SASMEE PARK: An Adelaide Hidden Gem

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The South Australian Society of Model and Experimental Engineers (SASMEE) runs a variety of ride-on model steam trains at their SASMEE PARK site at Millswood, Adelaide, South Australia. I used to visit the site as a teenager, and had not been back to the park for over 40 years until I visited again with my niece, her husband, and two children, in August 2010.

As a teenager I loved to examine the beautiful steam-powered model ships, and stunning steam trains, each loving built by skilled engineers and craftsmen whose attention to detail and pride in their work was clearly evident.

First incorporated in 1927, the Society began developing the Millswood site in 1947, and have been adding to and extending the tracks and facilities ever since. The site includes a large boiler house containing various historical exhibits, the oldest of which dates back to the 1880s.

Click map to view full size

Entirely volunteer run, the park is open to the public on the first Sunday and third Saturday of each month - weather permitting - from 2 to 4.30pm.

With an entry price of just $5 for adults and $3 for children, SASMEE PARK is one of my Adelaide 'Hidden Gems'. Once inside the site, children and adults can ride the trains as often as they like for no additional cost. There is also a large pond on site where SASMEE members and members of the public can sail model boats (some steam powered).

As you can imagine, the site is very popular with children of all ages, and because of the range of facilities and activities on offer, SASMEE PARK is the perfect place to hold birthday parties for any number of children.

Unfortunately, on the day I visited with family members, it was overcast and soon started raining, which cut our visit short, which is why in the video below you only see the steam trains, and none of the other facilities – although you can catch glimpses of the site as the video progresses. I will return to the park over the summer to shoot more footage of the whole site and add that to an updated post in due course.

Check the SASMEE website for full details about the park.

Note: Enclosed footwear *must* be worn if you wish to ride on the trains. You cannot wear light, flimsy or open-toed footwear. This includes thongs (flip-flops), sandals and scuffs.

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Visiting New York City

I was fascinated by an article in a recent edition of the New York Magazine called And Another Fifty Million People Just Got Off of the Plane.

The article spelt out in great detail the efforts that have gone into promoting tourism in New York City over the past ten years. Incredibly, in 2011, New York looks like playing host—for the first time in its history—to 50 million tourists. In 2002, when Mayor Bloomberg took office, that figure just over 35 million. With a turnover of $47 billion a year, tourism it is now New York’s fifth-largest industry.

Also of interest was information about where visitors come from and the ways they spend their time and money. In 2010, American’s accounted for visitor numbers of 39 million, compared with 9.7 million international travellers. However, according to the story, the two groups couldn’t be more different. Apparently, Americans “…stay an average of 2.7 nights and spend an average of $432” while in New York, while international visitors “…stay 7.3 days and spend an average of $1,700.”

It was interesting too, to read that international visitors are more adventurous than domestic visitors. I was particularly pleased to see this in the article:

“Among travelers from the top foreign markets, Australians are the most adventurous. They are the most likely to attend a sporting event, go dancing, shop, buy tickets to a concert or a play—anything, really.”

As an Australian who has visited New York City on two occasions, and who is looking forward to my third visit over the summer of 2012, I can report that apart from the dancing mentioned in the above quote, I have attended sporting events, shopped, been to concerts, Broadway productions and much more. I'm probably one of the few Staten Island Ferry riding tourists that have actually left the St George Terminal and spent a day checking out the island (nowhere near enough of course, but it's a start), whereas most visitors taking the free ferry ride reboard the next available craft for the return trip to Manhattan.

Despite the fact that I have now spent a total of four months ‘living’ in New York, I am far from exhausting the city's possibilities, and since the chances of doing that are next to impossible – even if I lived in New York full-time for ten years – it looks like I will continue to visit for a while yet.

Read the full article here...

Time Lapse View of Earth From Space

This video has been getting a lot of attention since it was released by NASA during November. The five minute time lapse film consists of "...sequences of photographs taken with a low-light camera by the crew of expeditions 28 and 29 onboard the International Space Station." The images where shot from August to October, 2011, at an altitude of around 350 km.

Watching the film, I was amazed at the number of storms that seem to be taking place at any one time, somewhere on the planet – as indicated by the numerous lightning flashes that you see throughout the flyovers.

Among the highlights of the film are images of the Aurora Borealis and the Aurora Australis;  a view of the Northwest coast of United States and Central South America; Central Africa and the Middle East; Islands in the Philippine Sea; the Mideast at Night; the Mediterranean Sea, and Eastern Europe.

This film really makes me appreciate the fragile planet we all share and inhabit. From a height of 350 kilometres the world truly is a beautiful place, a fact we can easily – and all too often do – lose sight of as we crawl around down here at surface level. Let me tell you, dear reader, if you think we humans are going to find a better place elsewhere in the universe – you are kidding yourself. This is it. This really is as good as it gets, and the sooner we accept that, the sooner we can focus on protecting the planet, and doing everything possible to ensure it, and we, survive for many future generations.

Make sure you set the video to full screen mode, then sit back and enjoy…

EARTH from Michael König on Vimeo.