http://svana.org/sjh/diary mtb / vegan / running / linux / canberra / cycling / etc en Fri, 09 Dec 2011 10:23:00 http://svana.org/sjh/diary/2011/12/09#2006-08-10_01 <!-- 2006-08-10 --> On Saturday I am flying up to Cairns for a little over a week on holiday. While there I am competing in two mountain bike races the Herberton 8 Hour race in a team of 3 and the RRR Classic (details of both races can be found on the <a href="http://www.cairnsmtb.com/">Cairns Mountain Bike Club</a> website) on consecutive Sundays. I will be staying with friends, however apart from that I really have no idea what to do in Cairns for a week. <p> Dave and Julie were there recently and went on a Kayak trip, which was probably fun. This is the part of Australia where glass bottom boats are rather common, heck the Kayak/Canoe you really want up there is one of these <a href="http://www.hammacher.com/publish/10343.asp?source=befree&sourceid=0041515188&AFID=BEFREE01&cm_ven=BFAST&cm_pla=41515188#">transparent canoes</a> I saw on BoingBoing the other day. Apart from the fact my arms may drop off 3 hours into any attempt to Kayak somewhere I have no planned something like that. Is a reef trip a good idea I wonder? <p> I will probably ride up to Port Douglas one day, maybe look for nice swimming rivers/holes/etc on the way up and down to stop off at. I will probably look for a bit more mountain biking while there or maybe a walk or some trail running. But I really have no idea what to do apart from read books on the beach (which could not be all bad I guess). <p> Anyone have suggestions? Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:41:00 http://svana.org/sjh/diary/2008/04/30#2008-04-30_01 <!-- 2008-04-30 14:41:13 --> <div align="center"> <a href="https://svana.org/sjh/images/various/deck_view_med.jpg"><img src="https://svana.org/sjh/images/various/deck_view_small.jpg"></a><br> View from the deck (<a href="https://svana.org/sjh/images/various/deck_view.jpg">fullsize</a>) </div> <p> The weekend just past I camped out on a property up near Nimbin where Matt and Amanda were being married. A lot of us at the wedding were adventure racers, so Matt and Amanda catered well for us, taking us to Mt Warning for a 700 metre vertical hike on Friday then out for night lawn bowls (some unusual activity such as you may find in an urban race) that night. The wedding was on Saturday and then on Sunday we headed down to Byron Bay for the day. <p> The panorama view above is from the deck of Amanda's aunt's house looking over toward the border ranges on the left and the ridge on the right is obscuring Mt Warning (it is at the edge of the Caldera (<a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=byron+bay+Australia&ie=UTF8&ll=-28.387172,153.294983&spn=0.294791,0.392075&t=h&z=11">which</a> can be seen easily from space), we were staying just up above Nimbin. <p> I created the panorama with the program <a href="http://hugin.sourceforge.net/">hugin</a>, I have not bothered following the tutorial about balancing the colours better so you can see where the three photos sort of join, however I think the image looks alright, it took a few initial tries to get it to that point. (I have never used hugin before). Anyway great weekend away, thanks Matt and Amanda (and congratulations to you both). The temperature change on our return to Canberra was definitely a shock to the system, it sure was nice up there.