V & C Impressions

Almost Grey Nomads in Australia

Tag: Holiday

  • Pic of the Day – Mango Man

    Pic of the Day – Mango Man

    Had a short holiday to Townsville over the weekend.

    One of the things that drew me to the Fujifilm camera system is the film simulations you can get straight out of the camera.

    This is a JPG straight out of the camera, just with some minor adjustments and a small crop. The film simulation is called Rockwell (velvia).

    The settings are below, I have changed the color to +2, I found the recommended setting a bit too much.

    Velvia
    Dynamic Range: DR200
    Highlight: -1
    Shadow: -1
    Color: +4 (changed to +2)
    Noise Reduction: -4
    Sharpening: +4
    Clarity: +5
    Grain Effect: Weak, Small
    Color Chrome Effect: Strong
    Color Chrome Effect Blue: Strong
    White Balance: Auto, +1 Red & -1 Blue
    ISO: Auto, up to ISO 6400
    Exposure Compensation: +1/3 to +2/3 (typically)

  • Holiday – Brisbane to Surat

    Holiday – Brisbane to Surat

    Part one

    With a 5 hour drive ahead if us, we set off from Brisbane at 8.30am, hoping to get to our destination by 2pm Google says allow about 5 hours for the drive. As is usual for us, a few stops along the way happened, with some pleasant surprises.

    Our first pit stop was at Toowoomba, where we stretched our legs and swapped driving duties.

    Second pit stop was at Tara where we purchased gas and toilet stop in some dodgy old falling apart loos. Swapped drivers where our next stop was Glenmorgan where there was an old car museum. We later found out that the owner had died a year earlier and the family is fighting over the estate. Apparently the museum has been closed for a year, but since it is on the side of the road you can just walk though it.

    We then drove past a Botanical garden sign, and since we where running behind time, we pushed on to Surat. We planned on going back the next day to have a look. How can a Botanical garden exist in a place with next to no water? We were curious..

    After that we saw some Emu’s on the side of the road, stopped to take some pics, not the easies as the are very shy.

    we managed to get to Surat at about 3.30pm, time enough to set up and have a beer or two.

  • Rainbow Beach – Holiday

    Rainbow Beach – Holiday

    Holiday time, our first little break this year, so after exploring our options we settled on Rainbow Beach for a 3-day stay.
    The weather forecast was for fine sunny conditions about 7 days before we left, but as the time to leave got closer, the outlook was changing to something that wasn’t so promising. We decided to push ahead anyway. We stayed at the Rainbow Beach Holiday Village which is right in the center of the Rainbow Beach village.
    As it turned out Saturday the day we arrived had the best weather, with Sunday not so good, then came Monday which had torrential rain just about all day long. I bit of a disappointment,  but what can you do, it is what it is.
    We did get to spend a few hours on the beach on Sunday, with no rain, but plenty of wind. It was a good walk with plenty to see, especially the 4wd’s driving along the beach.

    Rainbow Beach, fishing with the coloured sands in the background
    Rainbow Beach, fishing with the colored sands in the background

    A tricky point on Rainbow Beach, you have to time the waves to get past the rocks.
    A car navigating the rocks on Rainbow Beach
    A car navigating the rocks on Rainbow Beach

     
    Plenty of cars on the beach, it is almost a highway.
    Rainbow Beach, popular with the drivers.
    Rainbow Beach, popular with the drivers.

    The other thing we had a look at is the Carlo Sandblow, which basically is a massive mountain of sand which is slowly moving inland.
    Rainbow Beach, Carlo Sandblow
    Rainbow Beach, Carlo Sandblow

    There is plenty to do around Rainbow Beach if you are into fishing, 4wd, hiking. It definitely is a place we are going to go to again, and with any luck, the weather will be better. We might even have a go at driving on the beach, just not too sure if our Nissan Xtrail is up to it.
    Just a little bit further north is the Inskip Peninsula Recreation Area, which has a few camping spots, we might give this a try next time.