Yesterday there were 5 metre (16 foot) waves off Sydney. Courtesy of the tail end of Cyclone Hubert. Surfers dribbled (drooled) and flocked and some silly bugger who went fishing on a ledge is missing.
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The surf's calmed down but swimming between the flags wouldn't be easy today. Normally they're as much as a kilometre (1,093.61 yards) apart but not today. Just out of frame on the right is the Life Savers ute (utility vehicle), kayaks and natty jetski thingy with attached stretcher.
The waves are back to their usual height after yesterday's big swells. All but four beaches on the whole NSW coast were closed due to the waves. Leftover weather from the 5th cyclone of the season.
That's Little Box Head, Box Head and the Tasman Sea in the background.
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Surf Rescue vehicle and Life Savers flags in front of Umina SLSC (Surf Life Saving Club). Barrenjoey lighthouse visible again today in the background. Behind Lion Island and Barrenjoey Head you can see the northern beaches of Sydney and Pittwater.
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Natty jetski thingy with attached stretcher. There's a rescue kayak behind it and, out of frame on the right, a rescue ute. Out in front of Umina SLSC.
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After the beach I went walkies and did the other half of Ocean Beach Road. Fifties house on Ocean Beach Road sinking into a see of green. The twigs on the roof are probably from that nice wind a couple of days back.
That's an oleander bush in the right foreground. Very popular in the fifties and there's still plenty of them about. California Polytechnic offers the comforting news that oleander usually only kills children and the elderly.
Off the coast of Fremantle in Western Australia there's a small island known to the locals as Rotto. Oleanders are feral there as well as in half of Australia. Camping is popular there and I remember several summers when there were child deaths on Rotto from oleander. Almost always it was some dad who'd let his kid stir the hot chocolate with an oleander twig. It's not far from Rotto to the mainland but oleander is quick and by the time the dad has run screaming out of the bush the kid's fucked, dead as a bloody doornail.
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Another partly obscured fifties house on Ocean Beach Road. Love the colour and it's in its orginal fibro.
Nice day for a walk again today. Got warm but I did walk three quarters of the longest street on the Peninsula. Lovely and sunny on my way back and a nice breeze. Autumn's great for walkies.
5 comments:
Christ Almighty, I've got an Oleander in the back yard at the beach house, and a nine-month old baby. I'll have to get rid of it.
By the way, only lifesavers should have jetskis, they're a blight.
Good luck with the spade work.
Shit yeah. Residents along The Esplanade at Ettalong have been known to come out firing when the jetskis are out on Sunday mornings. The echoes off Wagstaffe are something cruel.
I. Want. A. Jetski.
*drools*
Wow. That brings back memories -- I was once a member of Umina Junior SLSC ("The Umina Stingrays"!), a billion years ago, when surfboats and surfskis (rather than noisy bloody jetskis) were the thing. But the surf's never been much at Umina or Ocean Beach, has it? A few piddling feet at most. We went north to Avoca or Macmasters or wherever for real surf...
Yeah, I noticed Umina/Ocean Beach has pissy waves most of the time. Have been to MacMasters a few times but every time I've been too pissed to notice the surf.
Do tell about the Stingrays.
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