Beaches and forests

Staying so close to a beach I just had to make the effort to get at least one sunrise over the sea. Back home I am surrounded by tall trees so although I do see colour in the sky it is short lived and unsuited to a photograph. This was my opportunity!

It was cold! Further south they are having snow and blizzards and the chill reached up to us this morning! Brrr! However I resisted the urge to snuggle down into the bedclothes and dressed in warm fleece and waterproof jacket to sheild from the wind I lugged my heavy tripod and my trusty Nikon across the sand dunes to the beach. The dune ground cover didn't offer an interesting foreground interest so I had to let the sky take centre stage. What looked as though it would be a spectacular display turned out to be a disappointment with clouds racing in and denying me a sight of the sun rising. However I did get quite a few pretty shots, thanks to my 200mm lens.

It was great to return to a hot shower and breakfast! An invigorating start to the day!

On the way out for our day's exploration, we stopped briefly to take a couple of pictures of the smallest Post Office in NSW. It looks as if one of the veranda railings has been broken and temporary plastic fencing put up to stop customers falling off !

This is the Empire Vale post Office on the Richmond River a few kilometers from Wardell. Empire Vale is a tiny little town – a “blink and you'll miss it” town. Colin and I drive through Empire Vale every day either on the way out or on the way back to the caravan park when we choose not to use the ferry across the river.

Our car trip took us first to Evans Head where we first visited a small sandy bay that even on this cool morning attracted a couple of young boys who, when we were leaving, were splashing happily in the waters edge.

Driving up the hill above this beach we were able to look down on the attractive coastline. Evans Head is a very popular (quiet) holiday destination. I can see why.

On the way to see another holiday destination I took a turn into what was signed as Shark Bay Picnic Grounds and when we left the car we were surprised to hear the sound of many young children. We did not intrude on the groups of children and their teachers but it appeared that an entire school was being conducted here in on the lawns of the picnic area or on the beach and the subject was evidently Aboriginal culture. One group was playing rhythm sticks and chanting and another group were busy painting on sheets of paper spread on the ground using sticks and fingers, The Aboriginal flag was suspended between the branches of one of the low trees.

When we arrived in Iluka, Colin and I walked into the Heritage Listed Rainforest which is right against the beach. Voluteers have spent many hours removing domestic plants from the rainforest that had threatened to smother everything. Asparagus fern is one of those plants – it spreads rapidly and has wicked thorns on it too.

As we drove in to the town of Iluka we drove through patches of rainforest, eucalypt forest and maleluca forest, it was amazing how the pattern of trees kept changing. I could not understand why the little patch of rainforest that was in the township should have been heritage listed and not the forest on the drive in to the town (that did not appear to be filled with feral plants). There must be a reason.

Iluka has a fishing fleet of trawlers and after taking a couple of pictures I amused myself by trying to catch a shot of the terns as they dived for fish in the adjacent yacht harbour. I only caught the splash!

AJ

A place with a lifting bridge

It is so quiet here in South Ballina. No traffic and no sounds other than the sound of rain on the roof last night. When we eventually decided to get out of bed the rain had dried up and the clouds were almost gone. In fact the sky was so blue after we had eaten our breakfast that I persuaded my stay at home hubby to come for a walk to the beach. The beach is almost adjacent to the caravan park we are staying in.

The walk did us both good and Colin looked quite happy to be out on the sands.

There wasn't another person on the beach for as far as the eye could see. This is supposed to be a surfing beach but the waves were very small indeed.

We needed a few pantry items from the shops in Ballina (we are a ferry ride across the river from Ballina) so the day was planned so that I could take a few shots in Wardell which was on the road trip to Ballina from here, There was time for a cup of coffee before we left so I can show you the little cabin that is our temporary home here in South Ballina.

I had read that Wardell had a few historic buildings in it – historic in Australia terms but only just over one hundred years old. I took a few pictures of what I could see were old building – the original Post Office is now closed and empty of everything except a few pieces of large furniture.

