Machu Pictures

Hello again. Is anyone reading the blog at all?

Here is a picture from the next country I visited in South America, Peru. Machu Picchu is very famous of course, and I took rather a lot of photos, as you can imagine, but this is one of the best and is slightly different to the classic view you often see of the site.

Machu Picchu was built as a kind of country palace retreat for one of the Inca, the rulers of a great empire that ruled much of the western part of South America up to the 16th century. It is built high on a mountain with near vertical sides and was constructed with stone from the top of the mountain itself. The road leading up to the site is very winding and steep.

When I got there it was almost impossible to see anything, as the cloud was very low and it was raining. After a couple of hours though it began to clear and I spent another couple of hours just sitting round and looking at the excellent view.

It is of course a very busy place, with over 1,000 tourists a day (about the same number of people as would have lived there). The city was abandoned just before the Spanish conquest (the Spanish never found it) and was overgrown until archaeologists cleared and began to restore it in 1911.

BananaCam - Worst fears confirmed

Just over a week ago we received extensive heavy rainfall across the state. This was great for the farmers, some had not seen significant rain for nearly ten years. That was the good news now for the bad news. The driving rain and gales force winds wiped out the poor little purple pod. The BananaCam crew have decided not to post images of the pod's last days as they are far too disturbing for our readers.

The crew heard on the grapevine that there was a well established plant behind the chook shed but they would have to be quick if they wanted to see this plant. It seems the whole area was scheduled for clear felling.

Careful planning is required before entering a Western Sydney suburban rain forest. This inhospitable habitat is infested with brown snakes and blue tongued lizards. The crew were in total agreement that Warren accompany them. In fact it was mission critical that he did so. You may recall that Warren was the fairy on our Christmas tree for a couple of years. Warren is quite a remarkable bear. He is a team player with a can-do attitude displaying highly developed problem solving skills and is well equipped for a multitasking environment. Warren was tasked on this mission to be the snake and lizard detector. This role is not unlike that undertaken by a canary down a Welsh coal mine.

With the Barbarians at the gates our intrepid BananaCam crew penetrated the dense rain forest to bring you the images shown here. Here we have a Luvelly Bunch of Bananas, sing along if you must.

Here we are down at the pod end, you can just see a few little ones developing. Shortly after the BananaCam mission was completed the whole area was raised to the ground, total devastation.

We have sent condolences to B1 and B2 at Bananas in Pyjamas who we understand are grief stricken and under sedation.

The hero of this mission was Warren. We wanted to show his picture here but he is a shy and retiring bear, not one to blow his own trumpet. Don,t think he can actually, you need lungs for starters. We shall try and talk him in to having an interview with us soon.

Well there we are the end of an era, the chooks have gone, bananas gone and even the grapevine. Now is there any interest in a MangoCam?

Pinch of salt

This is the world's largest salf flat and is situated in southern Bolivia. I took the picture when I was there last October. Reaching the salt flats from Chile, involved climbing over the Altiplano at almost 5,200 metres and into this desolate area of Bolivia. The salt field is what remains of an ancient lake. It stretches for almost 5,000 square miles and is estimated to contain over 10 billion tons of salt. Some of this salt is mined. I visited a village where the people dig the salt from the ground, grind it and bag it up. They get just one US dollar per kilo. They also build with the salt. There are a couple of buildings on the plain which are built entirely from blocks of salt. The surroundings are very surreal, as the mountains around the salt flat and the islands within it appear to float on the horizon. You can drive for miles across before you can see the island you are heading for. People who drive across really have to know the flats, as people often get lost and stranded out here. In the picture, you can see two little black dots. These were two Germans who were motorbiking through South America.

Cambelltown Steam & Machinery Museum

Last Sunday Yues insisted that we take a trip out to the CSMM which was holding a Field Day. It's located about an hours drive southwest of Sydney. Directions for getting there from our place: Go to Pendle Hill and take the Cumberland Highway passing through Guildford, Fairfield, Smithfield to Liverpool and then the Hume Highway to Campbelltown. Try that route on your maps!!!

I reckon Yues made me take her out to this place so she could meet up with her old flame Fred Flinstone. He his carved out an old gum tree, seems well preserved, no sign of white ants, bit like myself.

It was a great autumn day, this can be the best time of the year for us. Cool to cold nights and warm sunny days. The only problem was taking photos, due to the sun being so low this time of year causing deep dark shadows.

