Showing category "Travel" (Show all posts)

Maroondah Reservoir (14 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Sunday, June 14, 2020, In : Travel

Yesterday we did a mini road trip to Healesville to visit the Beechworth Bakery and Maroondah Reservoir Park. It was overcast but not too cold, so we walked up to the top of the dam wall and then did the Maroondah Forest Track walk back to the bottom. The track was a bit more slippery (muddy) than I would have liked, but we managed to navigate it safely and saw some beautiful scenery along the way.

Maroondah Reservoir Park is lovely, one of those really old fashioned spots with rotundas, stone...
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A History of the Future: Imagining Melbourne (28 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Tuesday, June 28, 2016, In : Travel

There's a lovely little free exhibition on at the City Gallery in Melbourne Town Hall at the moment, called "A History of the Future: Imagining Melbourne". It runs until 12 August 2016 and features stories and images of ideas for development in and around the Melbourne CBD over the years.

There are proposals for elevated pedestrian walkways, canals, bizarre building designs, underground trams, pyramids and autogiro buses. There is also information about some design proposals that actually did ...
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The Light in Winter (3 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Friday, June 3, 2016, In : Travel

Last night I caught up with a good friend for dinner in the city. As we walked towards Flinders St Station at the end of the night, our eyes were caught by the illuminated buildings of Federation Square, which were covered in colourful patterns. I wandered over for a closer look, and learnt that the light installation was part of Fed Square's tenth anniversary The Light in Winter.

The light projections on the building facades are called Federation Squared, created by Reko Rennie and The Electr...
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A day at NGV International (19 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Friday, June 19, 2015, In : Travel

I had a fantastic Friday last week, catching up with my friend Julie at NGV International.

After a short pause to stick my finger in the water wall (very important), and gawk at the Great Hall's beautiful stained glass ceiling, we headed to the NGV cafe for a cuppa and a chat. We went to the fancy one upstairs, which is a bit quieter than the ground level cafe, so we had a lovely long chat :) The drinks (tea and hot chocolate) were lovely, and generous.

Stained glass ceiling of the Great Hall, NGV International

We visited the NGV to see the Exquisite T...
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Molecule of Light (4 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Thursday, June 4, 2015, In : Travel

Last week I posted a couple of photos of a strange new art installation in Federation Square (known locally as Fed Square). It reminded a few people of H. G. Wells' War of the Worlds, for obvious reasons! The information signs were mysterious, simply saying that more details would be revealed soon ...

Well now it has a name! Officially launched on 1 June, it's called "Molecule of Light" by artist Chris Levine. This laser installation radiates a constantly moving series of colours and patterns,...
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Nightcliff jetty

Posted by Sally Cummings on Sunday, April 7, 2013, In : Travel

Last weekend (the Easter long weekend) marked the end of the busiest time of year for a liaison librarian in an academic library. The beginning of first semester is incredibly busy, with heaps of classes to plan, prepare and deliver - as well as an orientation program to run, lecturers to assist with unit readings, and of course lots and lots of students needing help.

So it was lovely to have a few days off to relax and enjoy myself, for what felt like the first time in months!

On Saturday afte...
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Humidity

Posted by Sally Cummings on Sunday, February 3, 2013, In : Travel

Tim recently complained about me steaming up the bathroom with my hot shower. Fair enough too - the last thing you want in this humidity is to have more steaminess added on top of it. Except I hadn't had a hot shower. I'd had a cold shower. Just like I have every day for the last 2 or 3 months (though the cold water is never really cold at this time of year). Darwin is a very hot and humid place right now.

This wet season has been disappointing - not very wet at all. We've had one really lovel...
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Territory Day (aka cracker night)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, July 2, 2012, In : Travel

The 1st of July is Territory Day - the only day of the year when any man and his dog can buy fireworks and set them off to their hearts' content. Which is why it's also known here as cracker night.

There's a big official fireworks display from Mindil beach, but the main event is really happening all over Darwin (and the rest of the Northern Territory too). Pay packets are blown on pyrotechnics, and the sky is filled with bright lights and the smell of gunpowder.