Post offices like this one were to be found in country towns all over country Australia. They were painted white and proudly displayed the Aussie flag on the flagpole out the front.

The most dramatic old structure in Wardell is the lifting bridge over the Richmond River that is still used by all the cars buses and trucks that use the Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane. I really do not know if the bridge is still operational or if it even needs to be. Once upon a time paddlesteamers and yachts would sail up and down the river and need the higher clearance. I did once see the bridge lift for a high masted yacht but that was a few years ago.

And under a small road bridge beside the big lifting bridge is this wonderful painting. Obviously done by someone who loves music!

Before heading back to the caravan park I drove Colin along the track I walked along the Richmond River. When I walked it I stopped before reaching landsend where the river met the ocean but this time we bounced our way over deep holes and corrugations on the gravel track and then walked out along the breakwater where we were lucky enough to see whales passing by. The whales did not do anything exciting – like breaching or like tail flapping but they did break the surface of the water and occasionally blew spray into the air. This was a lucky shot! We stayed and watched for half an hour and in that time saw at least a dozen whales – many too far away to see anything more than the spray but a few close enough to capture with the 200mm lens.

As we retreated to the car we paused briefly to watch as an early fishing boat headed out to the open waters, The bar is calmer on the further side, the waves were really rolling towards the rocks on our side of the estuary.

Another fascinating day and lots more photos to pack into my hard drives!

I have made tentative plans for tomorrow but if the weather changes (it is like summer) then our plans will change too! I will tell you about what we did, tomorrow!

AJ

A holiday for Colin

I'm on the move again! This time my trip is to a caravan park only a half day's drive from home. I felt so guilty about having a trip without my husband that I organised a week where we could holiday together. The trouble is, I enjoy going away and seeing and doing new things but hubby would far rather stay home and “potter”!

So we are at South Balina but before we picked up the key to our “superior cabin” we called in to the town of Ballina and walked along a path beside the sea.

At this stage Colin looked happy – he had spotted whales spouting way out to sea and the sun was warm on this mid winter day.

New concrete boulders had been added to the sea wall – we learned this when Colin stopped a local and asked about the white things that we could see out there.

I was busy taking photos of the banksia flowers, the blossoms are at their best at this time of the year, A noisy miner was enjoying the nectar from one of the heads of flowers (each of those thin whiskers is an individual flower) so I just had to include his picture!

We had seen a sign post to the lighthouse and our beach-side walk took us right to it. What a little lighthouse! With all the trees on the beach front and around the lawns of the lighthouse, it s a wonder that the light can be seen by any ships! My photo shows the only clear view of the sea that the lighthouse has.

To reach the place where we are staying tonight and for the next few days, we could either drive a long way before we could reach a bridge over the Richmond River or we could put the car on the ferry. Since I was the driver, I chose the ferry!

Here it is coming in to the Ballina side of the river.

And here is my smart little red road racer, enjoying a cruise on the river!

Once we had unpacked the car and boiled the kettle for a “cuppa” Colin was ready to sit down and relax – but I wanted to go for a walk. That worked! I took my camera and off I went!

I wont bore you with the pictures I took – I like them but they are just plants and trees and river and trawlers sailing out at sunset and that sort of thing. But I will show you This one.

I spotted these tiny flowers and they seemed to have little faces on them. They even look as if they two of them are blowing bubbles!

I was hoping that I would be treated to a spectacular sunset and sat myself down on the river bank and waited – but the clouds fizzled out and it was becoming very evident that all that would happen would be a glow. Realising that I might end up having to walk back along a gravel road in the dark I gave up waiting for the sunset and headed back towards the caravan park. Passing a boat ramp I was thrilled to realise I would get my photograph after all. This is what I captured.

Colin was just beginning to be concerned about my whereabouts when I walked through the door. Then it was time to prepare the evening meal – and the time when I realised that I had forgotten to bring a few essential things that we really needed for cooking! Sigh! Looks like we go shopping tomorrow before we go exploring – or maybe we can do it the other way around!

