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D R AW I N G S O N WAT E R Visceral Reflections Whilst Kayaking on Middle Harbour Sydney, Australia

Reflections from the Water, the Middle Harbour Yacht Club Marina, April 23 2013

RALPH KERLE

D R AW I N G S O N WAT E R Visceral Reflections Whilst Kayaking on Middle Harbour Sydney, Australia

Above: Castle Haven Reserve, Castlecrag, September 18 2013 Below: Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, Castle Haven Reserve, Castlecrag, September 18 2013

DRAWINGS ON WATER Visceral Relections Whilst Kayaking on Middle Harbour Sydney, Australia

T

wo or three mornings a week around 6.40am come rain, hail or shine, I enter the Castle Haven Track in Castlecrag, Sydney, Australia, a steep 450 metre bush track built on the remnants of Sydney sandstone steps, framed by local forests of dry Australian eucalyptus trees and a lush green undergrowth. I often disturb Australian sulphur crested cockatoos, native bush turkeys and their tormentors, the local domestic dogs looking for an early morning meal as I descend onto the foreshore of Castle Haven Reserve, a small sheltered inlet in Sailors Bay, Middle Harbour, Sydney. It is here, secured by chain and rope to foreshore trees, I moor my second-hand sea kayak bought cheaply off eBay in a moment of desperation.

This kayak has become my optics onto a world of perception offering boundless moments of insight I could not have previously dreamt of whilst connecting me as close to nature as the local Aboriginals must have been who once inhabited this area.

Two years ago, pharmaceutical remedies had driven me further into depression rather than alleviating the problem, leaving me no option but to consider the physical in search of a way out of my immobilizing mental darkness. It is impossible

to convey the therapeutic cleansing that occurred almost immediately after my first kayaking journey.

An early morning dose of nature, fresh air and sea water accompanied by the imperceptible exercise of core stomach muscles and the upper and lower body moves the darkness of black thoughts rapidly.

Over months I began to physically and metaphorically sit on the powerful sea water of the natural environment of Middle Harbour, Sydney. Slowly but surely as I began to exercise regularly a new consciousness emerged driven by a powerful inner voice that spoke to me in ways where depression was no longer the main character.

As it did, my mind discovered the core of a visceral experience in a surprising manner – the surface of the water alerted my mind to new pathways of perception.

Technology in the form of the iPhone and Picasa, the on-line photo-editing software platform enabled me to shape these fleeting moments of new neural connections into these “Drawings On Water”.

I hope you find as much joyous puzzlement and reflection in these images as I did in creating them.

- Ralph Kerle

My Standard Paddle

Middle Harbour, Sydney Australia My kayak journeys are in Middle Harbour (or Warring-Ga), a semimature tide dominated drowned valley estuary, the northern arm of Port Jackson, an inlet of the Tasman Sea located north of Sydney central business district on the coast of of New South Wales, Australia. Middle Harbour has its source in the upper reaches of Garigal National Park where it forms Middle Harbour Creek and flows southeast to become Middle Harbour at Bungaroo and travels

for approximately 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) before reaching its mouth at Port Jackson between Grotto Point near Clontarf and Middle Head.

Within Middle Harbour are, from upstream to downstream, Shell Cove, Pearl Bay, Long Bay, Sugarloaf Bay, Bantry Bay, Fisher Bay, Sandy Bay, Sailors Bay, Powder Hulk Bay, Willoughby Bay and Quakers Hat Bay and the catchment area is approximately 100 square kilometres (39 sq mi).

Leaf on Water, Sailors Bay, August 11 2013

Left:Yellow Buoy and Mast, Sailors Bay, August 12 2013 Right: Mast Lines, Sailors Bay, August 7 2013

Motor Launches, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, August 23 2013

Left: Tonic, Sailors Bay, August 18 2013

Top: Unknown Vessel, Sailors Bay, October 23 2013 Bottom: Sunseeker, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, October 28 2013

Ten8ious, Seaforth, May 31 2013

The Middle Harbour Yacht Club Marina, April 23 2013

The Middle Harbour Yacht Club Marina, April 23 2013

Left: Robo Shark, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, The Spit October 28 2013 Right: Reflections From In The Red, The Middle Harbour Yacht Club, the Spit, December 7 2013

Reflections, In The Red, the Spit Marina, December 7 2013

Tender, The Balmoral Boat House Tender, Balmoral Beach, June 14 2013

The Balmoral Public Baths, Balmoral Beach, June 14 2013

Kinzan, the Middle Harbour Yacht Club, September 9 2013

TINNYIN, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, The Spit, July 1 2013

Top: Yasawa, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, July 29 2013 Below: RB734N, Castlecrag Marina, Castle Haven Inlet, Castlecrag 18th August 2013

RB734N Castlecrag Marina, Castle Haven Inlet, Castlecrag, August 18th 2013

Reflections from 007Seven, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, October 28 2013

Blue Poles, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, November 29 2013

Right: A Mast Alone, Seaforth. October 23 2013 Blue Reflections from 00Seven, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, May 13 2013 The Flow of Reflections from 00Seven, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, October 28 2013

Reflections from the Dancing Queen, Ferguson’s Boatshed Marine, the Spit October 28 2013

Paddle Synthesis, Ferguson’s Boatshed, the Spit December 30 2013

The Spit Bridge, the Spit December 13, 2013

Blue Poles, Fergusons Boat Shed Marina, November 29 2013

Under the Spit Bridge, The Spit December 13 2013

Castle Haven Inlet, Castle Haven Reserve, Castlecrag, August 12 2013

RALPH KERLE THE PHOTOGRAPHER I am a kayaker, traveller (but not a tourist), naturist, wordist, imaginizer, philosophiser, culturalist.

I only use an iphone to capture images.

Contact: rk@ralphkerle.com December 2013 Dawn Off Chinamans Beach, Middle Harbour, June 21 2013 Sunrise on a Day That Produced 41Degrees Castle Haven Inlet, Castle Haven Reserve, Castlecrag, January 28 2013 Layout & Design by Helen Stead