Hi everyone!
I hope you all have been enjoying the summer in the northern hemisphere.
Life down under has been good. The winter (or what the call winter here) has been very mild. Most days are in the high 50's with a few around 70. The sun comes out every morning before 10am. Occasionally we’ve had some rainy days but rarely more than one at a time. Usually wearing only a light jacket to work but some days you don’t even need that. I haven't lost my sunglasses this year and am still wearing sunscreen most days.
I have just spent a 3 day weekend up at Mt Hotham in northern Victoria at a ski resort with about 40 other URS people and some of their friends. The group I was with was a bunch of 20 something co-workers. Since there we 8 of us rooming together we decided it’d be easier to rent a large passenger van and all go up together. These young guns decided they needed to leave town at 4am Friday morning. We managed to pick everyone up and get out of town by 4:30am and settled in for the 5 hour drive in the dark. Shortly after leaving town the rain started and as we drove it just got heavier and windier all the way up. When we arrived at the resort about 10am the rain was coming down so hard and the wind was blowing at about 50 mph. Torrents of water streamed down the mountain roads and was washing all of the snow with it. Which from the best I could make out there was only about a foot on the ground anyway. After unloading all of our gear into a locker and taking the 5 minute tour of the rain soaked slopes. We found a bar 
and start drinking at 11am. The drinking games soon commence and at 4pm we were allowed to check into our room. A rectangular space with a small fridge/sink/counter and a bathroom for 8 to share, the walls were lined with 4 set of bunks, we all quickly claimed our spots and dumped our stuff. The booze was wearing off and we had to get back to drinking. By 10pm, I had to call it quits and headed off to be with dreams of actually skiing in my head. Several of my flatmates came back to the room with me and I broke out the sax for a few minutes. Since it was late and we were in a hotel I only played a few quick diddies and packed it back up. That was enough to get a visit from the neighbours and the manager.
Upon waking at 7am Saturday morning I found the rain clouds had gone and left us with spectacular blue sky and lights winds. A quick trip to the cafe for the sponsored breakfast and out on the trail by 8am. I took the bus to the trail head and started down the groomed trail in what was only maybe 4” of snow. But as my hard core friends know that’s enough to ski on. So off I went. The trails here are nice and wide with good metal trail maps at all the junctions so getting lost just wasn’t possible. I soon came along a group of skiers doing some national ski and cross bow race. I stayed clear of them as much as possible and then when I finished the loop at that end of the trails I crossed the skiers tunnel under the roadway and found myself in a whole new pristine world. The trails themselves straddle a roadway which follows a ridge line. I had done all of them on one side and was heading back the way I came on the other. This side of the roadway no had groomed the trails and no one had passed before more. I had a little part of the woods all to myself. Just me and some rabbit prints. With not much snow it was very easy for me to blaze my own trail and I set off at a leisurely pace enjoying my 
surroundings and solitude. I came across Drago Lookout and stopped to have a Red bull and gaze out at the rolling hills of the Alpine National Park. While the snow wasn’t covering all the trees you could see a blanket of it on the forest floor for miles around. It was here I captured this cool photo of a tree and it’s shadow. I’m sure it was some type of gum or eucalyptus. But I just know my Australian tree varieties that well yet. Making my way farther down the path I come to one of the day parking area and had to remove my skis to cross the road again and do the climb to Christmas lookout. A windy knoll looking north and back towards the down hill ski slopes. It is here I see the clouds are starting to roll in. I managed to ski about 12km (7.5 miles) and did most of the trails Hotham had to offer. I decided it’s time to head back to the lodge for a hot shower and a soak in the public hot tub. It was about 1pm when I made it back and I had the room, pool and hot tub all to myself it was GREAT! I popped a muscle relaxer before getting in the hot tub and by the time I made it back to the room it was working nicely so I laid down for a little while. Sharing a room with 7 drunk 20 somethings meant peaceful sleep was hard to come by. I managed to get about 90 minutes before the trudged back into the room. The drinking started shortly after but with the muscle relaxer it hit me pretty hard about 11pm and I had to leave our 3rd or 4th bar and walk the ½ kilometre (3/10th of a mile) back to our lodge to crash. The fresh COLD air did me good along with a big glass of water and brushing my teeth. I was completely passed out in minutes and never heard the kids come back to the room. Which was probably a good thing judging from the hangovers they had in the morning.
