A story from my father - and a photo essay

My father is not given to telling stories, so I will record here a story he told me today. (Anni, this might have some resonance with your recent post about cutbacks in funding for positions of Library Manager and the Cultural Officer in our own beloved Wingecarribee Shire).

In the Borough of Port Fairy, back in the bad old days, (my father is 93 after all), there was a Councillor who always opposed spending Council's money on new, fancy projects.

One such idea which he opposed time and time again, was the building of a "public urinal" in the main street. Eventually, this annoyed his fellow Councillors so much that they cornered him and asked why he kept objecting to this proposal. It turned out that the worthy Civic Elder did not know what a "public urinal" was. This was quickly explained to him, and the great light dawned on him.

Sure enough at the very next meeting of Council this worthy citizen got up and proposed that Council build a "public urinal" in the main street. Everyone cheered and clapped.

Overwhelmed by his triumph, the Councillor rose to his feet again, and added: And I think we should also build an "Arsenal".

*****

And by contrast to that story, here is a photo of Mt Dromedary, taken from Montague Island, near Narooma (when I was there 2 weeks ago). The link (above) will tell you interesting details of its volcanic origins, and former huge size. This mountain was the product of some serious volcanic activity, folks (and indeed, Montague Island was an offshoot from it). The strait is 6Km wide, and the mountain is a further 16 Kms inland. It is about 1000 metres high, but it is a large lump of a mountain, by Australian standards.

And, finally, to the point of this photo essay.

On my visit to the island, two young women chose not to go onto the island, but opted to swim with the seals which have a "haul-out" point on the rocks on the northern tip of the island. I did not know that this was an option, but I probably would not have done this anyway, as it is well known that White-pointer Sharks are very fond of seals.

Anyway, while we climbed the island, to inspect the lighthouse, and learn about its bleak history these young women went swimming with the seals. One particularly adventurous seal pup swam very closely with them, it seems - played with them. Secretly, I was just a little bit jealous.

For the record, while the women swam with the seals, the Captain of the boat kept watch, from the boat, close by.

Anyway, tonight I was editing a series of photos (thanks to Photoshop) and noticed something odd in the photo I have published above. Can you see where I have pasted a circle in the water?

This is a cropped image of the original photo (at maximum resolution). It is not doctored up in any way. The photo was taken with a long lens, from about 50 metres altitude, about one third of the way up the track to the lighthouse. I would estimate the range of the object in the water to be about 200 to 250 metres out to sea. But, remember, I was using a fairly long lens.

Make up your own mind!

My advice is don't go mucking around in waters you do not understand.

As usual, click on these photos for larger resolution images.