Steve Happ Photography

Flying to Argentina

I am now flying southeast below New Zealand at an altitude of 10,000 meters and the grouind speed is more than 900 kilometers per hour. Buenos Aires is nine hours away. The outside air temperature is -74 degrees fahrenheit. I cannot believe that we are 10 kilometers up in the air. Its a bit weird. Outside is a complete white-out. We must be flying right through the clouds. There has been a fair bit of turbulence and we had to postpone lunch until it calmed down a bit. Lunch was delicious. I think it must have been the first time that I have had airline food that was actually edible. Our flight path seems to be going a fair way south below New Zealand towards Antarctica and then back up to South America. It seems it is now midnight in Buenos Aires.

Our Qantas 747 jet Longreach ready take us on board

This morning I got up about 6 am, had breakfast and then got the shuttle bus to the international terminal. There was a fairly long queue to get checked in and we had to wait for ages. I was hoping to have a wander around the terminal at a leisurely pace but I ended up being rushed around just to get on the flight. I even got frisked by a customs gentleman. I enjoyed it. He wanted to charge me five dollars for the service. Eventually we got on the plane and waited some more to take off.

Our hostie showing us the safety drill

The take off was a bit bumpy as there was a strong westerly blowing. We had some great sights of Sydney and then it was over the ocean and now all I can see is clouds.

Taking off over Sydney looking towards Barrenjoey and the Hawkesbury.

The plane is very squeezy. You do not have much room to stretch out and there are hundreds of people on the plane. Its like a cattle truck. I reckon the flight attendants need cattle prods to keep us livestock in line and behaving. We are now 3000 kilometers from Sydney, 8000 kilometers from Buenos Aires and it is starting to get turbulent again. Maybe we go so far south so that we get a ride on the roaring forties. I hope we do not run into a filthy storm. It is starting to get dark now. We are travelling away from the sun so that makes it set earlier. And then we will be racing towards it coming up as it goes around the earth. I was thinking it would be daylight all the trip. We will probably only get about five or six hours of darkness.

It is now 9 am in Argentina and we are flying over Comodoro Rivadavia. I have just seen the coast of South America and I think we are flying over the Atlantic Ocean. We have less than 2 hours before we land and I am getting a bit excited. We came in from the south and flew over Tierra del Fuego and up the Atlantic Coast of Argentina. Not long to go now.

Going to the Airport

Well I am finally on my way to Argentina. I should be there tomorrow afternoon. It will actually take me twenty minutes in chronological time to get to Buenos Aires. But 14 hours in real time. I will be flying into the sun the whole way and crossing the international date line. I have been getting very nervous whenever I think about it and the butterflies in my stomach are doing cartwheels very often. It sometimes feels like there is an acrobatic meet going on in my stomach. I doubt if I have ever felt so much doubt and fear in my whole life before this. Feel the fear and do it!

This morning I got up nice and early and packed up all my gear. I got a lift to the train station at Cardiff and hopped on the train with my big bag, my backpack and my skies. They are too heavy and I am not too impressed with all the weight I have to lug around. The worst part is having to go up stairs. That is horrendous. I am going to have to chuck out as much as I can tonight to lighten my load to only the absolutest necessary.

The weather has been overcast again and it started to spit a little bit of rain as we crossed the Hawkesbury River.

Crossing the Hawkesbury River on the train

The train got to Central and I had to get out and change trains to get the Airport train. I got off at the Domestic Terminal and when I got outside it was raining. I was not impressed to say the least. I struggled with the gear and walked down the road to the airport hotel after asking a few workers the directions. I had to stop a few times to move the skis over to the other shoulder. The hotel at the airport is cheap and basic but it is comfortable. It is right next to the Krispy Kreme cafe, but I have not been there. I am not a big fan of doughnuts.

My hotel room at the airport

In the afternoon I went for a walk to Mascot and got a few things from the supermarket for dinner. I came back and watched some television. I am feeling a bit tired. It has been a very stressful day and it is just the beginning. Hopefully tomorrow I am going to cruise through the day. I am going to get the shuttle to the International Terminal so there is not much lugging heavy gear around. As soon as I check in my bags I can wander around freely and have some fun.

I have just found out I have convict ancestors. How cool is that? And they are Irish transported for stealing a watch. Here is the transcript. Thanks to my brother Lawrie for some excellent research.


