Twilight

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come.

William Shakespeare
My take on wp challenge halflight

Boundary between the normal and paranormal

It may not look like a boundary, but it is. On my side the normal, on the other side the paranormal.

North Kapunda Hotel is supposed to be one of the most haunted places in Australia. There are evening ghost tours through the PUB and around Kapunda and it is certainly well worth to join one of these tours. On the top floor there are 2 ghosts that frequently interact with the normal world, a little girl and a grumpy old man. Alas, we did not encounter any of the ghosts on the evening I was there. It was pretty creepy in many places though.

 

A good end to a good day

A day with a bit of sunshine (the significance of which you’d understand if you’ve spent a bit of time on the Irish west coast), some splendid sightseeing, a good feed and then to round the day off at a pub with a Guinness or two and some spirited Irish folk music. If that ain’t a good day I don’t know what is

Fowlers Bay

I’ll have to change the flavour of my blog since the project in South Australia is over. Still there are some images to share though. The digital gear was dead at the time of my visit to Fowler Bay, so the analogue camera got some use. I used t-max 100 for the images.

Fowlers Bay, few houses hugging a remote coastline of the far west of South Australia, some 900 km from Adelaide.

Fowlers Bay from the jetty

The township was surveyed in 1890 and as I walked the streets (all 4 of them) I tried to envision what it would have been like at the time. How long would it have taken from a ship to get from Adelaide to Fowlers Bay? How would the isolation have felt? Even in 2013 it felt like the end of the world.

Fowlers Bay

It was and is a remote area, and there had to be some facilities for residents and travelers (but who would travel past Fowlers Bay at the turn of last century?). So there was a hotel built in 1892. It cease to operate in 1936 and today the only remains is the sign where the hotel once stood.

Fowlers Bay Hotel

In this small place, the Hotel was not the only place for social interaction. There was also a community hall. Fowlers Bay was not the only place where I felt utterly amazed at hard working settlers who, apart from establishing a life at the end of the world, also had the will and energy to build venues for social life.

Fowlers Bay community hall

About a mile from the township there’s a small cemetery. There aren’t many marked graves there. From those that are there, one can divine that life was hard in the early days.

Fowlers Bay cemetery

Fowlers Bay cemetery

The Exhibition

The project on South Australian country pubs is coming to an end. During the past week-end we had the final exhibition at the school on our respective projects together with the art course. It was well attended and quite a jolly day.

We were allowed to exhibit 3 images each. There’s more of course, in the form of a presentation and a photo book, but for the exhibition there were 3 images. I tried to select 3 that went well together and that formed a coherent image together. Did I succeed and does it present a fair image of the country pub as social center?

Friday evening at Darke Peak Hotel

At the Streaky Bay Hotel

Streaky Bay Hotel

Friday at Penong Hotel

Penong is a small settlement in the far west of Eyre Peninsula (at least I think it is regarded as part of Eyre Peninsula). It is the last real township for 1000 km on the way to Western Australia.

I came to Penong on a Friday evening and got accommodation at the one and only hotel in town. As the battery in my digital camera had gone flat and the power adapter had been left in a hotel some 400km away I had a marvellous opportunity to shoot some black and white film.

The Front Bar in Penong Hotel

The front bar at Penong Hotel

There was also a beer garden at the hotel, where I had a chat with some friendly locals.

The beer garden at Penong Hotel

At the beer garden, Penong Hotel

I took some images of the pub from the street, but felt that these would have been better in colour. Since my digital camera was dead at the time, here is one of the black and white images.

Penong Hotel

Poochera Hotel Revisited

Having returned to home country I have had the opportunity to develop some of the film I took during my road trip. Yes, I carted around an analogue camera as well. It’s an entry model Canon SLR bought for next to nix on eBay. The shots here are all shot on TRI-X and scanned with a Reflecta crystal scan 7200.

When I stayed at Poochera Hotel I thought some of the interior would come out better in BW than color. In particular the dining room that was beautifully preserved from, well, perhaps folks from Down Under can pinpoint the epoch better than I. I thought it was very homely. More’s the pity that it was empty.

The dining room at Poochera Hotel

The dining room at Poochera Hotel

There was some beautiful items there. From the 50ies?

The dining room at Poochera Hotel

The front bar was almost as empty as the dining room on the day I was there.

Poochera Hotel, front bar

I stayed overnight at the hotel. The rooms were, as they usually are in country hotels, basic. They do serve the purpose for which they are offered: for the weary traveler to get some sleep.

Guest accommodation at Poochera Hotel

I do think that B/W captures the atmosphere quite a lot better than the color images I took.

Back To The Big Smoke

Back to the big smoke after 8 weeks of country living and enough km’s on the car to piss off the rental company. But then, the big smoke of Adelaide is not half bad.

Henley Beach towards Grange jetty, Adelaide

There are of course PUB’s here, and I just love the late 19th century architecture of South Australian PUB’s. The verandas are just made to spend a leisurely afternoon with a book or with friends.

Ramsgate Hotel, Henley Beach

To while away a hot afternoon with some friends in a beach side cafe is not half bad either.

Cafe by Henley Beach

Which is just what I did. This bloke accosted me and we had a bit of a chat and then an acquaintance f his came by. We then spent the next 5 hours swapping yarns whilst the sun slowly descended into the sea.

Down Barrier Hwy

Time to get a bit closer to Adelaide, my point of departure from Australia. I took off from Broken Hill on the Barrier Highway (not much of a choice there). It’s a long drive. Sort of.

Barrier Highway close to Broken Hill

It’s quite interesting though. Although it is desert or semi desert for 300 odd km, it is certainly not without beauty. Some parts are simply outstanding in my humble opinion.

Landscape off Barrier Why

To connect to my project: since I took off pretty late from Broken Hill, I did not get that far before dusk and decided to stay overnight at Yunta, a township that was created when the railway used steam trains and needed to fill up with water every so often. The change to diesel took place some 30 – 40 years ago and at that time road transport had taken over the role of rail transport except for real heavy stuff going point to point, like ore. The townships survive for some, for me, inexplicable reason. But then, it provided me with accommodation. As the one and only guest one might add.

Yunta Hotel

Oscar The Paddle Steamer

Time for my project is starting to run out. I thought I’d do a bit of a trip towards Broken Hill. As I was passing Morgan I decided to stop for a coffee. It is quite a nice little place, the day was pleasant and I felt no need to push on, I was perfectly satisfied to read and enjoy the beautiful afternoon. That’s when I saw Oscar. Too late to make Oscar’s acquaintance that day I decided to stay the night at the Commercial.

The Commercial at Morgan

The following morning, I made sure that I’d get better acquainted with Oscar. I had a lovely time with the old gentleman.

Oscar’s Steam Engine

Oscar is 105 this year and more or less in original condition. I was lucky that he was at Morgan this weekend, usually one will find him moored at Goolwa.

Oscar The Paddle Steamer

Isn’t he a beauty?