 Awhile between posts, however life,as always dear readers, has been interesting. Had not wanted to spend another winter in Victoria, but... As things turned out that is exactly what has happened lol. Decided to do a Victorian Road Trip this time round and set off with Loretta, Beau Dog and Zoz the cat to explore and photograph the western part of Victoria.
We have a real little convoy on this trip, with the Toyota Coaster, the Jeep and the Bike in the trailer. We left Melbourne on the 17th of May and headed for Colac where we stayed a Lake Colac for a couple of nights. Great free camp spot. We christened the camp oven over the fire but made the mistake of putting it directly on the coals. Oops we won't be doing that again. We explored the area and got a few shots... Well more than a few. Leaving Colac we went to Dandos Campground alongside of the Gellibrand river.. Another great free camp spot but busy and noisy on the weekends. The fire pits are awesome. We were only staying a couple of nights but a flat tyre changed those plans. Back to Colac to get that sorted, whilst there we got brave and bought a roast of lamb for the camp oven. Yummy. What a fab way to cook. From Dandos we went south to Joanna's Beach camping ground , it was tad disappointing as a site, but we kicked back there for three nights. Sadly Zoz caught a bird even though he was on a lead. Loretta was very upset as it was a beautiful native thrush. On the way there we stopped off at the Otway Fly, Tree Top Walk. A Temperate Rainforest that is Inspiring restorative and peaceful. We also visited the Lighthouse at Cape Otway. Saw a koala in a gum and managed to get a few shots of it too. The complex at Cape Otway is well worth a visit and the view from the lighthouse is amazing. Got some great shots too. We headed off from Joanna Beach, along the Great Ocean Road stopping off at Port Campbell, where we enjoyed a delicious lunch and a glass or two of wine, before continuing onto our next our next planned destination to camp, that being Warrnambool. whilst there we checked out the Flagstaff Maritime Museum and village. It's hard to believe that the village is not original it is so realistic. Spent the arvo there snapping away. Next stop was Port Fairy, where we stooped to shoot some images and have lunch at the Fish Restaurant on the Jetty.... Fish and chips were sumptuous and very reasonably priced too. Port Fairy is a delightful little town and well worth a stopover. From there we headed off towards Hotspur. This one was unplanned as we didn't like the camp ground we'd chosen. We propped for four days alongside the Crawford River, nice spot, albeit a tad close to the road, with the resultant noise from the transports which rolled through the night. Given it was a back road the traffic surprised us. Nothing out there just a pretty free camping spot. Had great fires to keep us warm. More to the point we made bread in the camp oven for the first time. Loretta stuffed up the recipe but it came out delicious anyway. Found we did not have to worry about putting the milk back into the 12volt fridge, as it was colder outside than in the fridge!! Leaving Hotspur we headed north to Cavendish, a delightful little town, on the Southern end of the Grampians, a very friendly with a great Pub, the Bunyip. Another unplanned stop but the Recreation reserve is very pretty and the showers were great. Some of the sunsets here were alo quite spectacular. All revenue from the camping goes to support local groups and that is a good thing. Blair cleaned up all the fallen wood for fires. We're getting proficient at roasts bread and vegies in the camp ovens. Loretta ad to go back to Melbourne for a week,so I enjoyed some me time with Beau Boy. Nice to have her back though after the week away :) Made some new friends, Jim and Joe, who had pulled in for an overnight stop at the camp ground. Jim rode a Triumph American and his partner Joe rode a Honda 400 cc Shadow. Went on the Meanstreak, with them, for an all day ride through the Grampians... Stopped off at McKenzies Falls, Wartook and the Pinnacles lookout, before heading back to Cavendish via Dunkeld. Now we're at Halls Gap in the heart of the Grampians. Came here via Dunkeld. Sweet little town. If you are ever passing through Dunkeld, c out The Old Bakery for fab bread and a coffee. We're actually paying for camping in Halls Gap, staying at the Grampians Gardens Caravan Park, pbecause it is the only place we can have the animals as everything else is in the National Park. Yesterday we walked for over 7kms over three walks. Visited the Silverband Falls and the Pinnacles Lookout. Not great on my injured knee but the view from the Pinnacles was well worth it. Today we're slacking it doing the washing. Enjoying showers and kicking back by the fire. Beau is rugged up on his bed soaking in the warmth. Zoz is on Loretta' knee and the billy is singing. Aaah life is good!! Till next time dear reader, take care and stay safe. Blair.,  APR 10 2013 The preparations are almost complete for the Next Adventure Well dear reader, these are indeed interesting times. Some strange things going on in this world of ours, particularly in the good old USA... very strange things indeed! The political scene in Australia is pumping at the moment, with the groundswell of dislike for our pathetic excuse for a Prime Minister JuLIAR Gillard growing daily. People are waking up to the antics of our useless and corrupt Politicians