Condobolin Days with Br. Dominic
By the time of this post, Fr. Gabriel should be safe and sound back in the Philippines. This was his last week here among us, and I have to be honest, it is horribly hard to let him go. He was a wonderful brother to each of us and a kind and giving priest to the parish. Just perfect for Kellyville. Hopefully he can return to be with us again during his breaks from his doctoral studies in Italy.
Before he left, Br. Dominic invited us to his home near Condobolin, about 7 hours' drive west of Kellyville. Only Fr. Gerard had been out to Condobolin before. It was a long trek through the Blue Mountains and then through farmlands into the bush. Along the way we encountered golden fields of clover in bloom (1) that took our breath away.
The actual town of Condobolin is small with basically a main drag that is two blocks long and that's about it. Here is a historic, Condobolin building (2). Dominic lives under a shrine on the property of a fellow who owns sheep and land; it's about a 50-minute drive through dusty roads to get to the site. As you can see by this shot, there's really nothing around it (4).
The Shrine of Christ the King is basically the original shrine from which the one at Kellyville was made. We used and modified it's plans for the shrine here. The same artist worked on the mosaics on the outside of the Condobolin shrine (5-7). And he also did the icons on the inside of that shrine (8-9). (It's a bit too new-agey looking for me.)
We all drove out as a house; here is a portrait taken of us all after Mass (10, from l to r: Br. Jerry, Fr. Gerard, myself, Fr. Gabriel and Br. Dominic). Following the Mass and then breakfast, we took a walk to see Br. Dominic's goat herd. En route, we met a goana (a type of monitor lizard of Australia) who lives in this drainage pipe (11). I'm told they can climb trees and if you spook one, it might climb up your leg by mistake! Needless to say, we gave it plenty of room!
Here are some pictures of plants in bloom (13-14) and a shot of my namesake, Alejandro the rooster (15). (Remember, he was born a couple of Christmas' ago. And then there were lots of goats, and lots of kids (16-27). The nicer ones have names, such as Peter, the patriarch of the herd (19) and this new kid on the block. She is all white and we named her Sofia, after the Holy Spirit (sometimes called Holy Wisdom or Haggia Sofia). This little kid seems more feline that goat (25)!
Here is a shot to give you an idea of the landscape (28). Br. Dominic cares for four hermitages, each like this one, for use by retreatants (29). From it, you can get a brid's eye view of the shrine (30). Here are photos of their simple interiors (31-32). Each had its own bathroom and shower, using rain water collected off the roofs (33).
In the afternoon we went for a hike up Mount Bollo (named after the owner of the property). You can see it in the distance of this shot (34). The day had been cloudy, and we weren't sure what kind of sunset we might get. God did not disappoint! Here are a series of photos taken as the clouds broke up and the sun set (35-45). Here I am at the top-most peak of the mountain; this is an image from Fr. Gabriel's camera (with the different, nicer lenses) (39). And this was a timed shot of us all as we waited for sunset (40). Check out the strange cloud formation (41). And look at this intense scene, as the golden sun dropped below a cloud and lit up the landscape below…really eerie (42). Behind us, we were able to take photos of the countryside with its long-cast shadows (43-44). Finally, here is a shot of some sheep after the sun had set (46). (Br. Dominic shared that we'd missed sheering day by a week!)
One of the things to which I had most looked forward was seeing the Milky Way. As Br. Dominic is so far from "civilization" and lights, we had a clear view. Let me explain these last photos (47-52) that were taken on Fr. Gabriel's camera, with the aperature set to long exposure. This first one is more or less what the sky looked like to us (47); the one that follows is enhanced on computer to reveal what else the lense captured (48)! So much out there we can't even see! Here are another pair of shots of the same thing (49-50).
Then we started to "paint" with light (shining a bright light over a person as the lense is open) so that we could capture the night sky and someone in the foreground, like myself (51) and Fr. Gerard (52). In the shot with Fr. Gerard, we also caught something strange (look at the upper left)! Was it a photo-bombing bird? A bat? A UFO? I'll let you decide!
On teh way home, we stopped at Mount Tomah Botanic Garden…but I'll save those shots for my next post!