned-up area of ocean where the currents of the Indian and Southern were meeting and causing bigger, rougher waves. In fact, some ships have been badly damaged or sunk by sudden gigantic rogue waves in the ocean to the south. The cape is named after the Dutch ship Leeuwin (Lioness) which was the first European ship to map this area of coast in 1622. The lighthouse is built of local stone and was built in just 1 year. It has been in operation since 1896. There has not been a shipwreck on the cape since then.

Labels: lighthouse, Western Australia

One of the places we visited in Western Australia was Cape Leeuwin. This is the most south-westerly point on mainland Australia, and has a magnificent lighthouse on it. It is the tallest mainland lighthouse in Australia and has been in service since 1895. Before you can get to the lighthouse you have to pass its fierce guardian, the Moorine Marauder. This pirate cow is complete with eye patch, rum keg, hook replacing a hoof (presumably lost in previous fighting), telescope and parrot. She keeps a sharp eye on all visitors coming up the path from the car park. She is one of the multitude of pieces of cow art made for the international cow parade in 2010, and is probably the only one remaining in her original location. I quickly made friends with her. She let us pass but would not let me sample her rum. More of the lighthouse next post.

Labels: animals, lighthouse, Western Australia

Tasmania's second largest city, Launceston, is on the Tamar River in northern Tassie. The Tamar is actually the estuary of both the North Esk and South Esk Rivers. These join at Launceston to form the Tamar. In the late 19th century, Launceston was the commercial capital of Tasmania and its port was busier than Hobart. The entrance to the Tamar has lots of reefs and there were lots of shipwrecks here in the early 1800s. Naturally, a series of lighthouses was built to guide ships into the entrance and along the narrow channel. On the east side of  the river mouth is the spectacular Low Head lighthouse, the third lighthouse built in Australia. The first tower here was built by convicts in 1833. It was replaced by this one in 1888. I really love these red-striped Tasmanian lighthouses. There is also a small channel marker light just below the big lighthouse. Further up the river there are 2 smaller lighthouses marking the safe channel. The  left hand image on the second row is of the middle Channel Light and the right hand image is of the She Oak Point Light. You can see both of these lighthouses in the left hand image on the bottom row. This image was taken from near the Low Head lighthouse. The last image is of the Low Head area taken from She Oak Point. The big lighthouse is obvious. The buildings on the river bank are the Low Head Pilot Station. This is the oldest Pilot and Signal Station in Australia and has been in continuous use since 1833. All of these lighthouses are easy to get to, there is sealed road all the way from Launceston.

Labels: lighthouse, Tasmania

One of the largest harbours in the world, Macquarie Harbour, is on the west coast of Tasmania. It is nearly 250 square kilometers in area, but unfortunately it is not very deep so larger ships can't use it, most of the traffic being small cargo and timber ships. The first European settlement here was a penal colony which operated on Sarah Island from 1822 to 1833 (more on this in a later post). The entrance to the harbour is narrow and has very dangerous tidal currents and rips. It is known as Hell's Gate and has been the site of many shipwrecks. As there are 3 lighthouses marking the safe passage, we just had to make the trip through Hell's Gate. As luck had it, we had absolutely perfect weather, unusual for this part of Tassie, and our catamaran was able to take us outside the entrance for a look at Cape Sorrell lighthouse. This is the second-highest lighthouse in Australia. It has been operating since 1899 and is heritage-listed. There used to be three keepers' cottages and an engine shed here as well, but they have become ruins since the light was automated. Two small lighthouses on Entrance Island and Bonnet Island mark the safe channel through the "gate". Several tour boats operating out of the town of Strahan cruise the harbour. We went with one operated by World Heritage Cruises and it was excellent, taking us to the lighthouses, the old penal settlement and the Gordon River wilderness - more photos are on the way.

Labels: boats, lighthouse, Tasmania

One of the best lookout points in Hobart is Mt Nelson. You get splendid views of the city and the harbour from there, but I was more interested in the signal station. This was built in 1811 and controlled ships entering and leaving the port of Hobart. The little control hut has display panels explaining how the signals were sent by flags and semaphore. From its windows I could right out to the entry to the Derwent River. Right at the mouth I could just see Iron Pot lighthouse. I got better photos of that when I sailed past on "Voyager of the Seas" (check my post from Nov 27, 2014). There are two roads that take you to the top of Mt Nelson, an new, easy, broad, fairly straight road off the highway and an old, narrow, winding, steep and rather dangerous road. I won't embarrass the Oldies by telling you which one they tried first, but you can no doubt guess. As well as the historical signal station and the great views, there is a good cafe at the top where you can get the necessary reviving fluids if you have driven up the old road.

