Brett and Karen's 2016 End of Year Letter

Happy Xmas and New Year from Brett and Karen!

Bowra Wildlife Sanctuary
Karen and I spent last year's Xmas / New Year period caretaking the Australian Wildlife Conservancy property called Bowra - just northwest of Cunnamulla in central southern Queensland. This 14,000 hectare property was formerly a cattle station, but is now a hotspot for inland Australia's threatened birdlife. It is closed to the public from November to April, with caretakers like us maintaining a presence, doing maintenance jobs around the homestead and recording birds seen every day.

We don't mind the 40 degree temperatures, and like the place so much that we have volunteered to go back again this year!

The photos below show the sign at the front gate, the homestead, the lagoon at dawn, the homestead's loungeroom with satellite TV, emu tracks in the mud, Karen with the Cunnamulla Fella, and three of the birds we saw at Bowra - the Owlet Nightjar, the Spotted Nightjar and the Bourke's Parrot.

(Click a thumbnail below to view a larger image, then click the large image to make it small again)

France
In June we went to France, spending six weeks in total in the country - four days in Paris before heading to the southeast of the country for three weeks of walking, kayaking and cycling, then two weeks of walking from a base in the small town of Pralognan in the French Alps.

The photos below show the original one metre measurement in Paris (a real highlight!) and the grave of Jim Morrison from the Doors. The third photo shows us travelling close to 300km per hour in a train from Paris to Lyon - then Karen cycling in the Tarn Gorge, a rock formation on a day walk above Le Rozier, part of an eight day walk through the Ardeche, and the Pont d'Arc which we paddled through - plus Karen and I in a kayak on the river. The last seven photos were taken on walks in the Alps.

Bushwalking
Karen was supposed to give up her Presidency of the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers this year, but she failed to come up with a good succession plan and was convinced to remain in office for another year. Bushwalking highlights this year included two weeks of kayaking in Sydney's north, hiking and biking in and around Bright in Victoria (including an epic 20km of continuous uphill cycling during a climb of Mt Buffalo - with an elevation gain of 1000 metres), a great weekend in the Blue Mountains where we did some caving and canyoning, five days of walking in Canberra, and the usual Wednesday walks each week.

The photos below show Karen on Mt Buffalo after our ride to the top, and leading an undercliff walk in the Shoalhaven, caving in the Blue Mountains, kayaying the Hawkesbury, riding in Bright, walking in Canberra and Karen climbing a fire-tower, canyoning near Deep Pass, and walks of the Illawarra Escarpment, Churinga Head overlooking Ettrema Creek, and Karen climbing the Castle.

The last photo in the group below shows Karen and me at the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers Xmas Party in early December, shortly after receiving Life Memberships. Bushwalking has been a major part of our lives since moving to the Shoalhaven shortly before the turn of the century. Karen and I have led well over 300 walks during that time, many of them multi-day trips away, some of them interstate. I was the newsletter editor of the club for 7 years, the president for 2 years and the webmaster for 17 years (and still going strong). I have also added to the club's walks inventory for club members that now comprises over 400 walks and includes walk descriptions, maps, tracks for GPS devices and links to photos of each of the walks described. I have also uploaded photos of over 600 walks to the club's online photo albums. Karen has been the weekend walks coordinator for the past 15 years, and the President for the past 5 years, and most importantly, has led more walks in the past 20 years than any other member of the club. In addition we have represented the club at many rogaines and Navigation Shield events, and presented many slideshows of our various adventures at many club general meetings.

Sport
Last year I mentioned that my golf handicap has to start going up sooner or later - and it happened late this year when I said goodbye to single figures as my handicap went up to 10 and stayed there! Worse was to come in early December when my handicap reached 11! My goal now is to have a handicap of 18 (but to be able to play like a single figure handicapper when I feel motivated). While I am golfing Karen is still doing her weekly mountain bike ride with the local Bicycle Users Group, and she manages at least one other ride a week, usually on the weekend. Karen still swims a couple of times a week too - in the sea pool during Summer when it is open (and has water in it) and at the indoor pool at the local Leisure Centre the other six months of the year.

During a moment of weakness last New Year's Eve, I resolved to start exercising more, and came up with a very simple exercise plan involving only two exercises - push-ups and sit-ups. My New Year's resolution had me doing 1 push-up and 1 sit-up on the first day of the year, 2 push-ups and 2 sit-ups on the second day of the year, and so on. As I write this, on December 21st, I have just completed 356 sit-ups and 356 push-ups. Only 10 more days to go! By the end of the year (and a leap year at that!) I will have done 67,161 push-ups and 67,161 sit-ups.

My new year resolution this year is not to make any more new year resolutions !!!!

And has all the exercise done me any good? Debatable ...

Photography
I am still the Vice-President and Webmaster of the Bay and Basin Camera Club, and am still taking "snaps" on the various activities that I do rather than producing works of "art". I officially turned into a "grumpy old man" this year - because I stopped submitting photographs into club competitions in a protest against being forced to print them out rather than submitting them digitally, and I have been having an ongoing battle with the Inner West Photographic Society who have blatantly copied the logo I designed for the Bay and Basin Camera Club. Although the Inner West logo first appeared on their website about 4 years after our logo appeared on our website, the committee of the Inner West insist that their logo was not copied from ours, and was arrived at independently, and they have refused to change.

The full story of the dispute can be found here, but you can judge for yourself from the two logos shown below. Ours is the one with the black circle with the Bay and the Basin cut out of it. Theirs is the one with the camera in the middle - and the camera has also been copied from elsewhere on the web too!

Birds and Birdlife Shoalhaven
Karen and I are still hoping to soon reach 600 Australian bird species seen, but it may not happen unless I can talk Karen out of her fear of sea-sickness so we can go on a few boat trips out to the edge of the continental shelf to see some of the many oceanic bird species. Another option would be to go outback for many months to search for some of the grasswrens that have eluded us during our travels. Or perhaps we could travel to Christmas Island to spot a few of their endemic birds ... we only need to see 3 or 4 new birds to get to that 600 mark!

The BirdLife Shoalhaven branch of BirdLife Australia that Karen and I formed a few years ago is now going from strength to strength. Some dedicated and talented birders have been added to our committee, with a great improvement in our bird conservation efforts and a marked increase in membership.

Plans for 2017
More of the same - with a variety of possible overseas trips being considered. Hawaii is on Karen's agenda, and the mainland US national parks, but Britain is also a possibility as is that aforementioned trip to Christmas Island. In the immortal words of Doris Day - "whatever will be, will be ..."

We hope everyone has a great Xmas and New Year, and that 2017 is wonderful for you too ...

Cheers,
Brett and Karen Davis

P.S. As usual, our previous yearly letters can be viewed by clicking the following links - 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015.