Nowra and the Shoalhave area during bushfires - Xmas 2019 - Page 1

After driving 10 hours and arriving in Nowra, it was time to go out and enjoy the thunder fire. The last part of the drive was descending over a mountain in dense smoke. I really wanted to pull over and take photos but it seemed unwise at the time. This is the view from the hotel balcony.

The sky was red and grey. It should still be normal full daylight at this time.

Presumably in the direction of the fire. Although the more recent fires which caused an emergency stranding when you scroll down further were in another direction entirely.

Random tree and orange threatening sky. Nowra is a big town, it was highly unlikely the fire would come to the centre of the town.

A small nearby park. The camera hides a lot of the smokiness.

Next door to the hotel. Very black sky. Generally this would still be daylight at this time in summer.

The next few shots are from Huskisson. A popular beachside town to the Southeast of Nowra. Just one of the places that would soon be cut off by fire.

Most of the beaches around here have lagoons and streams and whatever, and the trees from the national parks, many of which are on fire, go right down to the beach.

Huskisson is very popular, there is a carnival starting there on boxing day. This stream may or may not be a sewage outlet.

There is a path along the top of the beach, and then you can walk along the rocky beach as well.

More rocks, not many people.

And more rocks.

And some more rocks with a couple of people. Huskisson was down wind of most of the smoke. Relatively clear.

I took too many photos. That is largely bushfire smoke in the distance.

Trees. Beach. Rocks.

From the Huskisson shore in the town, you can look across a couple of metres to the other side. But there is no way to drive across to the other side. Which is why this town got cut off in the fires.

The next morning the plan was to go onto a defence base at Beecroft, which is a really nice remote place. However that was completely closed even to Defence pass holders due to fires. Instead, time to explore some more beachside towns. This one has Mangroves.

The town is called Currarong. Bigger and more developed than I thought.

There is a path through the scrub, but people returning form the path warned that there were 2 x 6 foot red bellied black snakes. I went to the beach instead.

The beach was awesome. Lots of great rocks to photograph.

This trip is quite rocky.

I climbed over the rocks.

To take photos of rocks.

And still more rocks.

The next stop was Callala beach. Another very busy spot.

While Callala beach was busy, it was nowhere near as busy as nearby Hyams beach. That place was too busy to even stop the car. Apparently they close the road once it gets too busy.

After being denied entry to the Defence restricted areas and fleeing overcrowded Hyams beach, the next stop was a walk along the lagoon at Sanctuary point. I was on high alert for snakes.

During this time, the Princes highway was closed. This is the main highway around Australia. I refueled and headed to Sussex inlet, a town for retirees with a big RSL and a few hotel rooms available. I was convinced to pay for a backup room in case I was stuck here for the night.

The town was pretty quiet despite the abundance of huge houses belonging to retired people, some of them had enormous front yards and impressive driveways.

A lot of smoke in the distance again. The orange glow was orange all day. Then the roads reopened. I saw the Boeing 737 fire bomber and lots of smaller fire bombing planes too. The backup hotel room was not required.

The next morning, it was decided that heading north rather than south was safer. It was also very very smoky apart from on the coast. This is the surf beach at Shoalhaven Heads just north of Nowra.

More of smoky surf beach.

After driving around the coast and visiting the very busy town of Gerringong, it was time to examine the blowholes of Kiama.

Kiama has more rocks.

Lots of rocks and not too much smoke.

Here is a pool. Somehow many people fall into the ocean and drown here.

Still more rocks.

Here is the entry to the main blowhole.

Wave goodbye to these people about to drown.

Here is the blowhole. Some people like to fall in and drown.

Last photo of Kiama.

Xmas day now, and time to go to the Buddhist centre near Wollongong. Here is the main pagoda.

More Pagoda. This Buddhist group is an offshoot of the one I visited in Taiwan near Kaohsiung, which is where there headquarters is at.

It was still a very smoky day today, although some of the pictures do not show it.

The Buddhist sect is called Fo Guang Shan. Sometimes that is spelled differently, in the true Taiwanese tradition of spelling everything numerous ways.

There he is.

Although my pictures do not really show it, the place was over capacity on xmas day, cars parked on various bits of dirt along the driveway, all car parks full.

The vegetarian banquet was pretty good.

Over the bridge in the below photo is this Buddhist learning centre, where there is also a more upmarket cafe compared to the lunch shown above.

The aforementioned bridge. Opened by Tony Abbott who was prime minister at the time.

The gardens are quite nice.

Run!!!!

I ran up the hill. It was hot. I was the only person to run up the hill. Here you can see how it was still very smoky.

The next day, boxing day, and a plan to limit the potential of being trapped by bushfires was hatched. this involved leaving the car on an ISTHUMUS, and catching a ferry to a boat. Here is a path down to a secluded beach.

This part of the world was rain forest almost, however I am sure it would still burn well.

The actual place is called Myola, finding the spot to get on the ferry was not easy. Myola is just across from Huskisson.

The ferry ride was relaxing, very protected waterway, the ferry captain was entertaining.

Next up was a ride on a much faster boat to see dolphins. Some tourists were very excited to see dolphins. Some tourists were upset that some tourists were too excited.

There are many competing dolphin viewing boats.

Here are some dolphins. It was not very exciting for me, ive seen millions of them.

Very smoky view of Huskisson.

Before boarding the ferry back to the non fire side, I had time to run down to explore a mangrove boardwalk.

The mangrove boardwalk was excellent, I could have used more time.

Nearby is a maritime museum. It has an entry fee. Inside is a full sized Sydney ferry for some reason.

The drive away from the coast went along Forest Road, which had just reopened from the fires.

There was still small fires smoking away just metres from the road.

One last fire shot.

After a drive over the mountains featuring many tight corners, it was decided to spend the night at Goulburn. A ghost town, but the workers club had a good meal for cheap. Here is the train station.

Goulburn has some impressive buildings from times gone by, this is the courthouse.

And, as the building says, the town hall.

Finally, the next day, on the drive home, this is Gundagai. Quite a nice looking town, nicer than Goulburn by my estimation. The entire drive back to Melbourne was very smoky. I hope I dont have lung cancer now.