A Sweep of Broome

The town in which we were staying yesterday (Sorry I was far too tired to write about the day last night), grew around the harvesting of pearl shell. When I showed the picture of the Prison Tree I told of the blackbirding of Aborigines to dive for pearl, well here is the place it all happened. Broome. To begin with the shell was found close to the shore in a few feet of water and diving was done simply by holding breath. No diving equipment was needed. Never the less hundreds of aborigines would have drowned as a result of being made to spend so much time beneath the surface. Then divers came from Japan – maybe they had done a similar job before they came here? Anyway, the shell was by this time in deeper water and the Japanese divers had to go much further down and so they had to endure the problems associated with deep diving. Hundreds of Japanese died (men, women and even children) and their sad resting place in the Japanese Cemetery is a lasting reminder of those dangerous times

There is no such reminder of the hundreds of aborigines that perished. In those early (bad) times, the native people were not valued very highly. Just outside the Japanese Cemetery we watched a trail of caterpillars marching along and maybe the little creatures are all the reminder we need.

There are some very scenic places close to Broome and Gantheaume Point is one of them. The rock formations are shaped by the weather and are a perfect subject for a camera. Our little group did not spend too long there but they managed to take enough photographs to fill a photo album!

My own camera was working over time too. When you are there each turn of the head give a new and entiving image of thes rocks and the aqua sea behind them. However when clicking through the photos to see what I had collected, so many of them looked identical! I will be hiding many of them!

You cannot come to Broome and not learn something about the pearling industry. Our next group activity was to attend what is known as “pearling tour” which was in truth, a lecture on the story of the pearling industry while we all sat on wooden church pews in a little tin and timber shed. It wasn't oyster pearls that was harvested but mother of pearl fot buttons.

After the second world war the market had about dried up for pearl shell because of the cheaper option, plastic buttons. So the pearling direction was changed to seeding the pearl shells and growing pearls for jewelry.

This is still done today and the magnificen Paspaley Pearls come from Broome.

In the afternoon, along with seven others from our group of 17, I clambered aboard a little 'plane and flew up the coast to see the wonderful phenomenum known as the “Horizontal Waterfalls” and then on to Cape Leveque where we were given afternoon tea and time to walk around the sand dunes.

But I want to show you a photograph (only one!) of the wonderful waterfall that happens each time the tide changes and the water levels on either side of a promontory of land try to equalise. The small plane - I was in one that carried five passengers – circled the falls several times, going first clockwise and then anti-clockwise so we all had a chance to see the falls and take photographs.

Sunday, Firie (my son and our coach driver) and I spent the entire day driving from Broome to Kunanurra – 1060 kilometers. We are at this moment relaxing in readiness for another big drive from here to Darwin – 830klm - where we shall board a 'plane after midnight that will take us to Brisbane. The trains will be running when we arrive so we shall then travel by train the one and half hours to Nerang where hopefully we shall be met and driven home! The end of a fabulous holiday.

AJ

Outback riders

The day started at Fitzroy Crossing where we had breakfast and a walk to the bridge over the river before our next adventures began. I am not sure if the bridge is actually the “Fitzroy Crossing”but I couldn't resist taking a shot of it!

It was a fairly long drive before our first stop so I was able to make good use of my 7” tablet, feading an ebook and playing games to pass the time. The scenery was pretty much the same for two hours of driving, so looking out of the window would have put me to sleep! When we did pull over it was to see something quite amazing. A tree!

Mind you there is something really special about this tree! It has a very unpleasant history of inhumanity. Fortuately the behaviour that happened is well in the past and certainly belongs there. Aboriginal men and boys were kidnapped and put in chains and walked to the coast where they were forced to be divers in the pearling industry. On their way to the coast the men were stopped at this tree and the chains were attached to it to prevent these helpless black captives from escaping. Aboriginal people were treated like animals in the early days of Australia. Something we are not proud of.

