Milky Way

It was indeed a cold night last night......

I woke around dawn and the temperature told me I should stay in bed, wrapped up. When I did wake sometime later and looked outside everything was white - a seriously big frost. Despite only needing one duvet to keebp me toasty warm over night, the parts of me that were not contained under the duvet were exposed to very cold temperatures. My face and nose bore the brunt of about minus 5 or 6 outside......a little warmer inside but, for the first time since I've had the van, there was ice on the inside of the windows!

A txt from teejay saying she was nearby on a walk was all the encouragement I needed to head down to the lakeside and into the sunshine. We shared a coffee and a chat, watched some crazy youths stripped to togs jump into the lake just for the hell of it and whiled away some time just talking.

After teejay headed away (to reconnect with her friends who had gone on a slightly longer walk) I headed round to West Bay for a poke around. Took a walk round part of the peninsula and managed to capture some pretty decent shots of some bellbirds and fantails. Gorgeous wee creatures.

By late afternoon I had made my mind up that I wasn't game for another sub-zero night in the van but decided instead I would set up for some milky way shots, have dinner, shoot some shots then drive home afterwards. Given the early sunset (only 3 weeks to go to mid-winter!!) it wasn't late when I left the lake and, with almost no traffic on the roads (just 3 cars passed me between the Lake and SH6 - about 50kms!) I was home in a little over 75 minutes.

The lights that you can see lower left are lights from the village - St Arnaud. The streaks of light through the milky way must be satellites* - and the reason I chose this image to blip tonight. The light grey foreground is the lake.

Looking forward to my nice warm bed tonight and a holiday Monday tomorrow :)

* I think teejay is right..... shooting stars not satellites.