Blogs from Australian Alps, Victoria, Australia, Oceania
July 31st 2009
So almost up to date now, just to fill you guys in on the last few months of work that we have been doing. After a brief stint in Melbourne we came up to Mt Baw Baw to work in the Australian ski season (who knew they had one?). We came across this job opportunity be a chance talking to some of the guys we knew in Sydney who worked here last year. The work is easy enough, it’s just fitting people out with ski’s and snowboards and pretending you know what you’re doing. Which I quite obviously don’t as every time I go out I wake up the following morning with pains in places I didn’t think existed, probably should stop bouncing on my head (neck is still stiff from that) and arse so much. ... read more
July 28th 2009
After the trip to Alice Springs we had a couple of quiet weekends relaxing and getting kit for our YHA skiing trip (at the end of July). We now have lots more stuff to pack / sell but we'll worry about that in a few months time! The highlight of this couple of weeks was probably heading to the local pub to see England's victory at Lords...very entertaining...though the landlord was threatening to charge me more for my beer for being a pom! We both worked half-days on the Friday before the skiing weekend so set off for the long drive to the snow in the early afternoon. Apparently there are some snow capped hills within a couple of hours drive of Melbourne but they aren't very reliable (lower altitude) so we were heading 4 or ... read more
Day 5 - Omeo to Khancoban
Published: February 2nd 2009Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Australian Alps
January 31st 2009
Omeo to Mitta Mitta After talking to a few locals, the general opinion was that the Omeo Highway to Mitta Mitta was the best option for a motorcycle heading in the general direction of Canberra. The first section to Anglers Rest was a repeat of my trip for lunch a couple of days ago and allowed me to replace a couple of photos that were lost on the fried memory card. When I reached the Blue Duck Inn it was not yet opening time, so I pressed on. The road to Mitta Mitta contains about 25km of dirt/gravel which was quite difficult in some spots due to the large rocks used to form the road surface. Other sections were more gravelly with banks of soft gravel built up on the outside of the wheel tracks, especially ... read more
Day 4 - Omeo and Swifts Creek
Published: February 2nd 2009Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Australian Alps
January 30th 2009
Another Hot Day It was another hot day today so I kept my lovely little campsite for another day. In the morning I paid a visit to the local historical park where the caretaker/tourguide barely paused for breath during his 'quick' guided tour of the various buildings. I could barely get a word in to ask questions, but was reluctant to do so anyway in case it extended the time of his tour in the heat. Swifts Creek A nice round-trip via the old gold-mining area of Cassilis took me to Swifts Creek Hotel for lunch and then back to Omeo to spend the afternoon lying in the creek again. Distance Travelled Today - 100km... read more
January 22nd 2009
English We did not get much more flying. There was one more flyable day yesterday. Strong northerly winds were predicted, with possible overdevelopments in the afternoon. It was decided to do an early and short task from Tawonga Gap which is not far from Mount Beauty. The 80 km task went down the Kiewa Valley to the North and then back to Mount Beauty airstrip. Most pilots were a bit sceptical about takeoff conditions as the launch faces east and is in a bowl, and the general wind direction was north. Fortunately, we had two wind techs (world class paraglider pilot Michèle from France and hangglider pilot Camo who had not been well all week and sacrificed himself), who took off before the field. So we saw that takeoff conditions were good. Manging launches was pretty ... read more
January 19th 2009
English There were not too many exciting things happening during the last week. On Monday and Tuesday, I went on Mount Emu with Wes and Chris and launched from there. Both days, it wasn't easy to get up, but finally I managed to be Sputnik, above everybody else. On Monday, I had set myself the task of thermalling up, getting out of the thermal, flying somewhere else, and then try and find the same thermal again. I did pretty well on that. Actually, I wanted to land at Mount Beauty Airstrip, but I hit such massive sink that I just made it to the bombout. On Tuesday, my plan was to fly towards Mount Bogong with Scott and some other pilots, but on my way there, I started feeling so sore and exhausted from the flying ... read more
Corryong Cup - Day 7 and results
Published: January 11th 2009Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Australian Alps
January 11th 2009
English The last day of the comp did not look very promising in the beginning. Stable conditions and quite a bit of wind. For the Open class, a 40 km task with goal at Corryong airstrip was set. The Floater task was a 20 km task to Colac Colac and then back to Corryong airstrip. Olli was still around, so he launched first and flew away. Conditions did not look good, so actually nobody wanted to go first. Pilots who were in the ordered launch had to be called several times before they finally made up their minds and launched. The wind was not perfectly on, so sometimes there was a 30 minutes break from one takeoff to the next. I thought that I'd probably have to pack up, but I decided that I'd try to ... read more
July 7th 2008
The day has started with rain and wind. Not heavy and everyone keen to get out in the snow anyway. We rugged up and headed out and threw lots of snow around and generally got wet. Doesn't matter how snow-proof your gear is, it is different when it comes to rain and slush. We had already paid for an all-day pass with a lesson but then weather was a bit wild for us so we headed in and had lunch. Once fed we headed down the Gully lift with all our gear, transferred in a bus to Falls Express and then headed up to the top of the mountain. Once on the mountain we were buffeted by the wet snow and wind. Very unpleasant for us West Aussies. I took Thomas off to his special kids ... read more
Day 2 Melbourne to Falls Creek
Published: August 2nd 2008Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Australian Alps
July 6th 2008
Up nice and early. Had to be at South Cross for a 7.30am Bus. Now that we have luggage, bags of food, wine, slabs of drinks for the kids, we had quite and eventful, short walk. Lot of cursing. Managed to get there with 20 minutes to spare so I was dispatched to get a coffee fgrom the Gloria Jeans. Armed with directions, off and none found. Eventually I got 2 Coffees from the nearby HJ's and added those to the Crispy Cream(disgusting) Donuts that Tanya got last night. A nice healthy brekky ! The bus to Falls stopped for an Early lunch and then arrived at 1.30pm. We had been warned by Paul to have our Jackets, Ski Pants, Gloves, Beanies etc on when we arrived. And yes, he was right, as we arrived in ... read more
In den australischen Alpen
Published: January 19th 2008Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Australian Alps
January 19th 2008
Das, was Euch vielleicht am meisten interessiert, direkt vorneweg: Zwischenzeitlich bin ich auch selbst endlich Drachen geflogen. So, aber ich fange mal vorne an, sprich da, wo ich das letzte Mal aufgehört habe. Die Nacht nach der Siegerehrung in Forbes war kurz, was aber nicht schlimm war - den folgenden Tag verbrachten wir nämlich im Auto. Es ging zusammen mit Lukas, Roland und Theo von Forbes nach Mount Beauty (das ist überraschenderweise ein Ort, kein Berg!), etwa 500 Kilometer entfernt. Am nächsten Tag ging direkt der Bogong Cup los, oder vielmer: Er sollte losgehen. Ich hatte ein neues Team, komfortablerweise nur aus zwei - dazu noch sehr netten - Piloten bestehend, Alex aus Brasilien und Jack aus den USA. Beide kommen zudem eigentlich immer im Ziel an. „Easy going“ für mich also. Nur machte uns direkt ... read more
