Blogs from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania - page 5

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http://www.heygo.com 13th March - Sunrise & exploring at Avoca Beach The 1.7-kilometre long beach stretches between two sandstone headlands. The name Avoca is Celtic for “great estuary” or “where the river meets the sea” and the town was named by the first resident John Moore. (No relation, haha) It was 7am and the sun was coming up as the surfers and the rescue patrol were out preparing for the day ahead. Our guide just kept the camera rolling so we could hear the sound of the sea lapping against the shore and further out creating waves for the surfers. We walked to the end of the beach where weathered crater like rock pools appeared. With the blue grey colour in the rock & surrounding surface of orange & red it was like a tapestry. Our guide ... read more

Fires like the Apocalypse threatened my Aussie backyard from August 2019 to February 2020...the East Coast on fire like never before. Over 18 million hectares were burnt in the Australian bushfire season 2019–2020...all states affected. As of mid-January 2020 according to media reports, 5,900 buildings were destroyed including over 2,800 homes. In addition to 33 human fatalities including 9 firefighters, conservative estimates, based on NSW and Victoria only, project losses of over one billion mammals, birds and reptiles combined. This excludes insects, the loss of which has been reported to be in the hundreds of billions...flora & fauna habitat scorched, killed and laid bare. The Bureau of Meteorology noted in its January 2020 Statement that, ‘The extensive and long-lived fires appear to be the largest in scale in the modern record in New South Wales, while ... read more

We left this day for our return home. Last night we availed ourselves of a last opportunity to go to the Sydney Opera House and see La Bohème. Never a bad way to end a visit. We spent that day are-visiting Doyle's on the Beach for a last lunch of wonderful Australia and New Zealand seafood. WE embarked on our return with some trepidation. By that time the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic was getting into pretty serious action. The day after we left NZ they shut down incoming and outgoing flights. Australia was getting more serious than they already had been. There were beginning to be the first reports of cases of people who flew through LAX. Nonetheless, our options were limited, fo fly out we did for the somewhat shorter trip back than the outgoing trip (tailwinds ... read more