As we all grappled with getting out of bed around 9am Sunday morning we came to the realization that we had 1 hour to eat our prepaid breakfast, shower and pack all of our gear to get out of the room by check out. Which we managed to do in about 90 minutes. Not too shabby considering several of the group was dragging pretty badly. The clouds had enveloped the mountain (I use that term loosely it was only 1700 meter high, 5580’, at the peak) and greyness like the kind Portland is used to covered everything. Our plan was to find a winery on the way home and all we managed to do is drive around in circle for about an hour stopping at a couple places to be told they we’re booked up and couldn’t accommodate anymore guest. Never heard that one before at a winery! We decided that we may not have looked like the clientele they wanted to attract. Most of us were wearing sweat pants and probably still reeked of alcohol from the 2 nights before. We ended up getting lunch at a pub and then I slept the rest of the way home in the back of the bus with my iPod drowning out the group as much as possible.
Monday morning came way too early! But the good news is I only have to work this week and I get another entire week off! My road trip to the state of South Australia to visit the opal mining town of Coober Pedy and the outback, starts on Saturday morning. So stay tuned, faithful followers, there are more blog updates on the way. All my mothers should not worry, I have a GPS, a RACV (AAA) Membership and am renting a satellite phone to keep me safe. It's just the usual deadly spiders, snakes and serial killers blogger.com/post-create.g?blogIDmate, Michael, will be getting regular text messages, when I have a signal, so someone will know where I am most of the time.
I need to wish a few happy birthdays too. My good friend Chris Hall had her big day on August 22nd. I know My niece Erica’s is coming up September 14th I think I hope I’m not wrong. Melissa turns 41 on the 23rd and my brother Mark’s 43rd is on the 28th. But you’ll all hear from me again before that. Take care, enjoy Labor day (it doesn’t exist here) and I hope everyone has had a great summer.
I hope you all have been enjoying the summer in the northern hemisphere.Life down under has been good. The winter (or what the call winter here) has been very mild. Most days are in the high 50's with a few around 70. The sun comes out every morning before 10am. Occasionally we’ve had some rainy days but rarely more than one at a time. Usually wearing only a light jacket to work but some days you don’t even need that. I haven't lost my sunglasses this year and am still wearing sunscreen most days.
I did manage to take a drive a few Sundays back and found Hanging Rock. As you can see from 
the photo it's a old volcanic rock outcropping that has been worn down over thousands of years. Pretty much just a single trail that goes to the top of the pile. But the grounds of the park are well maintained and it’s a good spot for a picnic lunch. They also have a horse race track and I’ve heard there’s some yearly event held out there. It’s located about 90 minutes northwest of the city and I found it after meandering through the King Lake area. A place that was heavily destroyed by the Black Saturday fires back in January. It was a good day and I got to test out my new GPS , a Tom Tom.
the photo it's a old volcanic rock outcropping that has been worn down over thousands of years. Pretty much just a single trail that goes to the top of the pile. But the grounds of the park are well maintained and it’s a good spot for a picnic lunch. They also have a horse race track and I’ve heard there’s some yearly event held out there. It’s located about 90 minutes northwest of the city and I found it after meandering through the King Lake area. A place that was heavily destroyed by the Black Saturday fires back in January. It was a good day and I got to test out my new GPS , a Tom Tom. 
I have just spent a 3 day weekend up at Mt Hotham in northern Victoria at a ski resort with about 40 other URS people and some of their friends. The group I was with was a bunch of 20 something co-workers. Since there we 8 of us rooming together we decided it’d be easier to rent a large passenger van and all go up together. These young guns decided they needed to leave town at 4am Friday morning. We managed to pick everyone up and get out of town by 4:30am and settled in for the 5 hour drive in the dark. Shortly after leaving town the rain started and as we drove it just got heavier and windier all the way up. When we arrived at the resort about 10am the rain was coming down so hard and the wind was blowing at about 50 mph. Torrents of water streamed down the mountain roads and was washing all of the snow with it. Which from the best I could make out there was only about a foot on the ground anyway. After unloading all of our gear into a locker and taking the 5 minute tour of the rain soaked slopes. We found a bar 
and start drinking at 11am. The drinking games soon commence and at 4pm we were allowed to check into our room. A rectangular space with a small fridge/sink/counter and a bathroom for 8 to share, the walls were lined with 4 set of bunks, we all quickly claimed our spots and dumped our stuff. The booze was wearing off and we had to get back to drinking. By 10pm, I had to call it quits and headed off to be with dreams of actually skiing in my head. Several of my flatmates came back to the room with me and I broke out the sax for a few minutes. Since it was late and we were in a hotel I only played a few quick diddies and packed it back up. That was enough to get a visit from the neighbours and the manager. 
