Itching to see the Countryside

These days we spend most of our time at home, even though COVID-19 has barely emerged locally. Well, today I decided on a short drive and went to the nearby Dumaresq Dam. It's a pleasant spot that the Armidale Regional Council wants to upgrade to a tourist resort, although in the past it was constructed to supply water to the city. Apart from providing accommodation, better roads, tracks and so on, there's also talk of raising the dam wall.

Anyway, it was a cold and imminently wet day, so I didn't want to stay long apart from looking at the mountain view and the dam wall. By the way, it only took an hour or so to move from Summer temperatures (c. 19 C) on Friday to a chilly maximum of about 10 C today (Sunday).

You can see the great view from the shore-line where I parked my car and, despite the intense 2019 drought the water level was high. Here's Mount Duval in the background - maybe 3 km away. Existing paths cover both sides of the lake providing ever changing visions of water, forests and water.

From this spot, I took an image of the dam wall and, as you can see, the water is nearly lapping the top of the wall.

The wall worried me a little as it seems so thin. Still, it has been in place for a long time and shows no wear. Nevertheless I recalled the Dam Busters movie I first saw in about 1960 when my grandma took me to the pictures in Brighton. And the mess that British bombers did to Ruhr Valley communities when the dam walls were demolished was massive. I'd hate to think of the same thing happening locally!

I took the path that leads to the bottom of the wall, and this is what I saw - a rocky valley.

After looking around a bit more I headed to the car for the c. 14 km ride home. En route I took a detour to the back of the University to have a look at the solar farm it has constructed to power the campus.. As you can see, it's massive and has hundreds of closely aligned solar panels. By then, the dark clouds that had seemed threatening at the dam had largely cleared. However, when I returned home it was only an hour so before torrential rain started. At least it wasn't snowing!

AS

Bizarre weather pattern

 I'm not posting any pictures today because they would be soggy and dull. But I have a whole lot of remarkable numbers. In the 24 hours from 9 am yesterday (7 August) until to 9 am this morning our outside temperature barely moved.

Here are the 24 hour hourly numbers in degrees C starting at 9 am yesterday: 5.2, 6.1, 6.4, 6.3, 6.2, 6.9, 7.3, 7.3, 7.3, 7.0, 7.4, 7.2, 7.4, 6.5, 6.7, 6.0. 7.1, 7.0, 7.7, 7.1, 7.3, 7.0, 8.7, 9.0, and 8.5. So the numbers barely changed all day but, if anything began to rise a little through the night - which is very strange for winter! Perhaps the cause was other thing happening. There was heavy cloud throughout the day and it started raining at midday and barely stopped until 6 am. During that time we received a welcome but fairly modest c. 10 mm of rain (or just under half an inch). 

Have you heard of the term "a flat day"? Well yesterday was the flattest day I've ever remembered. But it looks like we may be in for another similarly boring experience. Right now at about 10 am the temperature has soared to about 9 C, which is what it was 2 hours ago! And the sky is still he same boring colour.

Maybe our problem isn't global warming but temperature stability. Mm! Maybe I shouldn't have said that stupid thing. Psst. Don't pass my remark on to Donald. If he heard about it he would explain how firing guns into the air would bring about climate stability. However, if that conclusion were true, it would least cut down on America's murder rate!

AS

Relocation of our Farmers' Market.

Armidale has no less than 3 farmers' markets a month and one of those was today. However, for the first time the markets shifted about 100 m west from Curtis Park to Civic Park. The reason for the move was simple. Part of the former location is now the site of a new children's play area which is under construction.

Well, the new site has twice the space with ample room to enlarge the event. However, due to the impact of COVID-19 the number of stalls / vendors has shrunk in recent months so we had a bit of spare space today. But due to the ultra-warm weather for the start of August many people turned up to inspect the site and many stalls seemed to be doing quite well. I purchased some Portuguese tarts and French-style pastries for Dot and me and I also stocked up on some bottles of delicious Kombucha produced locally. I like to visit these markets regularly to help local producers

I also took several pictures like these of the new spacious location. By the way, it was a gorgeous day. Despite an overnight frost (c. - 2 C) the morning rapidly warmed up to reach about 15 C at lunch-time and a maximum of c. 17 C (63 F). When did it last reach 63 F on a British winter's day? Blokes like me were wandering around in shorts!

