Photos: Hiking Wahroonga to Mt Kuring-gai

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Posted on by Brad Heap
Start of the fire trail

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I spent today hiking 16km from Wahroonga train station to Mt Kuring-gai station via Bobbin Head in the Ku-ring-Gai Chase National Park.

The hike starts out with a 3km walk from the station through the suburbs of Wahroonga to the start of a fire trail. It is always fun walking through an urban area with hiking boots, packs and poles. The first section of the track proper is a fire trail that runs along a ridge for a few kilometers before narrowing and dropping into a track that runs along Cockle Creek through to Bobbin Head. Along this first fire trail we encountered a very small red belly black snake that we initially all stepped over assuming to be a branch. After having lunch at Bobbin Head we then continue on the trails that run alongside Cowan Creek before climbing up to Mt Kuring-gai.

The photos below show some of the highlights of the trip.

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Adventures in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

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Posted on by Brad Heap
Looking down on Akuna Bay from the Ellis trig point

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This afternoon I went with a mate for an adventure through the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park which is north of Sydney. Below is a selection of photos from the adventure. The afternoon was spent randomly stopping on the sides of roads to take photos, racing down small hiking trails, and a bit of bush whacking. The highlight of the trip was coming across a wallaby. Continue reading →

The Daily Show on Gun Control in Australia

Posted on by Brad Heap

A few years ago The Daily Show used to air on ABC2 in Sydney, however, this is no longer the case and most video clips are blocked online too.

Despite this, the past few episodes have aired a segment comparing gun control in Australia to the United States. These clips have been posted to YouTube by Comedy Central and are embeded below.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

I particularly love part three.

Photos: Top Gear Festival Sydney On Track Events

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Posted on by Brad Heap
The Stig

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Over the weekend was the Top Gear Festival at Sydney Motorsport Park, Eastern Creek.

This is the first set of photos I’m going to post, it is of some of the on track events, the other posts will cover the static displays, and the racing.

The highlight of the weekend was the F1 vs V8 vs Moto GP, which I have also embeded two videos of.

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Random goings-on in life

Posted on by Brad Heap

I really haven’t blogged much in the last twelve months. There have been times I have bookmarked some stuff to comment on but by the time I have decided to blog about it the moment or issue has passed.

Anyway at the moment my head is a mixup of random comments and thoughts about lots of things going on, so I thought I would just post them all down in one random blog post to get it out there:

  • When was the last weekend in Sydney that it didn’t rain! I’ve just got home from a walk and I am soaked.
  • I have started writing up my thesis and will hopefully be completed mid year. At this stage I have just cracked through 16,000 words and 70+ pages which is now the longest document I have ever written. I am sure I will come back later in the year and laugh at celebrating 16,000 words but right now it is a small win.
  • The first race of this year’s V8 Supercar season kicks off this afternoon. I am pretty happy that Shane van Gisbergen is on pole. With the new manufacturers in the game my loyalty is Holden, Ford, Mercedes, Nissan. I think the new merc looks and sounds amazing, but I bleed red and won’t openly cheer for anything but Holden.
  • I am currently reading the book Losing the head of Philip K. Dick. which is about android-like robots. It is a rather interesting read, however, I am getting both humour and frustration out of the portrayal of artificial intelligence, engineers and scientists in the book as it is written by a psychology perspective.
  • I have finally got a Kindle Paperwhite, so far I am using it to read every morning, the screen is amazing, lying in bed in low morning light and being able to see the text without any light on, or super bright screen glare is awesome.
  • I’ve been thinking recently about the things that give you geek cred after a 12 year old app developer spoke at TED, while I haven’t seen the video I remember two highlights of geekiness from my childhood include learning HTML and building websites at 11 years old and hacking a firmware update to my family’s internet router when I was 16 so that when they powered it off it wouldn’t reset all their account information.
  • I got myself a NLT bible, for lent I have decide to read a new testament letter every morning, so far I have been successful.
  • And why is it always when you go to brain dump stuff, you get a few things out and then forget, or can’t work out how to word everything else you wanted to post? I will keep editing this as more things come to me.

Rangitoto

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Posted on by Brad Heap
P1180211

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I spent today climbing up Rangitoto Island in the Hauraki Gulf with my sister.

This is the first time I have been on Rangitoto in almost 15 years – I last went up as kid in intermediate school.

The island is a great day out and depite our slow walking pace we explored the summit, lava caves, and ferns and still had an hour left to wait for the return ferry.

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NSW Fire Danger Simply Frightening

Posted on by Brad Heap

Tomorrow will see what is being called the worst fire conditions ever in NSW.

Sydney is forecast to hit 43c, with fire conditions listed at the second highest rating of extreme. South of Sydney conditions are listed as catastrophic, there is a state wide fire ban and all National Parks are closed.

For me this is simply frightening. I am fortunate to live in central Sydney and will only have to deal with the extreme heat – and potentially smoke if fires do break out. The hottest day I have ever had previous to this is 41c and I hid inside until the cool wind change hit – unfortunately for tomorrow that isn’t due until 3am.

One can only hope that terrible fires won’t break out.

NSW Fire Danger

2012 Annual Blog Statistics

Posted on by Brad Heap

These are some stats from Google Analytics, the figures from 2011 are in brackets.

Overall in 2012 there were about 2,500 fewer visits, from 1,900 fewer visitors than in 2011. This is also off the back of a similar decline in the year before. However, during the last two years there has been a large reduction in the quantity of posts to the site.

Total

  • Visits: 14,714 (17,175)
  • Unique Visitors: 13,371 (15,313)
  • Page Views: 24,504 (26,609)

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