Tassie Adventure. Day 2

I was woken up bright and early by some bloody noisy birds so I figured I may as well get up. After packing the tent, swag and getting changed I hit the road at 06:30. It was a very easy drive as its double lanes and not a lot of traffic but it also not a particularly interesting or scenic drive. I had decided to refuel body and car at a roadhouse just before Seymour but they had closed off all their fuel pumps, so it was back onto the highway. Around here I noticed that it was getting very windy but it wasn't until I got out of the car at Wallan to refuel that I realised it had also got chilly. 

I also had a spot of lunch here before getting the GPS app on the iPhone fired up to make sure I could find my way to the dock. I was doing well until I got off one exit early but the app recalculated and got me there no worries. The parking around sea front was hard to come by and expensive so I dropped back a couple of blocks and found a 2 Hr spot. I then went for a walk and found out where I had to go to get on the ferry. 

Then I had to kill another hour or two until boarding so I continued to walk around the sea front before wandering back to the car to get ready. Then at 16:30 I drove to gate and then proceeded to wait in three different queues before finally boarding at 18:00. Nearly ready to go, the ocean recliners are not looking too comfortable so I may not get too much sleep tonight. 

Hopefully not too many other people will be crowded into this area as they will have to put up with my snoring. 

Tassie Adventure. Day 1

I got up at 5 am showered, put the last of my gear in the car and headed off at 5:30 am, powered by an Ice Break Iced Coffee. The weather was perfect for driving and there wasn't that much traffic on the road, so I was able to cover a lot of distance. The only really slow spot was Coffs Harbour and the odd toilet break. I refuelled the car and me at the fake Ayers Rock at North Arm Cove and stopped off briefly to catch up with some Overlander Forum friends camping at Norm's place for the weekend. 

Then it was back on the road heading to Sydney. I missed one turn early on but the GPS soon got me on track and it was an easy run out to the M7. The Hume highway is an easy drive and being able to cruise on 110 km/hr meant I was making good time. 

I got into Goulburn just after 6pm NSW time and checked into the local caravan park. I set the tent up and went off for dinner at Maccas before refuelling the car on the way back to camp. 

It wasn't until after the nice warm shower that I started to feel tired but now I'm ready for a nice early night in the swag.  I ended up covering about 1050 km during nearly 12 hours of travelling. Looks like the SPOT tracker is working fine now so it must have just been a battery problem. I'll head off early in the morning to Melbourne which is only about 650 kms away, so I should be there in plenty of time for the ferry loading which starts about 5:30 pm.  

WD My Passport Wireless

Just got a WD My Passport Wireless 1 TB drive for my upcoming Tassie trip. It is a battery powered hard disk with builtin WiFi and an SD card reader. When I fill up a sd card on my camera I can copy the photos to the hard disk for backup and then access them from my iOS and Android devices via the builtin wifi and the WD Apps. So once all the photos are on the disk I can copy just the images I want for my blog posts to the iPad (via wifi) to write the blog. When I get home the disk will connect to my iMac as an external USB 3 device making it pretty fast to copy the photos and movies onto the computer. 

The battery life is supposed to be 6 hours and it charges from a USB port, so I shouldn't have any problems powering it from the car on the trip. For those with kids it is also a media centre and can play back movies to several (5 I think, has builtin DLNA server) wifi connected devices. I got it for $246 from Hardly Normal and I think it is also available at Officeworks and JB HiFi for roughly the same price.  The details and specifications are here :- http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=1330

I've had an initial play now with the drive and the iOS app and can see they have some idiosyncrasies. For instance I have copied photos and movies from both my camera sd card and my GoPro micro-sd card (in an adapter) and in theory they go into a DCIM directory similar to the file structure seen on the camera sd card but that directory doesn't show up in its iOS app file browser. You can see the photos and movies only from its own "Photos" and "Movies" browser but with no folder support you just see a long list of the appropriate files which won't be too useful with several thousand photos stored. I may have to go full nerd and turn on the ftp server function and use that to transfer files. Disconnecting and reconnecting to the drive solved the problem of not seeing the imported sd card directory. Looks like each sd card ends up with its own directory, so I can separate out the GoPro photos and movies from the ones taken using my Sony camera. The WD android app on my Nexus 7 also seems to work in a similar fashion and allows access to the saved files. 

