Another Dust Storm

Earlier this week, Sydney experienced a dust storm. I don't know if it made world news, but it was really something to witness. We woke up to an Orange world... Normally, in the morning when I'm drinking my coffee the sky is bright blue with small white puffy clouds scattered about.

This is what the sky looked like outside the front of the house.

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Red dust from the interior had been whipped up and then blown East. From what I've read, the last time something like this happened was 70-80 years ago. Quite unusual... Below are photos that appeared on a website here in Sydney. They capture how surreal it was much better than my photo -

The Harbor Bridge

This was taken at Balmoral Beach

Later in the afternoon the storm was gone and blue skies prevailed. Since, we've had several days of nice clear skies - back to normal. But we woke up this morning (Saturday) and it was back. Not nearly as bad, but dusty with orange skies again. Hopefully it'll blow out by this afternoon.

Back Burning

It's that time of the year...

Back Burning has begun. The forests need to be cleansed of underbrush - so they (fire departments?) start the process by walking through the overgrown brush and light the dried leaves and brush on fire.

There is never any warning - and they always seem to start them right after I hang the laundry out to dry. I can't tell you how many loads of cloths have had that nice "Campfire" smell added after the fact. It makes me wonder if that can be marketed into a fabric softener? Naw, I didn't think so...

Seriously, the smoke can get bad at times depending on which way the wind is blowing. These are free burns too... they aren't monitored and they just let them run their coarse. Several have lasted for weeks and the smoke will engulf us for 3-4 days at a time.

Last week I had to go see what it was all about. I drove over to the local burn (about 5 minutes away) parked the car on the side of the road and wandered into the forest. Keep in mind, these aren't raging wild fires - just smoldering forest debris where the fire crawls along at a snails pace.

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I guess I was expecting to see more. I had these visions of blackened earth with that silent stillness about it. However, it was quite the opposite. Cockatoos were squawking, Kookaburra's were laughing and the large trees smiled and mocked the fire that was tickling their bark. Just another seasonal burn to the creatures that live here - and just another day...

Bantry Bay Track- NSW

The start of the Bantry Bay Track....

I wound up walking all the way down the track which was pretty difficult in some spots. Lot's of rock stairs and large drop-offs. I knew coming back up was going to be a workout. My goal was to get down to the start of the bay behind me.

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One of the markers of the Bay Track - down where another trail intersects. At this point, you can see the trail starts heading up - this is a typical looking part of the trail where rock climbing is the norm.

Almost at water level, I'd gotten to the end of Bantry Bay but still had a long way to go. I think my next paddling trip will be here. It is completely quite with little wind and the water has a deep blue color to it. The buildings on the far side are old WW1 bunkers where the Australian Navy stored shells and powder. Now closed to the public... Bummer. Any ghost's lingering about?

As the trail curves along the water, you get glimpses of the boats anchored in the bay. It's a very pretty place.

Finally, at the end of the trail there was a cool picnic area with benches and fire pits. I'll be going back here in the near future... the hike was fun, the scenery outstanding, and a place to relax once you're there.

Bandwidth

Bandwidth - You've gotta have it. This photo wouldn't be on the blog without it. Pretty little thing, isn't she? Lorikeets are all over the place. She flew down while I was hanging out the laundry.

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Bandwidth, again... - It's something that is totally taken for granted in the USA. You pay for internet broadband and it's there. It's unlimited and always on with the click of a mouse. Simple enough, right?

Here in Australia, it's a tad bit different. You pay for it by the GB (Gigabyte). What does that mean you ask? Well, instead of having unlimited access, your connection is monitored and regulated by the amount you use. Our initial plan gave us 15GB a month which under normal circumstances should be adequate. But since I work from home and download some insanely large files to FTP sites, our bandwidth has always just been hovering at our limit. One month (April I think) we ran out with one day to go and our connection slowed down to dial up speed. Something like 9600 baud... that was tough.

Last month however was a shock - on the 14th, we effectively came to a stand still. I called our provider and they confirmed we had "run out" and were at dial up speed. So I upped our plan to 30GB per month - effectively adding another 15GB for the remainder of the month. Cool.

On the 26th we ran out again! OK, something was up... but what? I called the provider and asked for some detail on usage. All of the heavy usage was happening in the middle of the night - via some sort of file sharing software, even though our computers are powered off then. Come to find out, some hacker had been tapping our broadband. I'm not sure of the mechanics of it yet, but if you do streaming or file sharing your broadband modem can stay open even if the PC's are off. Weird... I can see why "stealing" broadband is done here. $100 a month for 30GB's is a lot of cash just for internet access.

We now turn off our modem at night - I even power it off randomly during the day.


Last Sunday we took a trip to into the city. On Sunday's you can purchase unlimited travel passes for trains and ferries. The best part - it was only $7.50 for all three of us. With passes in hand, we caught the train at Gordon station and cruised into the city. We got off at Milson's Point and then took the ferry over to Darling Harbor. I took this picture from the ferry as another was leaving. Typical of the scenery - I love the colors in this photo.



After we spent the day in Darling Harbor, we caught the train at Wynyard Station and headed back to Gordon. I travel in and out of Gordon Station quite often and I always mean to take a photo of this plaque (See below). However, I never have a camera with me. This day was different, so here it is.

It is a memorial to all of the men from Gordon who served in the Great War - WW1. Names with small crosses next to them are the men killed in action. It's a very humbling thing to see... What I find amazing is that these monuments are all over. Truly, in every small town, all over Australia. They are well taken care of and respected. Each time I come across one (where ever I may be) I stop and look to read the names. Finding whole families, six or seven men all with the same last name, Fathers, Sons and Uncles, and all with crosses next to them sends a chill up my spine. It's hard to fathom - all the men of a particular family, gone. What that must of done to the families in these small towns can only be imagined...