Thursday 12 January 2017

A pre-heatwave photo session

I have a family member who is keen on photography at the moment and, in particular, Astrophotography and can be seen (or not) sitting out in the back yard in the dark looking at the wonders of the night sky through his telescope at all hours. He does take some stunning photos but wanted to have a go at taking photos of a waterfall of which there are a limited number here in town but we thought we would head up to Picnic Point on a cool day last week for a photo session before the current heatwave started.




I have mentioned Picnic Point before as the gardens are quite beautiful during the Carnival of Flowers but it is a popular place to visit for both tourists and locals all year round and well worth a visit if you are in Toowoomba anytime.

I really wanted to get a photo from the bottom of the Q150 flagpole which is 150 feet high and was built to celebrate Queensland's 150th birthday celebrations.

 

It flies high above the tallest trees and is such a wonderful landmark. If you are from out of town and want to find Picnic Point just look for the flag as it is visible from both down the Range and right across town.  




 With the photos of the flagpole taken we then headed down the hill to the waterfall and on the way came across the Hitching Rail which I had never seen before. It can't be too old as the locks weren't rusty as yet. 



Then we arrived at the top of the waterfall which was nice and cool. This waterfall was shut off for a number of years during the drought so it has been nice having it running again since the 2011 floods.




From the top of the waterfall there is a short walk down the hill to the bottom which is surrounded by shrubs of all varieties....




...and there is quite a little rainforest down there. 




Lots of weddings take place here as there is a wedding gazebo available which is surrounded by the lush shrubs and bushes.




The walkway leads to the bottom of the waterfall....




...as well as the start to two of the many walking tracks at Picnic Point...the Firetrail Track...




...and the Pardalote Track.




If you keep walking down the hill there is a lookout which is perched right on the edge of the range...

 


...where you can watch the traffic driving up and down the Toowoomba range. These roads were badly damaged during the floods and had to be rebuilt over a number of years. The range was closed for a number of days as parts of it had been washed away and trucks were unable to bring food in to the supermarkets during that time which made for an interesting time as some residents were panic buying.



We had taken enough photos for one day so headed back up to the top of the hill to the restaurant where we spotted people setting up for a wedding so I took a quick photo as it felt a bit intrusive even though it was all happening right beside the public walkway. I felt sorry for the bride and groom as it was extremely windy there and I was hoping the vases of flowers wouldn't fall over. It is always a bit risky getting married outdoors isn't it? 

In the end the photos of the waterfall didn't turn out as well as we had hoped even though the 'aperature' ...whatever that is...was adjusted this way and that. This year I am determined to use my new camera a lot more and learn how to use it properly. I might even check out the U3A as they might have photography classes. 'They' say that learning something new is good for the brain as we get older :-)

Have a great weekend everyone and I hope that those who are experiencing the heatwave can keep cool while our Northern Hemisphere friends try to keep warm. 



11 comments:

  1. Memories. Picnic Point was always a lovely place to visit. Especially if you have kids. The play areas were great. Our daughter had her first birthday there.

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    1. Chris when I was a child when we visited Toowoomba we always ended up at Picnic Point. That was back in the 1950s!

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  2. What a fun day though. Wow. The waterfall looks lovely.

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    1. We had lots of fun there with the children when they were little, Chrissy.

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  3. Nana Chel I thought your waterfall photo was just lovely. I haven't seen that waterfall looking that lovely. It was flowing but nowhere near as nicely as this when I was last there. I always go up to Picnic Point and just have a walk around. The last time I was there, Christmas 2015, The fog was so thick, there was no view at all.
    I'm over this heatwave. I am so looking forward to some cooler weather and hopefully some rain.

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    1. I am over the heat as well, Jane. It just seems to go on and on with the forecast for next week not looking too cool either. I need at least one cool day to cook my sourdough :-)

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    2. My starter remains in the fridge. It's just too hot to turn the oven on in the house and I cant get the hooded barby to get hot enough for the bread to bake well. I think I will just keep feeding the starter every 3 days or so and wait until something that reminds me of cool happens with the weather. Good luck getting your bread made.

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  4. I have never been to Picnic Point, Nanna Chel. I've only been to Toowoomba twice and both times I was driving through to further west. I'm going to have to take us on a little adventure I think, to come and see this lovely place. Will wait for cooler weather though, my gosh this heat is relentless at the moment. Meg:)

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    1. Meg it is worth a visit if you are driving through our city. Yes the heat just goes on and on :-(

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  5. i thought they were beautiful photos
    the heat is relentless here too, been dousing myself under a cold shower every half hour, they say it's going to be in the mid 40s
    thanx for sharing

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  6. Great pics of Picnic Point,so hard to imagine it so hot at the moment.

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