Bulahdelah

So I was right about my day when I spoke of it yesterday. Not a lot going on today, so today’s post will be more about yesterday. I hope that makes perfect sense to everyone – it sounded even worse with the original way I was going to write it (I was trying to be clever, so went for simplicity in the end).

ABOVE: The Punt at Bombah Point BELOW: On the Punt

To get to Bulahdelah from Hole in the Wall, you need to go via Bombah Point and the ferry service there. I guess you could also call it a punt. Many people still call it that. Anyhow, as the pictures show, it doesn’t cover a great distance. How much is the charge for this journey – at the moment it’s $5.00 AU. Seems a little excessive for something that’s over in less than 5 minutes. Still, there is a wage to pay, maintenance, etc. Still, you wouldn’t want to be doing it too often. You do get a ticket though (see picture at right).

The road to the punt isn’t too bad for an out of the way road. On the other side between the punt and Bulahdelah though… well, that’s a different story and is typical of gravel roads in this council area. It is full of large pot holes. The road from Hawks Nest to the punt is all sealed. You also go past the Pacific Highway upgrade near Bulahdelah and Mount Alum.

So arriving in Bulahdelah you enter near the old Court House, so I thought I’d stop and have a quick look.

The Court House isn’t open to the public too often. The note on the door indicated it was open on Saturday mornings, but I wouldn’t be too confident in what was on the note, it had been there for quite some time and was rather weather beaten. There are some old bits and pieces laying around the grounds of the Court House, from Bulahdelah’s logging and mining history. Being into history, I enjoyed having a bit of a look at these items, which you do see time and again throughout the region in various museums, parks and even in the bush. The whole region enjoys a similar history, particularly logging.

ABOVE & BELOW: Bulahdelah Court House

ABOVE: Mining History Relics BELOW: Logging History Relics

Following the time spent at Bulahdelah Court House, I decided it was time for lunch and if you follow me on Foodspotting or visit my profile page, you would know that I found a cheese and bacon sausage roll (from Bulahdelah Bakery – best bakery in the district) for lunch (I actually had two – naughty), while reading a newspaper parked out the front of the visitor centre. Why there? Well I decided I might as well grab some info. on some areas I’m thinking of visiting in coming days, as well as further down the track. I have a visitor centre practically next door to me, but since I was here I might as well pop in.

ABOVE: Bulahdelah Bakery BELOW: Bulahdelah Visitor Centre

So after that it was back down the highway and to Tea Gardens once again.

For more on Bulahdelah:
http://www.bulahdelah.net.au/

For more on Tea Gardens:
http://www.teagardens.nsw.au/

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Disposable Email Addresses

I have been dealing with links to various email tools over the last couple of days. Today’s link is to an article that deals with 10 of the best disposable email services on the web.

http://www.labofweb.com/top-10-and-best-temporarydisposable-mail-services-around-the-web/

Delicious

Delicious is a bookmarking/favorite web application, in that it saves and archives the URLs that you like. Of course you can save your bookmarks/favorites in your browser, which I do with Google Chrome (Bookmarks). I use Google Bookmarks for mine, as well as Delicious (which I use for my public bookmark sharing web application). I also use Wonderpage (see https://onetoday.wordpress.com/2011/02/02/wonderpage/ ) to visually show my Delicious bookmarks as thumbnails of the page.

Why do I use both Google Bookmarks and Yahoo’s Delicious (currently owned by Yahoo anyhow). Well there are a number of reasons. Firstly I prefer to use the Cloud for most of my Internet tasks, which will generally always allow me access to my data no matter what computer I use and/or wherever I am. Using both also allows me to have a readily available backup – which is always wise I think. Of course I also like to allow visitors to my Blogs, websites and so on, to have access to sites that I think are fairly useful and valuable.

Anyhow, have a look at Delicious – it is in my opinion the best bookmarking application in the Cloud.

http://www.delicious.com/

Blogging Platforms

Today’s link is to a Blog post on Blogging platforms. This list of Blogging platforms is well over 100 in length. Some perhaps are not what one would consider when looking for a Blogging platform on which to establish a Blog – such as Facebook, Bebo and even Twitter. But the best choices are there including WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and Posterous. Have a look and choose well.

http://tentblogger.com/the-ultimate-list-of-blogging-platforms-blog-software-100/

Trailmeme

This link is to another social networking site/tool. What is the point of this particular site? Well, it is a little difficult to explain – it is probably best to head to the site and take a look. Could be well worth a look and an inclusion in your social network sharing experience.

http://trailmeme.com/

Blogging: Lessons on Blogging from WordPress

WordPress is one of the best (the best in my opinion) blogging platforms there is. You can install WordPress on your own site or have a site that is hosted by WordPress itself. I have quite a number hosted at WordPress and cannot praise the platform enough – I love it.

WordPress has a whole section of their site dedicated to lessons about blogging:

http://codex.wordpress.org/WordPress_Lessons

The Parramatta Eels

I’m probably not a huge rugby league fan, but I have been something of a Parramatta Eels fan since the 1970s. Of course their best period was in the 1980s with four premierships – they also came close a couple of times, including last year (when they were beaten by the now known salary cap cheats, the  Melbourne Storm)

Go the Eels!!!

http://www.parraeels.com.au/

Penzu: Create a Private or Public Diary

Some people like to have a diary in which they pen their private thoughts – just for themselves. Penzu is the online equivalent of that idea. It will also allow you to share your diary or journal should you to choose to do so. However, one the best things about Penzu is that it is unlikely to be found by nosey people looking about your house – even your partner or other family members.

http://penzu.com/

Happy Christmas

Hi all – just wishing you all a Happy Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

 

The Beaches of Newcastle

It has often been said that Newcastle has some of the world’s best beaches. I wouldn’t know about that – I haven’t visited all of them.

What I do know is that having travelled around a lot of Australia, Newcastle is certainly up there with the best that Australia has to offer.

It is hard, in my view, to define just what makes the best beach. I imagine that someone who surfs would have certain criteria that differs from someone like me, who likes the natural beauty of a place more than anything else when it comes to liking a beach.

I think the beaches around the West Australia town of Esperance are simply stunning and I currently rate these as the best beaches in Australia that I have seen. There may well be better beaches, but in my opinion, those of Esperance are better than Newcastle’s beaches. But that opinion includes criteria such as seclusion, natural beauty, etc. For recreational use, access, etc, Newcastle has some brilliant beaches that the locals adore. They are certainly good for a walk along when it isn’t too hot and they aren’t too crowded.