In a pleasant surprise I took the above photo using my iPhone and then started editing this blog (using Blogger) on the iPhone, inserted the image and then saved as a draft. I then went to my iPad opened Blogger and the draft showed up there ready for editing, I initially thought the draft may have been stored locally on the iPhone but no it was stored on the Blogger server. :) :) :)

However, I tried editing using the Blogger app on the Nexus 7 and it also saw the draft but proceeded to crash and burn when I tried to edit and save this text. :( :( :(

Unfortunately, the blogger app also doesn't seem to recognize the emoji from the iOS keyboard, so I had to revert to good old ascii smilies and sad faces. :( :)

Sundown National Park, Qld. Labour Day Long-weekend.

While my home iMac is being backed up prior to loading a new operating system (Yosemite - MacOSX 10.10) I thought I should get around to catching up with my travel blog and write up the trip to Sundown National Park over the Qld Labour Day Long weekend in October. As we were meeting up at the quite reasonable hour of 10 am at the Beaudesert Maccas, I was able to have a bit of a sleep-in as the car was packed and I just had to strap the OzTent to the roof racks. I left home at around 8 am and had an uneventful trip to Beaudesert with hardly any long weekend traffic to hold me up. I got there a little early so picked a newspaper, a sausage roll and an iced coffee from the local shops and had a second Brekky in the park. Then it was off to Maccas to meet up with Adam and Meagan, Josh and Phil, unfortunately Kemsley had been kept back at work (in Mackay from memory) and wouldn't be able to make it away. 

We left Beaudesert around 10ish and headed south towards Rathdowney where we saw heaps of motorbikes and their riders meeting up on some sort of organised trip. We turned off towards Boonah to take the back way to Stanthorpe and avoid any holiday traffic. This involved going past Lake Maroon, White Swamp and Legume and staying on as many gravel roads as possible. We got into Stanthorpe around midday and found a little bakery open and proceeded to have a very pleasant lunch before continuing on south towards Ballandean. We stopped quickly on the way so that Adam could fuel up as he was the only one of us without long range fuel tanks. Then onto the national park where after a short stop to let some air out of the tyres we headed off to our camp site at Reedy camp ground. The road in was rough as usual with lots of dust and rocks but taking it slowly meant we coped quite easily although at one stage Phil had the return of a problem where the engine would cut out but it disappeared after he switched from lpg to petrol. 

We got to the camp grounds at about 4 pm and found only one other family there, so we set up camp on a reasonably flat piece of ground around a nice campfire pit. 

It was about now when Adam wanted to go for a bit of drive that he found out that his main battery hadn't survived the rough roads but he was able to jump start the car easily using his auxiliary battery. After making the short drive to have a look at the Burroughs waterhole camp ground, Adam came back and proceeded to go into fire bug mode and got the camp fire going. We had several bags of firewood for each evening so he was able to pile the wood on, with the rest of us sitting around with drinks and some cheese, dips and crackers. I got the quadcopter out for a bit of a fly but stuffed up the filming on its first run, which also scared the Kangaroos off, I then swapped batteries and had another go which was much more successful. Then it was time to cook dinner as it was getting a bit dark and we ended up back around the campfire for some more drinks and chatting, before heading to bed around 10'ish.

We slept in a little in the morning before having a leisurely breakfast. Then at around 9'ish we headed off for a drive, stopping in at the other camp ground to make use of the pit toilets and to see how crowded it was. All the spots along the river were taken and there wasn't a lot of space left, so we were glad we opted for the less crowded camp ground. Then it was off for a bit of a drive down the wombat hole hill along the creek, finally crossing over the river at the rock shelf with only a little bit of scrapping. 

It was about now that Phil noticed that one of his rear tyres was low so he added some air to it and kept driving carefully. It wasn't long before it became apparent he would have to change it, so we started to look for a nice shady flat spot off the road to do this, however the good spots were taken with campers. We ended up crossing another part of the creek and then found somewhere that the change could happen while we had some morning tea. 

While Adam helped Phil change tyres, I was being closely questioned by another group about the conditions on the Canning Stock Route as they heading there in May of next year. One guy was definitely going to have fun as he was driving a V8 petrol Landcruiser and was going to need a fuel drop well before the halfway point. Some video shot by someone else in his party showed that he used speed and momentum just a little too much in his earlier hill climb where he had the front end of the Landcruiser well and truly up in the air. After the tyre was changed we explored a little more before crossing back over the two creeks and heading back towards camp. 

