Yesterday, Caroline Gorka and myself went for a little shooting trip to Sugarloaf Reservoir. It has been months since I’ve been shooting ‘for myself’, with workloads steadily increasing, and I was looking forward to a nice relaxing time. It is a 45min drive from CBD, roughly, and we stopped by Kangaroo Grounds Cemetery along the way. A nice country cemetery, and I love these places. Cemeteries, for me, represent quiet and solitude, and peace.
We arrived at SR at about 12.00-ish, and walked down to the water’s edge, where we met a fisherman. Had a chat – nice guy. All by himself, and he was successfully catching fish, although while we were there, he lost something big – at least he told us that :)
I had forgotten my tripod at home (we took Caroline’s car, and mine lives in my boot). This for me, was a terrible crime – but as it turns out, it was a blessing that day. I resorted to higher ISO and steady shooting techniques.
It was a hot day – 28°, I believe. We walked around a little more from the fisherman, over a hill and took more photos. the ground was baked hard clay, with deep cracks – maybe 10" deep. The water looked inviting in some parts, yet areas of it had a pungent, acrid smell that was turning my stomach a little. We were in good spirits, so, being the genius I am, I suggested we walk around the reservoir. ’Can’t be too far", I said. Caroline, being the trusting soul she is, acquiesced.
So we walked, estimating it would take us about 2 hours total. We had no water. That would have been too clever. Every bend we came to, every rise we mounted, led to another series of fjord-y inlets, which we had to make our way around. After a few hours, we were getting tired, but I estimated that we were just about halfway around, and so wanted to keep going. Cas was getting a little narky at me, and rightly so. We were hot, tired, and cranky.
When we reached the spot I sighted as being ‘halfway’ – we discovered that we were in fact not – but I still persisted, adding an hour to our journey estimation. The park closed at 5, and warning signs were posted to exit at least 30mins before 5. We began to cut corners, wading through thick sludgey clay and rancid red algae. At one point, I lost my phone in the muck, and had to go back and find it (which I did, thankfully). We came upon a filtration plant, and sneaked down to the water’s edge to get around the low side of it.
Now by this time, we were extremely hot and thirsty. The water smelled horrible, but I decided it were better to have a few sips rather than die of dehydration. We had traveled about 10k by now, and our feet and heads were aching. A light moment came by when we discovered we were herding about 100 roos ahead of us. I found an old Fanta bottle, and washed it out, and skimmed some water of the reservoir. We drank a little.
Caroline by this stage was not a happy chappy with me. I plowed ahead, and kept telling her we were nearly there, resting every 20mins or so. But over and over again, we found there was more to go. We climbed ravines, jumped fences, and dragged our feet for another 15k before reaching a picnic park – with all the taps turned off. It was now 5.40pm. We had phoned and asked for the gates to be left open, but it was just starting to get dark.
Anyway – we obviously made it out. Knee high clay stuck to my legs, stomach roiling with bad water, 25km of hiking on the hot, baked clay. We collapsed in the car with legs that struggled to support us. Bear in mind – we are not regular hikers…
Here are a few shots form the day – enjoy, and thanks for reading :)
Lisa Jewell
Glad you two made it back in one piece….
My lordy the trek was worth it. Amazing images….I particularly like, the fisherman and the little girl…her green top works wonderfully with the dry earth.
Mark German:
Hahaha – the ‘little girl’ is Caroline ;)
Carmel Harty
What an adventure…glad to hear it ended ok…and lovely shots!
Is Cas still alive..lol
Lisa Jewell
OMG….I went back and looked again, are you sure? you be trippin on mud vapours….
Paul Louis Vil...
What a beautiful collection! :Looks like a great spot! :D
WaWa by Johnah
Haha, sounds like something I’d do. Glad to hear you survived. Looks like you’re a little short of water there, like we are here. Some great images there.
Caroline Gorka
Hehe…that ‘little girl’ was me Lisa …having said that.. at that point, I did feel like a little girl .. somewhat stroppy !
Mark…I got home and took my shoes off…and the foot that had been aching for the last 10kms exploded, and I spent the evening in tears until the 2 lots of strong pain killers took hold.
Like I said to you though … next time we shoot…..we go somewhere like a local park..where we don’t have to walk 25kms over some of the roughest terrain around….oh, and if that occurs..I’ll have my little lens on :D
…thanks for the day..for finding the place, and for being so staunch, and getting us out of there…still love you mate :)))
Good photos – colours were great weren’t they ? :)…I’ve had a quick look at mine, and think I have some nice abstracty one..taken with that big bazooka I lugged around !
Travis Easton
In all my travels I’m yet to visit sugarloaf, most catchments are strictly off limits so interesting that they allow access around this one. I made a similar mistake circumnavigating Lake Muratore near Powelltown. One of those little inlets that was only a few hundred meters across ended up taking me about twise as long as the rest of the lake put together being a wet bushbash through hell in the rain. Still a memorable adventure, nice shots.
PJ Ryan
beautiful collection of images .. your perspective is always so refreshing and interesting.
salsbells69
I’m only laffing because i can imagine you two taking the pi$$ out of each other and complaining of the heat, lol..good work..will check the pics later cause the work pc wont let me now! Sounds like a ‘fun’ journey…and something you can look back on in years to come and have a laff over!
Christine Wilson
it was cetainly worht it look at the shots, very nice
Joanne Bradley
Wonderful collection of images!
Jared Revell
25km, boy !
Cas looks a bit cranky sitting on that cracked clay :-)
Jacqueline Mu...
Great collection of images.
Very much like it is with my boyfriend – “lets just walk over there” which always turns into a bit more. Our last trip to Maroondah Reservoir Park turned into a 3km hike – we had water though.
Mel Brackstone...
Note to self: don’t go shooting with Mark…….heh
Great shots though, well done on making it back!
25km……faaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr k
Stephen Colquitt
Love the shot of the fisherman, but the images of the reserviour make me sad – will this ongoing drought never end???
Stephen Colquitt
LOL @Caz – Lucky you are a nurse and have access to the “strong” pain meds
Hien Nguyen
lol.. something to talk about in the future.
Cathryn Swanson
Hehe, what Mel said..on the last line!!
You’ve got some great images though Mark.
Kylie Reid
Great adventure and photos to go with it. Really like the detail and colour in the shots.
Suzanne German
Wow what an ordeal Mark!! So glad you both made it back safe and sound.
I looked at your slide-show…..really really liked the image with the bright blue zig-zag water line…..and the contrasts wih the sloping and gradient landbanks against the reservoir’s edge – really stunning!
Hey – the guy fishing reminded me of Dad in his later years…with that hat and beard….
thanks for sharng this with us – always so nice to see your photgraphic adventures!
Suzanne x
Mark German:
Funny, Sue – I thought the same thing at the time!!!
Alf Caruana
great to see you made it back OK, would have hated not to have been able to see this magnificient collection of images you brought back. Impressive work!!
InPort
Hola Marcus!
Good to see you flexing your photographic muscles and taking full advantage of the freedom.
A very interesting and enjoyable collection from your day out at these slightly off-beat locations.
GB
Dennis
Mark German:
Thanks Dennis (and Alf)
I’m not particularly a landscape photographer, but I do enjoy it once in a while. Probably the most interesting thing about the place was the stark contrast between the body of water, and the parched cracked land.