We went along to Fannie Bay, whe...
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A friendly hermit crab (30 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, June 30, 2012, In : Travel

On a recent visit to East Point Reserve, I picked up a pretty shell and got quite a shock when this little fellow crawled out to say hello!

Tim is much braver than I am around creepy crawlies, so the photo is of his hand of course. It was quite fascinating to watch the hermit crab pop in and out of its shell, and explore Tim's hand freely. I filmed a short video of it, which I've uploaded so that you can watch it too :)

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Wycliffe Well, UFO capital of Australia (25 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, June 25, 2012, In : Travel

They take the title of "UFO capital of Australia" pretty seriously in Wycliffe Well, Northern Territory. In doing so, they've certainly set themselves apart from all of the other small localities that are dotted along the Stuart Highway, which tend to blend together in the memories of that long, long road trip.

It's a great place to stop and stretch your legs, grab some lunch and a beer, and buy some gorgeously tacky UFO souvenirs! The walls of the cafe are lined with newspaper reports of UFO ...
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Beautiful Darwin sunsets (23 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, June 23, 2012, In : Travel

There's something magical about watching the sun set over the water at Mindil Beach here in Darwin. The crowds on market nights make it a wonderful shared experience as we grab something yummy from the food and drink stalls and make our way to the beach to see what kind of show the sky will give us. Of course it's different every time, depending on the shapes of the clouds or the amount of smoke in the atmosphere (there are always fires burning somewhere nearby during the dry season).

But do y...
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Mangrove Boardwalk (11 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, June 11, 2012, In : Travel

Darwin has many beautiful beaches, though they are somewhat let down by the fact that you can't swim at any of them because of the ever-present dangers of crocodiles, sharks and stingers ...

But much of Darwin's coastline is also made up of mangroves and mudflats. Today we went for a walk along the Mangrove Boardwalk in East Point Reserve.

The mangroves have a strange beauty all of their own, and their complex root systems are fascinating. These photos were taken at low tide. The same scene wou...
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Out and about in Darwin (9 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, June 9, 2012, In : Travel

This is just a "what I did today" post - they tend to be more prevalent during the #blogjune challenge ;)

In the morning we visited the Alawa shops to see the new location of Dragonfly Fabrics. They're Darwin's only specialist quilting shop, and have the most amazing selection of fabrics, especially Japanese designs. They also have lots of other embroidery and sewing goodies. And you can't go to Alawa without stopping in at Dimitrios Speciality Cakes for the most beautiful cakes and Greek past...
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Manton Dam (5 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Tuesday, June 5, 2012, In : Travel

Manton Dam is located about 70km south of Darwin. It was constructed during World War II, as were many of Darwin's major infrastructure projects, and was Darwin's first reliable water supply. Now it's used as an emergency water source only - the rest of the time it's a popular recreation spot for boating and fishing, and a valuable conservation area.

The short walk to the dam wall is very pretty, and at its end you are rewarded with a lovely view of crashing water over the curved wall. You can...
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A lovely day in Warrandyte

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, March 10, 2012, In : Travel

In a burst of sanity a few weeks ago, I convinced myself to stop working and get out of the house for a day! Warrandyte is one of our favourite nearby locations for a day trip, so Tim and I took ourselves there for a break from our too-busy lives.

I love visiting Warrandyte for its beautiful location alongside the Yarra River, as well as its wonderful collection of shops and cafes. On this particular day, we stuck to the riverside shops - but there are many more more places to visit and explor...
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A real treat!

Posted by Sally Cummings on Sunday, October 16, 2011, In : Travel

The ALIA Top End Symposium was on last weekend, and the following day I headed off to Alice Springs where I spent a week working at the campus library there. So I have heaps that I want to blog about, but I'm going to start with an unsual experience I had in Alice this week.