AS

Dangar's Falls

After my trip to the Gara Gorge, Bec, Max and his friend Ryan came to stay for a couple of days en route to Canberra after some time on the Gold Coast and its hinterland. To keep them occupied, and taking advantage of the still remarkably warm winter weather, we decided to go out to Dangar's Falls out in the Gorge country. By the way, our extraordinarily warm winter means today has reached 16 C (or 60 F) as I attempt to post this message. On arrival, we started our visit by looking into the pool at bottom some 200 m below us (about 660 feet).

The second picture below show the flattish New England Tablelands landscape beyond the gorge and close to the full height of the falls - themselves hidden from view.

We then trod the path to the top of the falls, a route that is picturesque and exciting in its own way. En route we witnessed the rocky landscape through which the river flows. I didn't take a picture of the falls from the top because they we were essentially invisible.

We turned around to walk back to get a great view of the falls as Salisbury Water plunges over the top of the gorge. At this point I noticed that Max had disappeared, only to told that he was rock-hopping his way back towards our car. Part-way back I took a side trip to a look-out in the hope of seeing him. Guess what! I was lucky. Here he is trying his luck  jumping from one boulder or platform to another - see the next three pictures.

Miraculously, he didn't get his feet wet. That encouraged Bec to also try a bit of rock-hopping, something she accomplished with aplomb. We met up at the attractive lake near the parking lot.

It was then just a short uphill hike to the barbecue area where people can cook and eat meals and admire a full view of the falls. The first image below shows the full extent of the falls - and we were at  the top earlier. The drop you see is c. 183 m ( or exactly 600 feet).



You'll have to agree that it's a great view. Fortunately, our improved rainfall recently has led to a substantial flow. After heavy rains, the views on either side could be swathed in mist.







One more item! Max decided he wanted to toss a boulder over the platform he was standing on and see where it landed! He searched for a boulder, found one, and here he is about to toss it. Don't worry, there was no-one below - I made sure of that. And the boulder landed without any serious damage to the ecosystem.

That's it! An enjoyable trip was had by all.

AS

Gara Gorge

Last Sunday I was at a loss for things to do, and decided to revisit the Gara Gorge which I hadn't seen for a few years. When I arrived there, I was surprised to see the car-park full despite it being mid-winter. However, the day was lovely with great sunshine, little wind and perhaps a temperature around 16 C. This time I didn't walk the main tracks which I have used many times in the past but tried to find the path that leads to the swimming pool at the base of the falls. The scenery was lovely as the pictures show.

I started my walk on the western side of the Gara River just before it falls steeply into the beautiful gorge

And, while the track rose and fell a little, it remained overall roughly horizontal. I was intrigued at the large number huge rocks that dotted the western side of the path, like the ones shown here. Since this area was not glaciated in the last ice-age I wondered how they got there.

Shortly, on the left, the ground gave way to steep slopes down into the gorge.















And, as I walked on, I spotted the lake ... or swimming pool at the bottom of falls, as shown below. I once had a swim there, albeit in mid-summer when the water was quite warm. It would never occur to me to swim there in mid-winter!

Looking to the south-west from where the last picture was taken, I spotted another cluster of large boulders and decided to climb around them to get a better overall picture of the countryside.


There wasn't any formal path so I had to be careful where I trod. And I imagined there might be a few snakes hanging around!











Having explored the countryside around the falls, I returned to the car and drove upstream to the Blue Hole where I can remember the kids swimming and floating in what is now the distant past - well over 200 years ago. Doesn't time fly! In 20 years I'll be in my mid-90s and hopefully enjoying still walking around this gorge.