and the failure of the Two Party Political structure that exists in this country. Hopefully this new awareness will translate into the destruction of the Feral Labor Government, the Labor Party itself and their partners in crime the Fringe Dwelling Lunatics of the the Green Party and the two "sell out" Independants. Mind you the bloody Liberals aren't all that good an option as a Federal Government, better to have a Parliament of Independants working in the best interests of the Australian people than a Federal Government that just works in the interests of the what the Party doctrine is! Still if the current Federal Government is crushed as a result of the forthcoming Election, perhaps the incoming Government will be more wary of the Power of the people! Have become a bit of an Activist over the last few months and this has been reflected in a lot of my Facebook posts. On the subject of Facebook I did revamp and relaunch my Stuart Media Fan page... I have tried to keep it away from Politics as much as I can... however I do need to readjust its focus even more and return it to what it was initially designed for and that being to promote my work and the work of my fellow Artists. The address of the revamped site is as follows; https://www.facebook.com/StuartMediaPhotography drop on by, check it out and please feel free to "Like" the page ;) Enough of Politics....lol It has been a very busy period over the last couple of months, getting the Bus and Trailer ready for the next adventure. Many things to be organised as we gear up to head of for a five month photoshoot that will take Loretta and I across Victoria and into South Australia then up to Eastern New South Wales and Broken Hill via Adelaide, before returning to the Northeastern Victorian High Country to capture the run off of the water from the Snowfields.. we should have some fantastic shots of Waterfalls and rivers in their peak flow. Taking the Bus, Jeep Bike and trailer on this trip, so it will be a bit of a logistic nightmare in getting it all ready. Upon our return we will be in Melbourne for about four weeks before we head off for another Photoshoot Road Trip. The next one being a three month excursion down to the wilds of Tasmania... should return with some great shots from the Apple Isle. Beau Dog will of course be coming with us on both trips... though the Bus will be left behind on the Tassie trip, just taking the Jeep, trailer and the Bike. Asides from being focussed on prepping for the next trip, I have been slowly rebuilding my Photographic kit with three new Telephoto Lenses, a teleconverter, various accessories plus a new hard case and backpack for all the additional equipment. Now running a Pentax K20D, and Pentax KM DSLRs plus the Olympus Digital. Still have a number of items to purchase, but at least I have the majority of bits and pieces that I need to do the jobs that I have in mind. The downside to all this activity in preparing for the trip, is the fact that I have not uploaded a lot of new work to mny Websites. Some new images but nowhere near as many as I would like. In fact I have nearly 8,000 images from our recent High Country trip still to be worked on and processed. A huge task in front of me to try and keep on top of the work lol. As far as my Websites go, the only one to really recieve any "love" is the Stuart Media Services one http://www.stuartmediaservices.com This site has really been hitting its straps over recent months and has for want of a better word, beeen "discovered". Currently it is averaging 225 hits per day and has actually exceeded the average over the last four days, with a new record being set on Sataurday 6th April of 780 hits on the site. This trend has pretty much continued since then, with the average being over the 500 visitors per day mark. It has taken over three years to get it to this level but it has been well worth the time and the effort put into building it. I have endeavoured throughout this period to keep it fresh, interesting and innovative. Have also started to build Promotional Section within Stuart Media.com and currently have Seven Visual Artists, a Musician and a Citizens Media outfit that I am promoting. It is hoped that with the success of these people and the exposure of their material to the world, that word will spread and bring more Artists / Photographers / Musicians and Aussie Small businesses into the fold and generate not only an increased revenue flow but more exposure for the Website. Lots of work ahead, and I believe that at some point there is going to have to be a rationalsation of my websites... currently I am running and maintaining 21 sites..... way too many methinks. You can check out some of the new images on my sites at; http://www.blair-stuart.artistwebsites.com andhttp://www.artwanted.com/stuartmedia Have also created a whole lot of New Products on my Zazzle website so drop by there too and check out a wide variety of Gift ideas http://www.zazzle.com/stuartmediaservices Well that is enough of my ramblings for today... off out to give Beau Dog a run on the Beach whilst I shoot some images of what hopefully will be a glorious Sunset over Phillip Island. Until next time, dear reader, take care, stay safe and enjoy all that you do. Remember that your family, friends and loved ones are the most important people in your life... tell them always that you love them and treat them gently. Cheers, Blair
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