Sydney Metro

The new Sydney Metro train line opened at the weekend. It runs from Chatswood to Epping via the existing tunnel, and on out to the north-west via Cherrybrook and Castle Hill through a new tunnel. It's then up onto a viaduct beside the Windsor Road, terminating at Tallawong, just beyond Rouse Hill.



There were bumper crowds on the first day, with free rides, and a with few teething troubles too. The trains are driverless, and that's quite a big deal for many.

I waited a few days before venturing aboard myself. There were no crowds mid-morning on Tuesday. No problems with doors not opening, or trains missing their stopping spots at stations. And no mysterious breakdowns. It all went spiffingly! It was a fast, comfortable, thoroughly excellent experience.

One advantage of having no driver is that you can wander right up to the front, take up the 'driver's position' yourself, and get a terrific view out the front.

I got out at Rouse Hill, where the cathedral-like station has stained-glass windows. I had my morning coffee in the Town Centre there, and headed back.

For the time being the trains have staff members riding shotgun on them, like the chap on the left here. They do seem to be needed from time to time. Just after my inspection trip another train 'lost contact' with the control system and came to a halt. The human had to spring into action and move it on. Then on the news this morning we heard of a power outage affecting a long stretch of the line for a while.

It might be a some time yet before our state government fulfills its dream of ridding the transport system entirely of human operatives.

Jinki & Jungaburra revisited

I joined the bushwalkers on Saturday for a return visit to Jinki Ridge and Jungaburra Brook in the Blue Mountains. I wrote about our first visit two years ago here: 2017 visit

It's a gloriously scenic area and provides a satisfactorily challenging bushwalking circuit.

Here's the view across to the southern side of the Grose Valley. The pointy peak is Burramoko Head, and down to the right a bit is the infamous Hanging Rock. That's where I'll be taking a group in a couple of weeks time. Here's a piece on last year's Hanging Rock visit: 2018 Hanging Rock visit

On this trip we encountered people who were indeed hanging off rocks. There's a rock-climbing location called the Bell Supercrag. A couple of rock climbers were super-climbing up the crag, above Jungaburra Brook. There was a horrific scream at one stage. We couldn't see what had happened, but the occasional rock-climber within our party pronounced that it was indeed the sound of someone who'd had a fall. We also had a senior intensive-care specialist within our group (we're like that - a skilled and diversified bunch of bushwalkers). She decided it wasn't quite the sound of a serious injury. When we got close enough to talk to the climbers, now perched on a ledge above us, they cheerily told us everything was OK. So I think one had indeed fallen, got to dangle on his rope for a while, and then recovered and got down again.

We had a minor injury in our party. No rock-climbing involved here. Just a scrape against a protruding boulder.





One of most fun bits was climbing up out of the gorge via the ropes and steel rungs. Much easier this way though than what the rock climbers do.

More on photography too easy!

As I said the other day (earlier post) you're not supposed to be able to do astronomical photography without telescopes, tripods, cable releases etc. You're not supposed to just hold your phone in the air, point it at the moon while it's set on fully auto, and touch the shutter button. Or if you do, you don't expect an image like this one.

But this is what my high-end Huawei phone gave me!

No wonder the Americans (and Google) are worried about them!

Democracy sausages, cakes, books, & plants - the funny big sausage that's Australian democracy!

It's federal election day today. It's finally arrived. Some of us take our politics seriously, while others couldn't give a stuff, and regard voting as an unwelcome chore.

There's something for everyone at the polling booth though. The 'democracy sausage' is a big deal these days. It's often run by the relevant school's parents' fundraising group, as here at Normanhurst West Public School today.

As well as the sausage sizzle, there's a fabulous looking democracy cake stall, a democracy book stall, and a democracy plant stall.

Outside it's a very friendly atmosphere, with convivial helpers from the incumbent Liberals, the opposition Labor Party, the Greens, the Sustainable Australia, and the Australian Conservative Parties. On the Senate ballot paper there are over 30 parties listed, and 106 individual candidates. You don't have to vote for them all, but the more preferences you mark, the more likely is your vote to count fully. For the House of Representatives it's a little simpler, though you have to mark every square. Nobody understands the rules fully, even many of the party workers, I've noticed.

Somehow Australian democracy will deliver a verdict, though it could take a few days (or weeks) to assess it. Hopefully it will be a sensible verdict, involving our liberation from the current regime. Hopefully we'll have lots of Greens in the Senate supporting and guiding a new Labor Government, and keeping it on track.

The very confident Labor worker below was giving me her (hopefully not premature) victory salute.



























Next day's postscript:
I'm afraid it was indeed premature. The election went disastrously for Labor, and for all of us really. Even the exit polls were wrong, maybe implying that a disproportionate number of the victorious Coalition's voters were embarrassed to admit how they'd just voted?

Voting Tony out - a visit to Ground Zero

Your correspondent loves his election campaigns. The colour, the passion, the drama. The endings aren't always happy ones though. And in just seven days time we should know how this one ends up.

What better place to visit then than the pre-poll booth at Brookvale, in the Northern Beaches electorate of Warringah, where the sitting member is one Tony Abbott. He's a former PM, a climate denier extraordinaire and an experienced fighter and survivor.




Passions are running high around here. They're traditionally rusted-on Liberal voters, but they may well be ready for a progressive change. The leading contender for liberating them from the incumbent is independent Zali Steggall, Olympic ski champion and barrister. She has impeccable conservative credentials, but is running strongly on climate action and other progressive causes.













I met Zali's proud dad. He's a former local rugby league hero.

Early polls indicate she might just do it. Stay tuned.

Photography made (too?) easy!

I got bored with my super-cheap bottom-of-the range smartphone the other day. The camera was never much good, and it was so slow that if I wanted assistance from Google Maps, I was usually at my destination before the app finally opened.

Hence the upgrade. Not my usual half-hearted minimalist upgrade, but an upgrade to a top-of-the range super-camera, attached to a supercomputer, with a phone tacked on as a bonus too.

I tested it out on a morning stroll around the suburb, pointing-and-shooting here and there. And what do you know! Whatever you shoot, it enhances, optimises, fixes up perfectly.

Most amazing of all, you can even point-and-shoot at the night sky. No need for tripod, cable release, long exposure, special lenses. Nothing. I just held it up, pointed it at the Milky Way, and pressed the button. This is what eventuated!


Here's Mount Victoria station the other day. A difficult shot, because the big shady awning was making the station and platform extremely dark, while the sunshine outside was bright. The auto-mode camera didn't blink an eye, so to speak.

And as for the super-macro lens, in use below, what can I say? This phone has four separate cameras in fact, and it automatically switches between them as required!

Flint, steel, no goannas

The other day I reacquainted myself with Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park's Flint and Steel Beach, and some of its neighbours. It's out on the Hawkesbury River mouth, and accessed by one of the walking tracks off the West Head Rd.











You go down a nice track for a kilometre or so, and the beach is on your right. Walk a little further and you encounter the 'flint and steel' formations in the rock platforms.

I decided to check out the beaches to the west also: White Horse and Hungry Beaches. My recollection from last time I was there, 15 years or so back, was that our visit was dominated by enormous goannas monstering us and trying to make off with our lunch.

So back up the track to the junction, and then down the 'Flint and Steel Bay' track.



There was White Horse Beach. No goannas in sight though.

Maybe the goannas had been at Hungry Beach, a few hundred metres further west?




I pushed on, through largely trackless and somewhat unwelcoming terrain.

I got a view of Hungry Beach, but wasn't in the mood for further bush-bashing. The goannas could lunch without me that day, hungry or not.