Labels: lighthouse, Tasmania

Vehicles traveling from mainland Australia to Tasmania usually cross Bass Strait from Melbourne to Devonport on the ferry "Spirit of Tasmania". The first photo shows this ship docked at Devonport. If you  look carefully, you can see the loading ramps ready for the next load of motor vehicles and passengers to board. Devonport is on the Mersey River, which is rather narrow and has a difficult channel through the mouth. Many shipwrecks occurred here until the Mersey Bluff lighthouse (photo 2) was completed in 1889. This is a pretty lighthouse with three vertical red stripes to make it more visible during daytime. The weather was a bit wild when we were there, so Dad wasn't allowed to clamber out on the seaward side to get a photo showing all the stripes. It is easy to get to the lighthouse, just follow the road out of town along the west side of the river. Following the river road back into Devonport you will see some channel markers. We found two. The third photo shows one that is a small lighthouse and the last photo is an obelisk containing a strip light. These markers indicate the safe channel to ships using the port. Tasmania has many lighthouses that are easy to get to, and some that are impossible for my fragile Oldies.

Labels: boats, lighthouse, Tasmania

Did anyone guess where I have been since the last post? A country with 4 letters in its name, only 3 of them different? It was, of course, Fiji and there will be a batch of Fiji photos following over the next weeks. Let's finish this series of New Zealand photos with these taken on the way out of Auckland harbour. The channel to the north is fairly narrow and marked with many lighthouses. Here are a few that I managed to see on our way out. The top left one is the Bean Rock light. This is off North Head of the  Hauraki Gulf at the entrance/exit of the inner harbour. It has been there since 1871. The next photo is of Rangitoto Island and its red and white striped tower. This tower was built in 1905, but it has never had a lantern room on top, just an open light. Rangitoto is a dormant volcano; it will make a real mess of the harbour when it decides to go active again.The third photo shows some ships waiting at the end of the channel for "Voyager of the Seas" to exit. The smaller ship fitted in with us, but the big car carrier decided to anchor and wait. In the background you can see Tiritiri island. On the south-eastern end of the island is Tiritiri Matangi lighthouse. Built in 1865, this is NZ's oldest active lighthouse and it and the keepers' cottages are being actively preserved. You can take a day trip to the island by ferry from Auckland. The photo was taken at extreme magnification on Dad's camera; sometimes the old guy can keep pretty still.

Labels: boats, cruising, lighthouse, New Zealand

I always try to watch from the top deck when we are leaving a port. Usually cruise ships arrive early in the morning and if the Oldies are sleeping in sometimes, I can't watch the arrival. However, the ship usually leaves late in the afternoon and I can watch that. Leaving Tauranga is one of my favourites. The channel is rather narrow and takes the ship close to Mt Manganui. People turn out in droves to watch the ship depart. The narrow beach at the base of the mountain is usually packed with them. There are also lots of channel markers, big boards with guide lights on the port side and a couple of these cute little "lighthouses" on the rocks at the starboard side. People to watch, some crazy cars on the road around the mountain trying to race the ship, lights and beacons to find; I really do enjoy leaving port. 

Labels: cruising, lighthouse, New Zealand

Our guide in Wellington, Robbie, took us all around the harbour shore. From the lookout on Mt Victoria we could see the airport. This is a tricky one for pilots. The runway is short and really large aircraft can't use it. The wind is pretty well always strong, but it varies in direction and speed quite a lot. You can find you-tube videos of some scary landings and take-offs from this airport. There are lots of small car parks around the harbour and from several of them we could see our ship. The hill behind the ship is the one that the cable car runs on; you can see photos we took from there in my November 2014 posts. Of course, harbours usually mean lighthouses. Across the harbour entrance we could see the two on Pencarrow Head that mark the northern harbour mouth. We saw these closer up on our last cruise, but the weather was too bleak to get better photos as we sailed out this time. On our side there was this small checker-board marked one at Point Halswell. This one marks the turn into the inner harbour. The area is a noted shell fishing ground and there have been several drownings of divers here. Needless to say, I wasn't given a chance to try the fishing.

Labels: boats, cruising, lighthouse, New Zealand

As I have mentioned before, cruise ships often allow you to get great pictures of lighthouses. I think that this one on Taiaroa headland is one of the prettiest. It is at the entrance to Otago harbour, the harbour for the city of Dunedin, in New Zealand. It was built in 1864. We photographed it on our 2012 cruise on "Voyager of the Seas". Cruise ships dock at Port Chalmers and passengers usually spent the day exploring the port and Dunedin. Next time we are there I want the Oldies to take a trip out to the headland. Besides the lighthouse, there is a lot to see there. The headland was the site of fairly extensive forts and you can visit the tunnels and gun emplacements. There is a fully restored 1886 Armstrong disappearing gun in one of these. I have never seen a disappearing gun and would love to see it doing its disappearing act. You can often see whales, dolphins, orcas, seals and sea lions from the headland. There are colonies of penguins on a nearby beach, and a large breeding colony of royal albatrosses that you can visit with a ranger. Definitely a target for the next time one of Dad's lecture cruises takes us to Dunedin.

Labels: cruising, lighthouse, New Zealand