Only a very short distance from the Boab that is known as “The Prison Tree” is the most incredible water trough I have ever seen, It was used in the days of droving when cattle were moved to the sale yards under their own steam (leg power) driven by stockmen on horseback over huge distances. We were told that this was the largest water trough in the world at 120 meters.

Daffy, the little bear who travels for all sick people who are too unwell to leave home, posed prettily on the trough for a photograph. My second picture of the trough shows our intrepid coach driver and guide, Firie, and our super chariot which has taken us from one magic location to another.

I just can't keep this little bear from showing off! He climbed a termite nest to show how large it was!

Lunch as a little different today. We made our way to Derby where we stopped right on the edge of the water and bought fish and chips to eat under a shelter on the sea side! It was fun!

Our final destination for today was Broome. Before we went to our hotel accommodation we were taken to the beach where two thirds of thegroup took a chance with a beast of burden that has become a pest in the outback. We had fun taking a camel ride!

So here we are, happy, fed and sleepy after another fabulous day. We may not be able to stand upright or walk tomorrow but we shall all laugh about our aches!

AJ

Are diamonds a girl's best friend?

Today out tour group was treated to a very special conducted tour around the Kimberley's famous “Argyle Diamond Mine” from where the most precious of all diamonds come; that diamond being the pink diamond. Although we were travelling in our coach with a guide from the mine, we still had to go through all the security procedures that every visitor to the mine has to do. We were told that on no account were we to pick up anything from the ground, if we dropped anything we were to ask our guide to retrieve it. If we picked anything up from the ground we would have to undergo a search to ensure that we had not picked up a diamond as well as the object we had dropped.

Our tour started in the gallery where diamonds of different sizes were on display as well as illustrated descriptions that told how diamonds came to be formed and how the mine had changed from being open cut to an underground mine.

This first photograph shows the two largest diamonds ever found at the Argyle mine. They are still in the raw – uncut – state so they are not glittery and light reflective as are facetted diamonds.

This next photograph is of a display that showed the different graded sizes and the variety of colours that are found. Most of the diamonds are industrial grade diamonds that are used on saws and sandpapers. Only a small percentage are flawless and top gem quality but these are the ones that bring in the most money, of course.

Included in the price of the mine tour was lunch at the Agyle Village. The Argyle Village is where the people who work in the mine, live while they are here. The huge dining room was set out with tables and there was a beautiful cold, buffet lunch set out for us to help ourselves.

There was no one but our group in the dining room for lunch – the mine workers have their lunch over in a canteen at the mine and only use this dining room for breakfast and for the evening dinner.

It was a delicious lunch and the coffee was so good!

Once we had eaten we were then taken out to the open cut mine where the whole diamond mining operation first started. The pit was huge – but standing on the edge and looking over it made the hole look so much smaller than it really was. There were no vehicles moving around in it to give scale. Operations in the open cut area had to stop because the sides of the mine became so unstable that it was dangerous. There are a few very visible landslips where the contouring has collapsed. You may be able to see a couple of the large slips on the left hand side of this photograph.

We were taken (in the coach) under the equipment that crushes and separates the diamonds from the host rock, there were conveyor belts and huge tumblers and pipes that made us feel like midgets! It was all very impressive and very interesting. However! Although the pink diamond is the most expensive diamond and although there are several other colours of diamonds I personally feel that a diamond is identifiable as a diamond when it is white! I would confuse a “champagne” diamond with a citrine and a pale blue with a blue topaz! That shows my ignorance!

There was much chatter in the coach after our mine visit but we had something else to think about when we stopped at a road house to have a drink and an opportunity to stretch our legs. All around the perimeter of the parking area there were large stones, many of which had interesting paintings on them. These ones are easily recognizable as Australian animals, crocodile, wallaby and emu.

This second picture is not so obvious – unless, like us, you had taken a ride in a small plane to look down on the strange striped mounds that are calle the Bungle Bungles.

This evening we are staying at Halls Creek but we shall be packing our bags into the coach after we have eaten breakfast so we will not be staying here for very long. This has been another wonderful day! Certainly had no time to be bored!

AJ