My colleague Leonie took me on a tour of the uni campus - she was a great guide and introduced me to lecturers and staff all over campus. One of the highlights of my campus tour, though, was meeting a staff member called S...
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Back on the boat (29 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Wednesday, June 29, 2011, In : Travel

We flew down to Melbourne at Easter to buy a new (second-hand) car to drive back to Darwin. On the way, we collected our boat from the friend who was kindly looking after it for us. After doing a bit of maintenance work on the boat after it being in storage, we recently took it out on its maiden voyage in Darwin :) We set out on a lovely Sunday afternoon from the Dinah Beach boat ramp in Stuart Park. The weather was just beautiful, and the water was calm. It was so great to get the boat on t...
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India at Mindil (25 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, June 25, 2011, In : Travel

This evening we went along to India at Mindil - a cultural festival featuring food, music and dancing that was held at Mindil Beach.

To be honest, I was underwhelmed. We bought palak paneer from one of the food stalls, and found it to be distinctly less than hot - so much so that we worried about the food safety aspect. It was a bit of a measly serve too. We made up for it with a yummy fruit shake, but in that case were let down by poor customer service.

The crowds were huge, with lots of jostl...
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Sunday night at Nightcliff Jetty (13 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, June 13, 2011, In : Travel

I promised that I'd do another blog post featuring Darwin sunsets, so here it is :) Last Sunday, we decided to get some hot chips and help ourselves to a sunset view at Nightcliff jetty. It turns out we weren't the only ones who had the same idea - it was absolutely packed! But there was enough coastline and enough sunset for everyone, so we eventually found somewhere to park the car and pulled out the picnic blanket to enjoy the view. I'll let the photos do the rest of the talking (larger ...
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Glenti (11 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, June 11, 2011, In : Travel

Today we went along to the Greek Glenti festival, held each year in the parklands alongside the Esplanade in Darwin. It was a much bigger event than I had imagined. There were lots of very busy food stalls selling souvlaki, yiros, octopus, oysters, spanakopita, moussaka, honey puffs, baklava, and a whole lot of other sweets that I don't know the names of. Music was playing in the central stage area, and kids in traditional costumes were dancing. And somewhat to my surprise, there were carniva...
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Fannie Bay, milkshakes and fish & chips (7 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Tuesday, June 7, 2011, In : Travel

I didn't really intend for this month's blog posts to be of the "what I did today" variety. Mostly because a mixture of the wet season, assignments, work and tiredness over the last few months have meant that I don't usually do very much that's worth reporting on. But now that the semester is over, assignments are finished, work is settling down and the weather is so much better, I'm finding that I'm getting out and about a bit more. And since the original intent of this blog was to keep my f...
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Saturday night at Cullen Bay (5 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Sunday, June 5, 2011, In : Travel

You can't spend all of your time studying - sometimes you need to get out and remind yourself that there's life away from the computer. On Saturday I pined for the beautiful day outside while I was stuck in the study, but when evening approached it was time to take a break and get some fresh air. Tim and I decided to get some dinner at Cullen Bay, but first we stopped off at the boat ramp near the Darwin Ski Club in Fannie Bay. Checking out boat ramps is a regular activity for us, especially...
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Hello dry season! (2 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Thursday, June 2, 2011, In : Travel

This is the blog post where I gloat about the beautiful weather in Darwin :)

While you've all been enjoying spring, summer and autumn, here in Darwin we had the build-up (also known as the suicide season because the weather is *that* bad) and the wet season (along with a record-breaking 3 metres of rain!).

But now that you're all turning the heaters on for winter, it's Darwin's turn to shine. The dry season.

About a month ago, the weather in Darwin turned and the dry season arrived. The transiti...
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Tropical Cyclone Carlos

Posted by Sally Cummings on Tuesday, May 31, 2011, In : Travel

Alternative title: My first cyclone

Yes, I know. This blog post is ridiculously out of date (three months late!). But I couldn't just leave it languishing in my drafts folder forever, so it's time to finish it off and get it out there :)

Way back in February I wrote about the formation of what was to become Tropical Cyclone Carlos. On the 15th of February, we watched the weather graduate from lots of rain, to tropical low, to cyclone watch, to cyclone warning ...

My last blog post left off on th...
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So this is the wet season!