Upon waking at 7am Saturday morning I found the rain clouds had gone and left us with spectacular blue sky and lights winds. A quick trip to the cafe for the sponsored breakfast and out on the trail by 8am. I took the bus to the trail head and started down the groomed trail in what was only maybe 4” of snow. But as my hard core friends know that’s enough to ski on. So off I went. The trails here are nice and wide with good metal trail maps at all the junctions so getting lost just wasn’t possible. I soon came along a group of skiers doing some national ski and cross bow race. I stayed clear of them as much as possible and then when I finished the loop at that end of the trails I crossed the skiers tunnel under the roadway and found myself in a whole new pristine world. The trails themselves straddle a roadway which follows a ridge line. I had done all of them on one side and was heading back the way I came on the other. This side of the roadway no had groomed the trails and no one had passed before more. I had a little part of the woods all to myself. Just me and some rabbit prints. With not much snow it was very easy for me to blaze my own trail and I set off at a leisurely pace enjoying my 
surroundings and solitude. I came across Drago Lookout and stopped to have a Red bull and gaze out at the rolling hills of the Alpine National Park. While the snow wasn’t covering all the trees you could see a blanket of it on the forest floor for miles around. It was here I captured this cool photo of a tree and it’s shadow. I’m sure it was some type of gum or eucalyptus. But I just know my Australian tree varieties that well yet. Making my way farther down the path I come to one of the day parking area and had to remove my skis to cross the road again and do the climb to Christmas lookout. A windy knoll looking north and back towards the down hill ski slopes. It is here I see the clouds are starting to roll in. I managed to ski about 12km (7.5 miles) and did most of the trails Hotham had to offer. I decided it’s time to head back to the lodge for a hot shower and a soak in the public hot tub. It was about 1pm when I made it back and I had the room, pool and hot tub all to myself it was GREAT! I popped a muscle relaxer before getting in the hot tub and by the time I made it back to the room it was working nicely so I laid down for a little while. Sharing a room with 7 drunk 20 somethings meant peaceful sleep was hard to come by. I managed to get about 90 minutes before the trudged back into the room. The drinking started shortly after but with the muscle relaxer it hit me pretty hard about 11pm and I had to leave our 3rd or 4th bar and walk the ½ kilometre (3/10th of a mile) back to our lodge to crash. The fresh COLD air did me good along with a big glass of water and brushing my teeth. I was completely passed out in minutes and never heard the kids come back to the room. Which was probably a good thing judging from the hangovers they had in the morning. 
As we all grappled with getting out of bed around 9am Sunday morning we came to the realization that we had 1 hour to eat our prepaid breakfast, shower and pack all of our gear to get out of the room by check out. Which we managed to do in about 90 minutes. Not too shabby considering several of the group was dragging pretty badly. The clouds had enveloped the mountain (I use that term loosely it was only 1700 meter high, 5580’, at the peak) and greyness like the kind Portland is used to covered everything. Our plan was to find a winery on the way home and all we managed to do is drive around in circle for about an hour stopping at a couple places to be told they we’re booked up and couldn’t accommodate anymore guest. Never heard that one before at a winery! We decided that we may not have looked like the clientele they wanted to attract. Most of us were wearing sweat pants and probably still reeked of alcohol from the 2 nights before. We ended up getting lunch at a pub and then I slept the rest of the way home in the back of the bus with my iPod drowning out the group as much as possible.Monday morning came way too early! But the good news is I only have to work this week and I get another entire week off! My road trip to the state of South Australia to visit the opal mining town of Coober Pedy and the outback, starts on Saturday morning. So stay tuned, faithful followers, there are more blog updates on the way. All my mothers should not worry, I have a GPS, a RACV (AAA) Membership and am renting a satellite phone to keep me safe. It's just the usual deadly spiders, snakes and serial killers blogger.com/post-create.g?blogIDmate, Michael, will be getting regular text messages, when I have a signal, so someone will know where I am most of the time.
I need to wish a few happy birthdays too. My good friend Chris Hall had her big day on August 22nd. I know My niece Erica’s is coming up September 14th I think I hope I’m not wrong. Melissa turns 41 on the 23rd and my brother Mark’s 43rd is on the 28th. But you’ll all hear from me again before that. Take care, enjoy Labor day (it doesn’t exist here) and I hope everyone has had a great summer.
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