Much of the machinery is quite ancient and a lot was imported from the UK. Manchester is well represented, saw a huge diesel engine made by Crossley's in Openshaw. I used to see the engines being assembled at their factory when on my way to Openshaw Technical College. Did six years of days and nights at that place with no early release for good behaviour. Where did it get me? Transportation to Botany Bay for the rest of me natural.

Here is a shot of the old traction engine at the coal bunker. To me it gives a good impression of what the bush looks like when partially cleared for farmimg. Many of guys driving the machines wore period costume, these blokes had bowler hats and west cot's.

Not good news from the BananaCam crew they are holding a wake, news is a little sketchy at the moment but there is rumour of massive deforestation having taken place in the area. Will keep you informed as news comes to hand.

Mountains of granite

This picture was taken in the Torres del Paine National Park in southern Chile, about 1,500 miles from the capital, Santiago. It is a beautiful area, with glaciers, massive granite towers and beautiful lakes. This is the central group of mountains, called the Cordillera del Paine and the picture was taken from the campsite where I stayed in the park. When I got to the park the weather was bad and all the peaks were covered. The following two days, however, were beautiful and clear and I was lucky to be able to see all the peaks. The main peaks you can see in this range are called the Cuernos (Horns) and behind them are the famous Torres (Towers).

I did a couple of lovely walks in this area, which enabled me to get closer to the mountain peaks and I got some fantastic views. Years ago I had a calendar full of photos of these mountains and never realised they were actually so accessible.

BananaCam Update 4 May 2007

Well it has been a week of fast paced action at BananaCam, the crew are looking forward to a hard earned rest over the weekend. Earlier in the week we had a cool change and there was some concern for the little ones.

Here is a look at the plant, the quads are just below the bunch of bananas, think the term is a hand. Well, if I was in that big bunch I would be a bit worried, Helen's boyfriend is a vegetarian!

Here are the quads they seem to be getting along fine, putting on weight nicely.

As you can see there has been heaps going on down at the pod end, you might just say it has been going bananas.

Walkden Gardens

We have seen lots of laburnum arches, and very beautiful they are. So we decided to look for a wisteria arch. I put it in a search and the first entry came up as Walkden Gardens in Sale!

I wondered why we had not heard of the place until I looked at the history of the garden and found that the area was not given to the local council until 1983 - almost 25 years after I had left the grammar schhol next door. The photo does not really do the arch the justice it deserves; all you locals should go to see it quickly before the flowers fade. Most of the work seems to be done by volunteers and lots of events are held there during the year. There are several small gardens including a new Japanese garden. There is also a dovecote that was rescued when the work was being done on the M60. It was taken to pieces bit by bit and relocated.

While we were in the area, we went along to Fairywell Road to see if the house had changed much, and what a surprise. We went down the back first and saw a building almost as wide as the garden. At first we thought it may be a new garage, but it wasn't [and because there were workers there, we could not investigate further]

When we went to the front, there was another surprise. The garden has gone! In its place there is grave and flags, with a car parked on it. It would be good to see what has gone on inside too, but no chance of that.

Hope everyone is enjoying this beautiful weather. We are off to Scotland next week, so hope it holds.

Queen Mary 2 Sydney Harbour

This shot shows the QM2 going around Fort Denison before berthing at the navy's Garden Island dockyard. The Opera House is behind her but can't be seen due to her size. About now it was getting a bit like the fairground dodgems with all the small boats milling around and this huge ship trying to do a U-turn.

This is a nice shot of the city skyline on the right is Fort Denison which dates back to the early days of settlement. Originally it was an outcrop of rocks which was levelled off to build a prison. The locals called it Pinchgut on account of the meagre food rations. Later on a cannon tower was constructed. It is a Martello Tower, it seems the cannons were installed and then the tower was built, it's the only way to do it. It came as a surprise for me to learn that Fort Denison and the gun emplacements along the harbour were designed to fend off a possible Russian invasion.

Here is the fire tug that escorted the QM2 in to the harbour. This shot shows her heading back home for the crew to have breakfast, was a bit of a early start that day. Not sure if you can read the tugs name? She is the "Ted Noffs" named after the late pastor of the Wayside Chapel in Kings Cross.

Ted was a great guy, did much work in for those who had dropped out of society, this did not go down too well with the establishment of the time. Ted married Yues and myself back in '73 and also held the naming ceremony for our Helen. This is the last of Sydney Harbour from me, by now it must seem more familiar to you than Morecambe Bay!!!