St Jeromes Laneway Festival

St Jeromes last weekend (held in and around Reiby Place near Circular Quay) was one of the best festivals I've ever been to. Being on a modest scale - just a couple of thousand people - allowed you to get up close to the bands. And the lineup was very impressive.

I got there early, for the 1.00pm starting time for Pretty Girls Make Graves. They rocked out, despite complaining of hangovers. I was on the the front barricade and got a few snaps. Their new album Elan Vital is very cool.

Pretty Girls Make Graves, originally uploaded by haruspex.

Didn’t know much about the next band up, Adelaide’s Wolf and Cub, but was very nicely surprised by their excellent noise/psych guitar which reminded me of the Japanese psych scene. And any band with 2 drummers has to be admired!

I was really looking forward to The Gossip, who were playing inside on the Basement stage. They are a blues/punk band from the US and their singer Beth Ditto has an enormous voice. They put on a great show and were definitely my favourite act on the day. You can have a listen to some of their songs here .

Big Voice, originally uploaded by haruspex.

Les Savy Fav were just insane. Their singer, Tim Harrington, is well known for getting up to strange antics on and off-stage. At one point he made his way through the crowd to the barricades, must have jumped over and then emerged on the balcony of a neighbouring office block. He then got the audience to hurl the microphone up to him so he could continue singing. To get down, he wrapped the microphone cord around one of the bushes and abseiled down. His mostly naked body was painted red – claiming he had an aussie 'sunburn' and was wearing budgie smugglers with 'Bondi Beach' written on the back.

I had been looking forward to seeing Broken Social Scene, but needed a rest by this stage, so instead we headed inside and found chairs to sit and watch Jens Lekman in the Basement. He sings sad and kooky lyrics, set to upbeat almost corny music – it kind of felt like we were being entertained by the house band on an cruise ship.

The sun went down and the last band we were keen on seeing was The Raveonettes from Denmark. The roadies kept us waiting forever, pretending to set up the stage, as it seemed the band hadn’t actually arrived at the venue. All annoyance was forgotten when they launched into a wonderful cover of Buddy Holly’s “Everyday” – which alternated sweet vocals with buzz-distortion guitars. Very Jesus & Marychain, except with an extremely beautiful female singer. They kept us entranced their entire set. Unfortunately my camera battery had died earlier in the day, so I couldn’t get any pics of them.

Everyday it's a-gettin' closer
Goin' faster than a roller coaster
Love like yours will surely come my way
A-hey, a-hey-hey
Everyday it's a-gettin' faster
Everyone said, go ahead and her
A-hey, a-hey-hey
Everyday seems a little longer
Every way love's a little stronger
Come what may
Do you ever long for, true love from me
Everyday it's a-gettin' closer
Goin' faster than a roller coaster
Love like yours will surely come my way
A-hey, a-hey-hey

Sydney Walks: The Spit to Taronga Zoo

Here is the Sydney Harbour Trust map of the Taronga to Balmoral stretch of the walk.

I took the bus to my starting point The Spit Bridge. Then walked around the foreshore, past the boats and the cute ducks at the Middle Harbour Yacht Club .


ducks
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

The map said ‘low-tide route only’, but I think you could make it around the rocks at any time. A beautiful old white wooden dilapidated house, with balcony (and hammock) overlooks the harbour – with lovely rusted rails of a boat ramp stretching into the water.


white house
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

A lone windsurfer sailed up and down Chinamans Beach. Walk continues up Hopetoun Avenue, over Wy-ar-gine Point. Down to Edwards Beach and Balmoral Beach, where I found a lone discarded valentines rose.


Disposable Love
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

Then up the stairs over Middle Head, past the HMAS Penguin Naval Depot .

Amazing views of the Harbour Heads from Sydney Harbour National Park at Georges Heights. Army bases were situated on Georges Heights for over 100 years, initially as harbour defences, then barracks, a World War I hospital and transport depot. On Georges Head there is now a restaurant, “The Tearoom”, in the sandstone gunners barracks.

Down to Chowder Bay Historic Site. Chowder Bay got its name from the whalers who once sheltered there and made fish chowder from the oysters and pipis. From the 1890s it was a base for the Submarine Mining Corps, which laid a string of defensive mines across the harbour.


Chowder Bay
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

Currently docked at Chowder Bay is the North Korean heroin smuggling cargo ship, the Pong Su. It was seized in 2003 on suspicion of importing 150 kilograms of heroin and has been anchored in Sydney Harbour ever since, while Federal police work out what to do with it.

