DRAWINGS ON WATER

Visceral Reflections Whilst Kayaking on Middle Harbour, Sydney Australia.

RALPH KERLE

DRAWINGS ON WATER Visceral Reflections Whilst Kayaking on

Middle Harbour Sydney, Australia

The Middle Harbour Yacht Club Marina, the Spit Latitude 33 48 4\’0»S Longitude 151 14.9\’0»S April 23 2013

Viscera l Re lec t ions Whi l s t Kayak ing on Midd le Harbour Sydney, Aus t ra l ia

Two 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

DRAWINGS ON WATER

Above: Castle Haven Reserve, Castlecrag. Latitude 33 48.1\’0”S Longitude 151 13.4\’0”E September 18 2013

Below: Sulphur-Crested Cockatoos, Castle Haven Reserve, Castlecrag Latitude 33 48 1\’0”S Longitude 151 13.5\’0”E September 18 2013

My kayak journeys are in Middle Harbour (or Warring-Ga), a semi-mature 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).

Middle Harbour, Sydney Australia

Leaf on Water, Sailors Bay Latitude 33 48.2\’0”S Longitude 151 13 7\’0”E August 11 2013

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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

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