Initially I wasn’t going to write this post, as it’s not really a hike or a walk. Yeah okay, technically it’s a walk, as one foot goes in front of the other. It’s such a short stroll though to the top of Flinders Peak, You Yangs (340 m), you could in theory do it on hands and knees. That method could take a while, so I suggest you get a bloke in leather shorts and fishnet singlet to give you a whipping on the crawl up, otherwise it’ll take forever.
The reason I am writing it though is for two reasons. The first is it’s part of my ‘back to back’ specials. Previously I focused on Lerderderg Gorge and this time it’s the You Yangs, as the second walk in this special has to be written up due to a unique sighting I had. So, I couldn’t just do the one post, could I? Then it’d be the ‘one’ special, which doesn’t sound so fancy. My disclaimer though is this entry only exists due to the one which follows. Nothing happens on this walk. I don’t fall over, meet any freaks or die. I can’t even say the photos will be any good.
The second reason is I’m about to blow my top with Picasa. I’ve been using Picasa web albums since the blog started, but lately there’s some weird stuff going on in there. There’s no way to describe it other than Picasa has turned my photos to shit. The picture you end up seeing on the blog, is not the rich, saturated image that I’ve created on my computer. During the uploading to Picasa, they’ve suddenly turned the photos into over-brightened, over-sharpened, overboard crap. My hunch is it’s all to do with the added free space given for Google plus punters. They’ve reduced the file size of pictures, subsequently frying them into submission.
Actually, is there anyone on Google Plus, or should that be Google +? It seems Google are hell-bent on everyone being forced onto it. Bloody hell. I’ve got enough social media duties without another one. I’ve spent years being on Facebook, but essentially not doing anything on it. How would I go with another social media site, which I’d be on, but ignoring?
So, this is an experimental post, as I’m practising using Flickr as my photo storage. Already, I’ve buggered up the HTML cross-over, so I’d better fasten my seatbelt if I’m going to get this post done and looking remotely the same as other posts.
Right. Back to this ‘walk’. I arrived at the You Yangs on a Sunday and it appeared half of Melbourne was there. To top it off, the light was rubbish. An overblown, whiteout of a sky, so the photos were always going to be flavour-less. It was always going to be a hit-run mission and as it appeared the masses were scurrying up Flinders Peak, I figured I’d might as well join them.
The beginning is one of those wonderful, over-engineered starts, which pop up in parks now and again. Stairs. Right, I’m off to Flickr and sucking up some HTML code. I’ll be back in a minute.
Stairs only. No elevator.
Right it took longer than I thought, but I think it’s done. Mind you, I lost my mojo for a minute there and placing the picture took me about four hours, as I had a nap on the couch.
Heading up the stairs, it was hard to get a photo without a million people in them. I’m not much of a ‘include-sweating-hordes-in-nature-photos’ type of bloke. The thing is I began to note something quite quickly. Everyone coming down had big smiles on their faces, were happy to say ‘hello’ and appeared to behave as ‘fresh’ as they could. “Struggling up are you? Ha! Look at me. I’m fit!” Don’t for one minute think I can’t be as paranoid about peoples actions more than anyone else. When I retire from work in about six years, I’ll write a post about my job which I’ve been in for the past 25 years. You’ll get a kick out of it and it might explain my slightly unhinged thinking!
Right. Flinders Peak is small, but I’ll put my hand up and make full admissions I was dying on the way up. At least there’s some nice lookouts to take away the pain. This chair was well-placed.
By the way, ignore all my earlier ranting about Picasa, as I’ve started using it again. I turned my computer off earlier and then restarted this post. Resigning into Flickr, grabbing the HTML code and fixing it up in the post is way too hard for my brain on a Friday night, so you’re getting the pictures in the current ‘cooked’ mode.
Actually, the chair above has a nice view down towards an enormous geoglyph of Bunjil. Here’s a view from the lookout…
Bunjil
It’s certainly impressive, but did you know a crow helped Bunjil out by creating a cyclone, which got him up into the sky so he could become a star? Okay, the cyclone was in a bag, so the story is up for conjecture. Anyway, the main thing is it would be cool if the Bunjil geoglyph had a crow nearby as well. Even better if it was exactly like this…
‘This is the really real world. There ain’t no coming back’.
I reckon they’d be great side by side, flames and all. Back in the really real world, not a lot was happening other than I was huffing and puffing up the hill like a steam train. It was surprisingly hard work, but at least I found a large leaf to look at.
I’m lucky this peak was only a few hundred metres high, as I was knackered by the time the top came into view. A light on a pole is the indicator of the summit…
…and within a couple of minutes I was there admiring it. Well, it wasn’t that thrilling, but by standing under it, I was at least satisfied Flinders Peak had been bagged.
