Solitary Mangrove

This photo was taken on the ferry trip between Tea Gardens and Nelson Bay last weekend, in New South Wales, Australia. The photo is of a solitary mangrove growing in rocks within the Myall River near Hawks Nest.

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Dredging the Myall River Channel

This picture was also taken on my recent ferry trip across Port Stephens from Tea Gardens to Nelson Bay. This is the dredge that is removing sand from the rapidly choking channel of the Myall River.

Oops… Been Forgetting to Post

Firstly, I must apologise for not posting over the last few days. I have no excuse – except to say I forgot to do so. Oops!!! OK, so I have the apology out of the way – time to post a photo for today.

Today I went on a ferry trip from Tea Gardens to Nelson Bay, did a spot of shopping and then came back via the ferry. It was a bit choppy on the water today and we got tossed around a little. Wasn’t a bad trip and I picked up a few items that I had wanted to get for a while. The ferry cruise across the ‘port’ would have been a lot more pleasant if it wasn’t so windy and cold, but still a good trip.

The photo at right was taken from the ferry while in the middle of the crossing of Port Stephens towards Nelson Bay. The picture shows both Yaccaba and Tomaree, with Broughton Island in the distance.

BUSHFIRE SEASON HAS ARRIVED

On Friday I was visiting the Bulahdelah Cemetery in order to photograph headstones for my family history research. I decided to go up to Bulahdelah after work, it being only a short journey from Tea Gardens.

What I had noticed over the last week or so was that as the temperature had begun to rise so the number of bushfires and controlled burns had increased around the area dramatically. In fact, there have been quite a lot of bushfires burning around the area. Though this photo was taken on Friday, bushfires are continuing to burn around the place, driven by the very strong winds and dry conditions that currently exist. There is a massive fire burning over toward Nelson Bay by the look of it, as there are huge plumes of smoke in that direction.

This photo was taken from the Bulahdelah Cemetery toward Alum Mountain, where the fire was burning. The air throughout the area, from Tea Gardens to Bulahdelah, was full of smoke and there was a thick smoke haze. I wouldn’t say the air was choking, but every breath certainly had the taste of summer upon it.