Posted by Sally Cummings on Tuesday, February 15, 2011, In : Travel

7.00pm

This blog post has been updated a few times since I started writing it this morning. It's changed from a "boy it's wet" post to a "OMG cyclone!" post *lol* - you can see my earlier scribblings below :)

The wind is really picking up now and the lights are flickering, so I'm going to turn the computer off when I've uploaded this blog post (although I'll try to keep up with the news via my laptop and wireless connection). I'm sure we'll be absolutely fine - our house is built to code, and t...
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Fun with frogs

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, November 29, 2010, In : Travel

The frogs in our garden are going crazy. They're barking, belching, quacking, grunting and honking. Loudly.

Apparently some people enjoy this noise. Nuh. I don't get it.

The last time the frogs were this loud, this is what we found in the morning:

These frisky frogs were in our pool. We chased them out - and snapped a couple of photos ;) - but soon discovered that they had left something behind in the water. Hundreds and hundreds of little frog eggs. You can see some of them in this photo (upper...
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Strahan (7 June)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, June 7, 2010, In : Travel

I'm in the mood for sharing some photos :)

I've just uploaded to Flickr a collection of photos taken on a trip to Strahan, on Tasmania's west coast, in August 2006.

We flew from Melbourne to Burnie to meet up with a friend who was working there at the time, then drove down to the pretty township of Strahan. We went for a walk along the beach, explored the town and had dinner at the pub. I loved our accommodation at Risby Cove - complimentary port! The next day we went on an amazing Gordon River...
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Advent Calendar - Day 18 (Out and about in Melbourne)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Friday, December 18, 2009, In : Travel

In my previous post, I mentioned that I went along to the #socialmelb tweetup for a spot of creative bartering this morning. It was held at Mr Tulk Cafe in the State Library of Victoria. And it was the beginning of a very enjoyable day in and around the city for Tim and I.

After we left Mr Tulk Cafe, we did a spot of window shopping in Melbourne Central. We were hoping to finish our remaining Christmas shopping, but had no luck in that department. So we popped into a cafe for something to eat ...
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Advent Calendar - Day 12 (Camping)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Saturday, December 12, 2009, In : Travel

We bought a new camping mattress today, one of those foam mattresses that fold up rather than roll up. Our old camping mattress finally died after many years of loyal service - it previously belonged to my parents, and to my grandparents before that! Tim and I have tried roll-up foam mats, inflatable mattresses, and those expensive self-inflating camping mattresses, but nothing was as comfortable as that old fold-up foam mattress. I hope we get a few good years out of this new one!

Although Ti...
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Canberra - love it or hate it...

Posted by Sally Cummings on Tuesday, October 20, 2009, In : Travel

Canberra is a city that seems to arouse strong emotions in people. Whilst a small proportion of the population may simply think it's 'okay' or 'nice', the vast majority appear to either love it or hate it. I certainly know plenty of people in both camps!

Me? I am firmly in the 'love it' category!

I lived in Canberra from 1999 to 2002. I moved there from Melbourne to take up a position with a large government department as part of their graduate program. I stayed for four years, working in a var...
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6 days in Hobart (Part 2)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Tuesday, June 9, 2009, In : Travel

Sunday was museum day, and we started out at the Maritime Museum. I have a thing for swashbuckling tales of adventure, so was interested to find out more about Hobart's rich maritime history. More models of ships than I personally needed to see, but great stories made it a worthwhile visit.

Mum and I then went on to the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, which provided an interesting combination of fact and fantasy. I loved the Antarctic exhibition, which included a 3D theatrette for viewing so...

6 days in Hobart (Part 1)

Posted by Sally Cummings on Monday, June 8, 2009, In : Travel

A couple of weeks ago, my mum and I took a trip together to Hobart, Tasmania. I figured I'd better write a blog entry about it now, while I have access to a working computer :). I've also uploaded some pics to my Flickr account.

We had a slow start, with fog in Melbourne delaying take-off for almost 3 hours. But happily that did not foreshadow any further problems! We stayed at Hadleys Hotel in Hobart's CBD. This historic hotel was built in 1834 by convict labor, and we found it to be well lo...