The walk then continues around the beach at Clifton Gardens and up over Chowder Head. The evening was drawing near and I was starting to get bitten by mosquitoes while loitering in the undergrowth taking macro photos of flowers. So, after rounding Taylors Bay I took the shortcut over Bradleys Head, past Athol Hall , and back to the Taronga Zoo Wharf for my ferry trip home.

Sydney Walks: Harbour Bridge to Taronga Zoo

It's less than two months until we will be off on our overseas adventure, and its really time for some serious training and preparation. We've got a six week long pilgrimage to do, walking up to 25km a day. So I'm aiming at doing as many walks as possible before we go, building up in kms. Since I don't drive, I'm depending on public transport to get me to the walks, and luckily there are loads of walks around Sydney Harbour. For this walk I used the map in the Sydney Harbour to Spit walks brochure.


Two's Company
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

After getting the train to Circular Quay, I took the glass elevator up to the Cahill Expressway. The pedestrian walkway will then take you over the Harbour Bridge. I'd never really taken notice of this elevator before and I don't think many people know about the excellent views you can get from the Expressway. There was no one up there, except for a couple of joggers - and so I started my walk with iPod on, singing along loudly and out of tune without embarrassing myself. Passing views of the CBD skyscrapers on the left and The Rocks and Circular Quay on the right I made my way to the Bridge. I'd cycled over the bridge before, but never walked.


The Rocks
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

The walk over the Bridge is a bit dissapointing because of the high security fences and barbed wire. Once over the bridge I walked around Kirribilli and had a gawk at the Prime Minister's house, but didn't see him, just a very bored looking policeman on guard outside.

Most of the walk in this leg is down residential streets, with the occasional view of the harbour when you hit parks like Milson Park and Anderson Park. When I got to Neutral Bay I started seeing signs pointing towards Nutcote (May Gibbs house), so headed that way.

Nutcote was the house which was specially designed for May Gibbs by the well-known architect BJ Waterhouse and she lived there for 45 years. From her lovely studio overlooking the harbour at Neutral Bay she wrote and illustrated most of her wonderful books and the long-running cartoon strip Bib and Bub.


Nutcote
Originally uploaded by haruspex.

The next loop walk is around Cremorne Point. There is a 3km foreshore walkway that goes right around, through bush and past enormous Federation Arts & Crafts style houses.

I found a great heritage leaflet on Cremorne. And here’s an extract:

In c1832, 86 acres of Cremorne Point were granted to a Scottish watchmaker, James Robertson. Prior to European occupation this foreshore land was inhabited by the Cammeraygal People and they called it Wulworra-Jeung. After the land was sold in 1853 it was turned it into an amusement park called Cremorne Gardens, after a similar pleasure garden in London. The first subdivision came in 1903 and most of the buildings in Cremorne Point date from the Federation housing period through to the 1920s and 1930s.

The walk continutes around Mosman Bay, past ‘The Barn’, the last remaining structure from the original Whaling Station built by Archibald Mosman in 1831. From 1925 until recently it has been used as a scout hall for the 1st Mosman 1908 Scout Troop.

There is then a steep climb up stairs and roads over the point to Little Sirius Cove and the end in nearly in sight. I’m getting quite exhausted by this stage, but determined to get to my end point. It takes my last reserves to walk the last half hour along the side of Taronga Zoo, past Whiting Beach, till I reach the Taronga Zoo Wharf, for the ferry ride back to the city.

Final result: 10km, 4 hours, one blister, slight exhaustion,
sense of achievement

Photography Projects

Even though I've been a complete flickr addict for over a year, I've only just joined the Utata group and started taking part in their themed projects.

Having a definite brief for what kind of photo to take is not something I've ever really tried before, so this will be an interesting new experience for me. The current project is Utata Draws Lines.

A Sunday Afternoon in Sydney

In preparation for our overseas plans to walk the Santiago Pilgrimage in April/May this year, we've started going on walks around Sydney. Today we were to meet at Circular Quay to take the ferry to Taronga Zoo, then take the Harbour Walk to Obelisk Beach.

Taking advantage of the fact that I'm half an our early and my partner is half an hour late, I shelter from the heat in Customs House Library air-con and the fill in the time taking photos. A very polite security guard asks if my photos are for personal use only. I say yes and he says that's okay.

Built in 1845, Customs House operated customs services till 1990, and now it houses the City of Sydney Library, restaurant and function venues.

Considering its early purpose I guess its fitting its now a library:

The dual role of Customs was to raise revenue by taxing trade and to keep society physically and morally isolated from socially unacceptable goods, products, ideas and diseases
(from the website)