The views weren’t too bad. A nice fire in the surrounding fields was a highlight…
…and really that’s about it. A few other people were on the top at the same time and we all stood around gloating at the others who were still trudging up. The trouble is, the looks of suffering from others still climbing was a tough thing to witness. The climbers with their sweat covered brows and tomato coloured faces was too much, so I shouted to my successful summiteers, “Don’t cheer boys. The poor devils are dying.”
Wow. It took a lot of work to sneak that quote in. What happened next? Well, it was now my turn to be one of those people walking down, bounding along and smiling at everyone, whilst making out I was fit as a fiddle and inferring to everyone struggling up they were wimps for suffering so much. “Struggling are you? Ha! Look at me? No problem for me!”
It wasn’t the greatest viewing when I perused the GPS. Oh yeah, 3.14 km. Now that’s a walk!
Okay, next up in the back to back You Yangs special is something a little longer. A five kilometre walk. I kid you not…
Well we've all done it… smiled at those still struggling up while cheerfully bouncing our way down from whatever hill/mountain/rise we've just climbed!
; )
Nothing wrong with a pleasant stroll now and then. At least it got you out of the house!
The photo thing is a pain, isn't it? I use Picasa for pictures in my sidebar and it's a laborious process. I don't even use Flickr anymore as time is so short and photo geeks, trolls and people giving you "awards" that have no real meaning so numerous. The only time I get to sit back and enjoy my pictures is as a random slideshow I have of my favourite photos as a screensaver.
Speaking of pictures morphing unsatisfactorily after they leave your hands (though yours look fine to me), I've found that FaceBook does terrible things to an image. And choice of monitors makes such a difference. Mine at work here in Korea looks like there's a little kid in there with felt pens working on each image…
Yeah, it's common, but it appeared to be in overdrive on this little hill!
Whilst on the way down, I said 'hello' with wau more vigour than usual to every puffing person heading up 🙂
What's funny is the You Yangs aren't far from me and I've known them to be there for over 40 years, yet it's only really this year I've gone and done all the walks in the place! Talk about taking my time.
Yeah, I'm on Flickr and for some reason I've never got into it. I tried again recently, but with the new layout I almost vomited. I detest the 'busy' look. It would be so nice to have a simplistic layout. I've considered some pay sites and SmugMug looks okay, but I'm a little traumatised by the name. That's how much of a wanker I can be!
There's no more time consuming thing for me in blogging than photos. I take them in RAW, process in Lightroom, naming the files. Rejigging some in Nik Software, upload to Picasa. Then when attaching to the blog I add alt text and name, so you can pause the mouse over the picture and read something. It's such a laborious process that I find by an end of a post I detest the pictures, plus the post and just want to hit publish before I put my head in the oven! It takes a bit of fun out of the writing and blogging in general, so even after all this time I still don't have the best solution. Also, this is where Flickr hurts my brain, as the last thing I want to do is dick around with HTML code in getting a picture onto the blog.
I guess the ultimate completion to this whinge is I wouldn't mind so much if Picasa replicated the image I give them. I've had other people say they look okay, but it's only when you compare the original to the image online you see the difference. There is so much bizarro sharpening going on, which makes the picture look as if they're overexposed. It's got to the point now where I'm deliberately underexposing them in Lightroom until you can't see crap, as they're so dark and then uploading to Picasa, where they automatically turn brighter. Talk about a ball breaker.
Yes, Facebook is a full blown destroyer! As you've probably seen on my page, I've long given up with the pictures. I used to put them on there, but it seemed pointless upon seeing the end result!
I think this is the longest reply to a comment ever. I'm done!
G'day Greg. I use Flickr but any photos that go into a blog come from my desk top, not any on-line storage unit – too much stuffing around. I only realy use Flickr (and aoccasionally FB) to show other people the pics; the real ones are on my hard disk.
I have previously used Skydrive from Windows to post photos. You can choose to have them completely uncompressed as they are embedded as the actual raw file, not 'uploaded' as a photo to the site… worth a look if you already have a hotmail/windows live account.
Ahhh the good old Youies. Great looking fellow hikers a plenty! I could do laps all day….
I've no idea why I can't reply individually, but I guess it's a Blogger hiccup.
Hi Ian, my only beef is I spoil myself with image quality on my computer, but what I end up with when uploaded is a different looking picture altogether. Don't worry, it's probably some sort of condition I have. I think the terminology is 'camera wanker'?!
You're right though, it looks like a lot of Bloggers use Flickr. It's okay, but I like how Picasa is quite seamless with Blogger. Straight upload without having to play around with the HTML code. I'll never understand that stuff and I had a moment where the photo I took from Flickr to the blog stuffed the border around the picture. Blogger have that grey border around the pictures and it took me about 20 minutes fixing it. That's time I could have been writing crap! I've acres of hard drives with pictures on. My photo libraries are out of control!
Hi Daniel, I've never thought about Skydrive. Actually, forgot all about them! I'll have a look and see what they offer, as I do have a hotmail account somewhere 🙂
Hi again, yes I can see why the You Yangs are popular. They're short walks, but it's a nice way to stretch the legs for a few hours!