As you can see from the pictures below, the Blue Hole had a lot of water in it from much higher rains in 2020. But there were no people around swimming in or rafting on the placid waters, few if any willing too risk hypothermia from the cold water.

Looking upstream, you can see how picturesque this spot is ... even on a winter's day.












And looking downstream it also looks beautiful, albeit more shaded.

Just beyond the distant edge of this lake the Gara river begins to slope down to edge of the falls.

Come and see it some time if possible. And, for history lovers, somewhat further down the gorge is the site of Australia's first hydro-electricity generation plant.



AS

A Trip up Herbert Park Road

At loss to use up my day effectively, I decided to take a drive around our district. As always, I tried to take an unusual route. And today I decided to drive up Rockvale Road north-east of Armidale. Rather than travel its full length, I decided to try the Herbert Park Road instead and, around 10 kmm north of our town, I did a left turn. I drove a further 40 km north towards Guyra on a sunny and warm Winter afternoon.

I was entranced by the whole picturesque route travelling about a third of the way on a sealed road before doing much of the rest on a good quality dirt road. Close to Armidale the route took me past many small hobby farms, but further out the farms became large and the homesteads were widely scattered. In fact, much of the countryside looked empty! Over something like 40 km I never saw another car! I was all alone. So I stopped the car from time to time and tothe last ook a heap of lovely pictures like those shown here. Just have look at the lovely countryside! The first ones were taken at 1000 m above sea level and the last ones were about 1300 m - much higher on the New England Tablelands. Even at that altitude, the temperature recorded by may car was still close to 15 C - even in mid-winter.

As you can see, there's a lot of wide pasture-land, mostly brown in colour except for the occasional green paddocks where irrigation water is available and / or the pastures are top-dressed with nutrients.

A good quality dirt road!

One of the most evident characteristics of the pastures was the absence of livestock - sheep and cattle.

There great vistas. Looking south I could make out high country peaks some 60 km away.

The route had several river crossings in valleys like these below. One, the Gara Fiver, flows down to the spectacular waterfall I reported on earlier this. year.

The cone shown in the distance below is likely to be the core of an extinct volcano - much of the Tablelands area is covered in igneous rocks with thin top-soil that makes grain farming unlikely - but leads to widespread pasture.

 

Well, I did see occasional livestock later on in my trip. This field contained, unusually, both cattle and sheep.

At last, the dirt road became sealed - good quality work!

AS

More Cloudscapes

I went for another long walk this winter afternoon, but it was a glorious day. Brilliant sunshine warmed the temperature to about 14 C, which is good for winter. And then scattered and mostly thin clouds encroached to produce the images shown below. I was riveted by the colours and especially all the light white patches. That's all I have to say! Enjoy what you see.

AS

Brrrrr

The first of June marked the first day of Winter here and, for once, the weather changed accordingly. Throughout Autumn, we had amazingly warm days with temperatures occasionally rising to more than 20 C (68 F), hardly any frosts, and many lovely sunny days.

Yesterday, a fierce front came through from the south-west giving us a few rain showers and sending temperatures down about 15 C (60 F). Despite that, I rose at 6.30 am this morning to go for a walk as the day dawned bright and the overnight temperature was still around 5 C. I had only been back 30 minutes when something amazing happened. Dark clouds swept in driven by 30 kph westerly winds, the temperature shrank rapidly and it started snowing! This was by my calculation the first snow we'd experienced in 5 years. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of this event, some of which are shown below ... and one included is a short video. I expect that my readers in the UK and USA will laugh with contempt at our puny efforts at generating white flaky stuff and, to be honest, it didn't lay frozen on the ground. The sun came out after a short while and that was the end of our snow storm. Mind you, the maximum temperature today was just 5.2 C (41 F) and we decided to stay indoors in such frigid conditions. We also had wind gusts up to about 57 kph (35 mph) which created an 'apparent' temperature of just minus 6 C at 10.30 am - even with the sun out!

Here's what we saw: OK the snow is almost invisible, though it looked heavy to us.

However, the video might show the event better:

Comments welcome.

AS