The Ghan is one of the most iconic trains in Australia and travelling by rail on this train between Adelaide and Darwin is considered one of the worlds great train journeys. We had talked about doing it for some time but it was only when our cruise to the South Pacific in November 2020 got cancelled that we seriously started looking at it. There was the little matter of a milestone birthday to celebrate and if possible it was decided that it would be nice to mark the occasion with a memorable trip. This eventually led to a trip in February 2021. It was certainly memorable and we took a camera so we could share our experience with others.
The Ghan is named after the Afghan Camel riders who were the first to use the route through the outback. Today we have the opportunity to see the same vistas in comfort. At it's full length the train can be over 1 km long, however for our trip it was less than 800 m. There are a number of lounge and restaurant cars and there 2 different classes you can travel in, Gold and Platinum (there was previously a more budget class but that is no longer available). Along the way there are opportunities to visit Marla, Alice Springs and Katherine. The food is amazing, the staff are fantastic, the scenery is memorable and the trip is unforgettable.
I'm sure we can all relate to going to the doctor because of some mystery issue and you get given something for it and then after no change you have to go back a few weeks later. Well that's what it feels like at the moment with my outboard engine. This video starts and finishes in the same way - with outboard issues! As before, I don't think they are serious but until such time as it's behaving predictably we can't go on long trips away. Having said that, recently we made use of a gorgeous evening for a short trip to a nice anchorage and that's in this video. I also did an underwater hull examination and some basic maintenance. We've had a few frustrations lately but it's just part of the journey.
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This is a review of both masks I use for freediving. The Aqualung Micromask and Cressi Minima.
Both are excellent. I use the Micromask for scuba diving too these days.
Originally this was uploaded to our older channel so it may look a bit familiar!
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If you are familiar with dingy sailing then you are familiar with using a centreboard, which is needed to sail effectively upwind. In yachts, the same role is normally performed by a weighted keel however in smaller trailer yachts there is a bit of a cross over and many also have retractable swing keels or centreplates. Our Hood 23 has a weighted keel of sorts but it's a shoal draft one (essentially the weight is in the bottom of the boat). It can be sailed without the centreplate but it performs significantly better upwind if it does have one installed. When we got ours although it came with a centreplate, it was not installed so from the outset our intention was to get a basic familiarity with the boat as it was and then install the centreplate. The previous owner kindly offered to assist with the installation.
Recently I had a 7 day holiday planned and instead of going away anywhere I chose to get the boat out of the water and do some work on it, including the installation of the centreplate. We some perserverence and creativity we got there in the end but as you'll see in this video, it wasn't without quite a few challenges along the way.
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The St Kilda Mangrove Trail is a well known boardwalk built on the coast of this seaside suburb in South Australia (not to be confused with the suburb in Victoria with the same name). St Kilda itself was built on what is a reclaimed part of the Barker Inlet. It was once home to just fishermen but is now well known for an adventure playground and a tramway museum. There is a large area of mangrove swamp in the tidal zone and in the mid 1980's a boardwalk trail was built through the mangroves to be used by the public to get closer to the environment without impacting upon it.
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Recently I took a friend of mine out on his first sailing trip. He featured in one of our earlier videos at Loveday 4WD Adventure Park. Given it was his first trip in a sailing boat I thought we would just go for a bit of a motor up the Port River but he took to it so well that we ended up over 4 kilometers out to sea, under sail in water that was a bit lumpy. It was a good day though. The boat felt good and my friend is looking forward to our next sailing trip.
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This is the first in a new series of videos that I will produce from time to time where I subject myself to a physical challenge. Given that my background is distance open water swimming it seems fitting to start off with a a marathon swim at the picturesque 'Encounter Lakes' in South Australia.
By way of an inntroduction as to what constitutes an official 'marathon swim' these days, I have to go back to 2008 when the Olympic Games first featured a 10 km open water swim, a swimming marathon. From that date it has been considered that a marathon swim should be classified as a swim of a duration of 10 km or more (as opposed to 25 km which was the official distance prior to this). This is somewhat appropriate as the average time it takes a decent distance swimmer to do a 10 km swim is not too dissimilar to that which a decent marathon runner runs a 42 km marathon on the road. There is some parity here.
Unlike in most competitive open water events I will likely be using a full length wetsuit for all of the swimming physical challenges I do. Now I know some hard core open water swimmers out there may thumb their nose a bit at the idea of this and I must admit I came from that mould too. If you'd have asked me 10 years ago I would have been dead set against endorsing wetsuits for any type of event or recognised swim on the principal of parity, but it occurs to me that just because something can be done without and it is arguably more challenging doesn't necessarily mean it is best practice. After all, one can climb high on many mountains in shorts and a T-Shirt if you get the right weather but the folly there is pretty clear. I'm wearing it mainly for protection from the sun but acknowledge it provides some protection from other environmental issues such as the cold and stinging jellyfish. I'm planning to test a variety of suits and this will be part of the conversation moving forward. I also note on this subject that FINA has approved certain wetsuits for some events that take place in extremely cold conditions. This arguably opens up the sport to more countries and more competitors. Anyway it's a subject I'll revisit as I produce more videos on the topic.
For my first Physical Challenge video I've chosen to swim 6 laps of Encounter Lakes which is located in Encounter Bay, South Australia. That's a total distance of 10.14 km. For this challenge I'm using the very reasonably priced Orca S6 wetsuit. Stay tuned for many more marathon swimming challenges.
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Our first club social even for our newly renamed Hood 23 'Manumitter' was the official opening to the 2021/22 race season. It's unclear at this stage what part we will take in the season itself as that will depend on a couple of other things that need to take place, however it's our intention to participate in a few of them and along the way we will happily get involved in any social social even that involves sailing.
Opening Day is a fairly light hearted ceremonial occasion in which members parade around the Port River in their boats and on passing the Flagship, pay their respects to the Club Commodore, guests and Flagship 'Bizzare'.
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The Murray River at 2,508 kilometres is the longest river in Australia. It's source is high in the Australian Alps, then meanders across some of the inland plains that form the border between New South Wales and Victoria before entering South Australia which is perhaps where it is at it's most spectacular. It eventually reaches the ocean via Lake Alexandrina (which at it's widest point is itself over 38 kilometres).
The Murray is a well known tourist attraction and is also used as a fresh water source. It's a popular destination for water sports and holidays. Perhaps the best way to see it is by doing a houseboat trip on it and it was during such a trip that we took this series of spectacular images.
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