On the way up the wombat holes hill I found it more difficult than last time as the ground seemed drier and dustier with less grip and deeper holes. I made it to the top with only some beeping from the traction control, fortunately I didn't get the tone of death that indicated that the traction control had overheated would no longer help with the hill climb. As I was first up the hill and I wanted to try out the video on the new iPhone, I got the others to wait while I parked and walked back to a suitable spot. Out of all the cars Phil's long wheel base Paj made the climb the easiest as it seemed to be able to span the holes much better. Adam had his mud tyres on and they made it easier for his shortie than Josh and I with the ATR's. Then it was back to camp for some late lunch and a nice relaxing afternoon. After a bit of snooze and some reading I went for a bit of a wander to try and get some photos of the Kangaroos I had scared off the previous day. The were fairly shy and I took awhile to get close enough to get some nice photos. 

By this time Adam's pyromaniac tendencies had come to the fore and the fire was lit even though it was neither cold nor dark. The remainder of the cheese, dips and crackers made their appearance and disappeared slowly as night descended. 

We sat around the fire for awhile but ended up turning in early as we had had a very tiring :) day and we needed to pack up in the morning to head back to civilization. 

The packing was fairly leisurely after a nice breakfast of bacon and eggs and we ended up leaving the camp site at around 8:30 am. The slow drive out of the park was going well until we caught up to a group in front of us and the last vehicle in their group managed to get a flat tyre on a rocky hill a little bit before the turnoff to Red Rock Canyon Lookout. It looked like he pinched the tyre against a rock and broke the bead, leading to rapid deflation. As Adam was the lead car in our group he somehow became the designated tyre change helper even though there was another four cars worth of people in their group who ended up standing around watching. After that was fixed they waved us on and we continued to the exit of the park where we aired the tyres up and not long afterwards hit the bitumen. 

At this point I split off from the others as I couldn't face heading back through Beaudesert and Canungra as I knew it would be slow and packed with rubber necking tourists, so I said my goodbyes and headed south over the enemy border to Tenterfield. From here I travelled east on the Bruxner Highway to Casino where I stopped for a quick bite of lunch, hoping that the grumpy RBT cop from my last visit here wasn't on duty. Then for something different I headed to Lismore and from there up to Mulimbimby and across the roads at the back of Byron Bay before joining up with the M1 and cruising home with no traffic problems at all. 

I got home around 3'ish and unpacked the car, did some washing of both my clothes and myself and generally relaxed for what remained of a very pleasant weekend. The map below shows my rather roundabout trip, all up just over 650 kms for the weekend. 

First week with the new iPhone 6+

Well it's been just over a week since I picked up my new iPhone 6+ from the Apple Store at Robina, so I thought I would jot down a few impressions so that I can see if my feelings towards it change over time. First thing, it is big, very big compared to my old iPhone 4S. I think this would worry me more if I used it predominantly as a phone however I tend to use it more like an iPad nano. I carry it in my shirt pocket and it fits fine and I've had no problems with it bending. 

The screen as well as being large is incredibly detailed and the colour reproduction is great. The rounded edges make it feel very comfortable in the hand and I find I use it by holding it in my left hand and type or gesture with my right hand. Despite the size it actually feels like it may be slightly lighter than the 4S. Some of the apple apps (e.g. Mail) now have a Landscape mode which presents more info and a better layout on the larger screen. iOS 8 has a slightly different feel to iOS 7 even though they don't look all that different. I was lucky I missed the debacle that was the 8.0.1 update which caused problems with phone calls and TouchID and went straight to 8.0.2. 

I have been comparing the built in pedometer with my FitBit One and the phone always seems to come out with a lower number of steps but the amount can change wildly. When I been simply walking the iPhone shows about 2% lower but if I am walking around shopping and standing around then it can be about 10% lower. I think the Fitbit is perhaps overly sensitive as it shows me having walked steps when I am driving whereas the phone doesn't register any steps. The Fitbit is even worse if I'm not wearing it but leave it on the car seat next to the phone. So for the moment I'll use both but I suspect the phone will end up being more accurate. The steps are logged into the new health app dashboard which has potential to store lots of different health related info, including emergency info in case of an accident. 