James Larkin 2605/197 C42/771

Reported in 1837 Convict Muster ; Age 25; No.14570 Assigned to HJ Pilcher at Paterson in the Hunter Valley


And this is my grandmother, Clara Larkin, descendant of the convict James Larkin.

The Adventures of Joe and Dad

It was a cold and rainy Saturday of the Victorian Long Weekend in March. We set off from Melbourne and onto the M80 motorway towards Geelong. Our objective was to board the pirate ship and fire the pirate’s ship. We took over the ship and went to England. The winds were very light at first and it was the east and south wind.

First of all, we went to see the ship One&All. It was on the other jetty. It will be sailing to Adelaide in a few weeks. Daddy wants to sail on her with them to Adelaide. Here I am next to the ship, One And All. Isn’t it amazing!

Joe is amazed at the One And All

The Pirate ship was called the Enterprize. we sailed from the pier next to the yacht club. Joe helped to haul up the sails with this thick rope. Of course, Joe did most of the work. He is so strong, he could have sailed the pirate ship all on his own. “Actually I could in real life” – Joe was heard to say later on.

Joe hauling up the topsail

We sailed out into the middle of the bay and a sea plane came by wanting to take off, so we gave way to it and it flew off. The ship did not have a wheel but was steered by a wooden tiller. Joe wanted to have a go at the tiller but he was not allowed to because he did not have his pirate’s licence with him.

The tiller of the Enterprize pirate ship

That afternoon we went to Clifton Springs and walked along the beach, looking for shells, dead crabs, fossils and dinosaur bones. We found lots of shells, crabs and the spine bone of a big fish. Joe found the spine bone, in point of actual fact. It was buried in the sand next to a big rock. Next to the beach was a wetlands where all this fresh water seeped out of the cliffs. There was even a stream coming down from the storm water drains.

Clifton Springs Beach

We walked on lots of cement pillows near the jetties and where the fishing boat ramp was. Joe scared the sea gulls by running towards them and screaming at them. But they came back, anyway. And then he scared them off again. It rained and rained and rained and later on we had chips for dinner. Dad told me a story that night.

The next day we saw these fishermen who caught these big squid. It was an awesome catch. We ventured on towards Portarlington, and then went for a walk along the Point Edwards foreshore, looking for dinosaur bones. All we found was some mud that was going to become mud-stone one day and some sea-grass meadows. Joe says we did actually find some bones but he can’t remember.

We ended up at Queenscliff and watched the ferry coming in from Sorrento. The cars came off the ferry first and then the people walked off who did not have cars. We went up to the top of the observation tower and this is the view of the entrance to Port Phillip Bay.

Port Phillip Bay entrance

The end of our amazing adventure saw us at Ocean Groves beach, where we went for a surf. As we left the tide came right up and almost covered the whole beach. That night there was a huge hail storm with thunder and lightning and it rained heavily most of the night. Dad told me some stories during the night. Joe slept while dad drove to Geelong where we had breakfast at Maccas.

Bird Photography – Hunter Wetlands Centre 090213

13th February, 2009. Hunter Wetlands Centre, Shortland, Newcastle. NSW Australia.

It has been raining all week and this morning it stopped for a little while so I went to the Hunter Wetlands Centre at Shortland. As soon as I got there I spied Marj and she had spotted some dollarbirds. So we took some photographs of them.

There were a couple of Sacred Kingfishers in the trees but they flew off before I could get a shot of one of them. There were the usual swamp type birds such as the Purple Swamphen and the Dusky Moorhen. I spotted a juvenile Olive-backed Oriole as I went around the main pond. There were some Silvereyes on the Wild Fennel plants around the pond, and I accidently shot this one of a Silvereye in flight. I could claim that I planned this, but I did not. ha ha.

I took off over to the Egret Rookery and this one flew over me. I quite like this one. Its a bit different to the run of the mill photo. Maybe like an xray photo. Who knows?

There were quite a large number of Ibis and Egret young birds in their nests and hanging out in the trees as well as this Nankeen Night Heron, which may be a Juvenile, but I do not know.

The Whistling Kites were circling over the rookery all the time so I managed to shoot off quite a few photos of them in flight. I love how they adjust their tail feathers to make little micro-adjustments to their flight. They are such cool fliers. I love to watch them.

See the angle of this Whistling Kite’s tail and how he is looking and adjusting all the time. Amazing!

This Whistling Kite has the typical under wing pattern. Notice again how he has the tail at an angle, adjusting his flight. They are so awesome.

Continued part 2 next post:-