Friday 2 April 2010

Unexpected Natural Beauty In Your Own Back Garden

Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains, Sydney

After all the Easter things have been played out, there's usually still plenty of time to account for over the four day break.

And today we soaked up an afternoon with a drive into the The Blue Mountains, a couple of hours west out of Sydney.



Cultural and other kinds of cringes are almost a natural sport here but sometimes it's just not possible to indulge in our favourite past-time - cynicism today was alchemically transmuted to wonder by the extraordinary natural beauty of the Wentworth Falls.

Equally unexpected were the absolute hoards of locals and tourists, marching all about, also looking for something to do at this time of national shut down.

The weather was perfect - warm and sunny, and slightly undercut with a cool breeze. Autumn with a hint of the coming winter.

Even the local fauna were out to please, including a rather deadly brown snake, if my herpetological knowledge is at all working. A reptile which I seriously did not manage to capture on film ...


... unless I've missed something in this image.

Sadly, it was only on the return journey that someone rather belatedly mentioned that there was a walking track down to the misty bottom of the falls ...


Next time!

6 comments:

  1. Yes, this is a beautiful area! I was there the last time I was in Australia. Coming back later this year, but this time for diving in Cairns.

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  2. hi jay

    yes, i was bowled over by the panorama - glad you liked it too

    often thought of going north to cairns and townsville - suspect it's more like asia than i image now - did a lot of diving as a kid and want to do more and the great barrier reef is my next goal

    you seem to have been to australia a few times!

    best, nick

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  3. Hi Nick
    Unfortunately missed this when I visited the area...thanks for the photos...of course I was always wanting to find snakes...but never very lucky in that department...cheers,Art

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  4. hey art,

    seems a next time situation - and finding snakes and any other fauna in nature i think is pretty much a matter of luck

    we had an owl nest in a tree in the garden a while back - managed to get an image and post it:
    http://nickwallacesmith.blogspot.com/2008/02/owl-in-garden-in-bed-at-6am-and-i-heard.html

    the other birds alerted us early one morning by going ballistic - maybe they felt threatened by being breakfast

    best, nick

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  5. Nick...never been here and 10 times to Australia, this is MY fault..I will on my next trip..I want to BUNGEE jump & I think they have it in the Blue Mts


    Tony(NYC)

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  6. hey Tony(NYC)

    it's a big country and there are a ton of places to see - like everywhere - it's always a matter of choice - and i like to leave something for next time

    see you ... at the end of a bungee cord in the blue mountains!

    cheers, nick

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