The camera seems very good and much more responsive than the old 4S. It has new slow-mo video modes and time lapse which I haven't tried out yet. The burst mode is sensational and takes approximately 10 photos per second while you hold the shutter button down. I tried it for 10 seconds, taking 100 photos with no slow down to write the photos to storage, not sure how long it would continue at this speed. This mode is a bit too easy to activate as I found keeping my finger on the shutter button just a little too long resulted in small bursts of 2 or 3 photos being taken but I suspect I just need to get used to this. The editing in the photos app is much better with more options and very responsive. The digital zoom seems to work reasonably although I suspect it is better to not use it but crop the image later but for a quick and easy shot it's not too bad. 

The panorama feature also works pretty well and is supposed to produce higher resolution images than the older phones. I'm still getting used to holding the phone to take photos and being bigger makes it a little awkward but I suspect it's just a matter of practice to get it right. 

At the moment the feature I am enjoying the most is the TouchID to unlock the phone. After setting up and calibrating with my fingerprints it is working accurately and quickly and makes using the phone for a quick check of something much faster. The only real problem I have noticed so far is that every day or two the wifi connectivity goes wonky and it won't connect to the network, requiring a restart. This has occurred on three different networks and I notice that the Apple Discussions Forum has a rather long post about this but it seems to be a iOS 8 problem and not a iPhone 6 problem. Hopefully it will be fixed in the next iOS update. 

All up I'm very happy with the phone and glad I got the large one. 

Testing blogging from the iPhone 6+

Thought I would test posting to my blog using the Blogger app on my new iPhone and in the process also checked out how fast 4G actually is. In the screenshot below, the top result is my home ADSL 2 and this is about the fastest I get. The second result is via 4G at Robina shopping centre this morning. 

I wish I could have my ADSL download quota and cost with the 4G speed, shame the current government is killing the NBN. 😞

Gold Coast Show long weekend 2104 - Day 3.

Yet another sleep in but after a leisurely breakfast and pack up, I was still able to head off just after 9 am. I turned south at the highway as I was wanting to have a look around Iluka and the southern part of the Bundjalung national park. It was only a short run down the highway to the Iluka turnoff and then I started to explore the little offshoots into Bundjalung, including various picnic areas and to the beach at the ominously named Shark Bay. 

The beach leads all the way back to the black rocks camp ground, unfortunately you can no longer exit from the beach to the camp ground. The camping ground at Woody Heads is a nice looking spot but way too crowded for my liking, would be good for a family trip however. Then it was onto the Iluka Bluff nature reserve which has a nice little beach and picnic area. There is also a short walk up to the top of the bluff, where you get a great view of the surrounding coastline. 

Then I continued on into Iluka itself and after a bit of a drive around the town and seashore, I found a great spot for some fish and chips and Thai fish cake for lunch. 

After lunch it was time to start heading back home but I was not wanting to head up the main highway and deal with any traffic congestion. So after consulting several maps I thought I had found a back way across to The Summerland Way which would take me up to Casino. I headed up the highway a few kms and turned off to Tullymorgan then after a few kms there should have been a turn to the north to the huge metropolis of Gibberagee but the road I wanted to take looked somewhat in disrepair and there was a "No Through Road" sign. Oh well, I headed south through Tullymorgan and then had to go further south towards Lawrence before I found a road heading west towards the Summerland Way. I was never lost as I could see where I was on the gps map app on the tablet and I could see where I wanted to go but it was frustrating I couldn't go the way I wanted. 

I was back onto bitumen roads and heading north and hardly saw another car, making for a very easy drive. The only thing that livened the trip up was a stroppy policeman in Casino doing a RBT. The detector they use in NSW is completely different to the ones up here and he kept telling me to count and I was expecting to have to blow into the detector, so I was a little confused but ended up counting to one and being told to be on my way. Then it was north to Kyogle and then turning west towards Murwillumbah. After 50 kms or so I took the Burrill creek road turnoff to Tyalgum. This started as a very narrow bitumen road winding along the creek and became a very narrow dirt road not long after. The scenery was excellent and about 5 or so kms from Tyalgum the road was bitumen and became wider giving a subperb view of the surrounding mountains. 

The superb views continued on the other side of Tyalgum on the way to Chillingham and I think it was Mt Warning I could see from the back. 

From Chillingham I could have headed north and home through the Numinbah Valley, but I chose to head towards Murwillumbah and then go up and over the hills through Tomewin and into the back of Palm Beach through the Currumbin Valley. 

All up over the three days I had done almost 600 kms and had a very pleasant weekend.