We decided to head back up the road a bit to The Dish which we visited in June last year, I posted a whole heap of pics of it in this post so I didn't bother taking many this time. I did want to try out the Gopro on it, I thought I might get some good footage of the road leading to the centre with the dish looming closer or maybe something cool like that. I set it all up so that all I had to do was press the on button while I was riding along and when I got my first glimpse of the Dish in the distance I managed to let go of the throttle long enough to reach up to my helmet and quickly hit the button without losing either speed or balance. I was pretty proud of myself for that accomplishment but a tiny voice in the back of my mind did mention that the button takes a bit of effort to press in ... did I press it properly? Ahh well I'd find out when I get there.
I pulled up to the dish and got all my gear off and pressed the off button (which is the same as the on button, you realise) before I looked at the Gopro. Now a while back Chillertek over at Road to Nowhere put out a bit of a challenge .... show us your Gopro fails. I read that challenge and loved it but I wasn't really keen to share my fails at this stage .. hence turning off the Gopro before I looked at it, I wasn't keen to show my helmet hair off in classic fish eye lens style. So when I looked at the video when I got home I decided not to share my first real Gopro fail .. you can actually see where I realised that the silly thing had just been turned on >.<
We had a nice breakfast at the Dish Cafe, and some good coffee before heading back out onto the road. There's a neat little area along the road that is for pulling over and getting photos of the dish from a distance, we'd taken shots there when we came here last winter. Those shots were awesome, the fields around us had been just starting to sprout their winter crops so there were green fields and blue skies with big puffy white clouds. This time it's the middle of summer, you would think that those crops would be doing awesome right, wrong .. they aren't there now, harvest was a couple of weeks ago. This has been one of the hottest summers in history all across Australia, and the photo I took that day shows it.
 |
| The Dish in January |
 |
| The Dish last June |
And all the while that I was taking pics of Terry and the Dish my trusty Gopro was busy taking photos of me taking photos .. oops I forgot to turn it off while we stopped, actually I'd forgotten that it was turned on.
We jumped back on the bikes and headed on our way ...
When we turned back onto the highway and Terry said 'ya wanna grab some cherries from this roadside stall?' and I said 'absolutely!' I still didn't realise that the Gopro was on.
I wondered why the guy was giving me some odd looks, but just figured it was cause he was wondering if the chick with the helmet on was gonna roll him for his millions. I bought my cherries with the helmet on cause I just couldn't be bothered taking it off for the ten seconds it would take me to get those cherries.
It wasn't until I got home and looked at these pictures that I realised he had been confronted not only with a chick with a helmet on buying his cherries, but also with a chick with a helmet on that had a little box with a flashing light pointed at him .. buying his cherries.
After stowing the cherries delicately in the top pack, we headed on our way again. It wasn't too much further up the road that Terry was confronted with his own strange and unusual sight. In the middle of the road in front of him was a bird picking at something tasty, he really didn't want to move and left it til the last possible moment to take off just in front of Terry. Boy was I hoping that the Gopro had caught that one!
It caught him just before he left the frame, I still like this shot anyway :) We got home and looked it up in the bird identification book that I'd got for Christmas, we think it was a Brown Falcon.
 |
| Photo from Wikipedia |
It's hard to identify birds from a motorbike, but we try :-D
Not much else happened on the way home, we struck a bit more traffic, a lot of caravans and I got to test out my overtaking skills again, I'm getting better now that I've worked out how to plan for it. It was a lovely ride home, no pressure and the weather was almost perfect for riding. We haven't been for a ride since then, it's just been way too hot, but temperatures are cooling down a touch now and every time I pull the car in next to Roxy the urge is strong to just jump on her for a quick ride. Terry said he was tempted this afternoon too. This weekend is going to have to include a ride I think!
Loved the post brenda. A whole post full of photo fails hahahaa. Thanks for sharing, those little cameras can be very frustraighting at times can't they.
ReplyDeleteI was out in Forbes on the weekend and everything there is very very dry. The badly need some rain. It wouldn't take much for a bushfire to start there.
Haha Steve, I am learning all about my gopro the hard way ... It's still huge fun tho :)
DeleteThe day we left Parkes was the day that the Warrambungles went up in flames, there were smaller fires all over the place including near Dubbo airport during the following week. We did get about 50ml last weekend which has just been soaked into the ground as if it never happened. Mother nature is an amazing but scary lady.
The Dish - is that the same one that was used as part of the Apollo 11 mission by any chance? I remember I had seen a movie called that, it was interesting and I imagine it is a source of pride for Australians to have been involved in that.
ReplyDeleteThat's a nifty little camera, what a cool way to record your travels and grocery shopping! Have a lovely weekend riding...
Hi Suzu, yep that's the one and only Dish from the Apollo mission and yep the one that the movie was based on. Here's the web site bout it http://www.parkes.atnf.csiro.au/news_events/apollo11/
DeleteI love the Gopro, it's a new toy for me and I'm still working out how I want to use it .. but so much fun!!
It's supposed to rain this weekend, they often lie about rain here so the chances are pretty good that we will get out and about :)
Looks like an awesome ride home. No rushing, no hurrying, just an easy paced ride in the sunshine.
ReplyDeleteI never did try using our GoPro but hubby was so frustrated with it being on when he thought it was off and off when he thought it was on and then not turning on at all that he returned it to REI.
I enjoy watching everyone else's GoPro results - and the out takes too.
The whole weekend was like that Brandy, and so relaxing after a pretty hectic Christmas season (that just seemed to go on and on this year)
DeleteShame you didn't get to use the Gopro more, but then your photos are always so awsome that I dont know that you need it. But finding photos that you didn't know you were taking is pretty fun!!
Brenda:
ReplyDeleteI think we've all had GoPro Failures. I am never sure if it is ON or OFF, so now I swivel it around to check and I edit out that part later. There is nothing worse than going home to find you recorded Nothing
I am envious that you can link to older posts. All of my photos are gone due to my old host provider Shutting Down and I had to start new with Picassa around mid October, so anything posted before then is just Text.
It sure looks hot over there. Everything is Brown and dry
bob
Riding the Wet Coast
I think that Gopro failures are half the fun. I was trying to turn the Thing on while I was riding and only catch the bits I really wanted cause the battery doesn't last long enough and I wanted to put it on photo mode for the rest of the trip home.
DeleteThat's such a shame about your older posts Bob, can't you repost them from your new provider?
It is dry Bob, but we are starting to get a bit of rain this last week so hopefully the worst of it is over.
Brenda
ReplyDeleteGlad you are getting out on your bike and using your GoPro. Cherries! We have to wait until June for them. I have done te same thing with my helmet, I've zipped into the store and not bothered to take it off because it was too much hassle and I was being lazy.
Hi Dar,
DeleteCherries are the best thing about Christmas round here!!
I love the Gopro, I always have it on when I am going for any ride longer than 5 minutes. I would just like to see if I can mount it somewhere on the bike as well to try and get some shots that dont include the side of my helmet, need to look into those ram mounts I think.
I'll normally take my helmet off, but this was just such a quick purchase I really couldn't be bothered, only reason I took a glove off was cause I couldn't open the zip on my purse with it on.