It seems like only yesterday

 It's difficult for me to comprehend that a year ago Val and I were celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in Port Macquarie with our family and afterwards we went on a road trip through New England, New South Wales.

Since then so much has happened and almost all of it bad. Covid-19 has arrived and wrought devastation on the planet. Fortunately through good luck-being an island does help-and very effective action by our federal and state governments Australia has managed the pandemic well. There was a setback in the state of Victoria with a second wave but  by imposing a very harsh lockdown it was effectively bought under control. Yesterday there were zero new locally communicated cases of covid-19 in Australia.

Covid-19 put an end to comprehensive travel plans for the year. I really was looking forward to our roadtrip through southern Spain and also our riverboat trip into darkest north Myanmar.

As well as the covid-19 lockdown Val and I have had the devastating diagnosis of her illness-a very severe shock which has upended our lives. This year we "celebrated" our 51st wedding anniversary last Sunday with her in an acute care ward of Gosford Hospital. What a difference.

At the time of of that road trip in 2020 eastern Australia was in the grip of a long and devastating drought. The tragic bushfires which ravaged vast areas of eastern Australia started in early November and lasted right through to early March. At home in Terrigal a blanket of choking smoke from the enormous Gosper Mountain fire became a daily occurence.  

So 2020 has been a terrible year for us and so many others. Yes, the drought has broken and indeed the rains have been so good that the farmers are looking at the best harvest for at least 15 years but other than this it is bleak, bleak, bleak.

Some photos from that now so distant Australian road trip in November 2019 when we had no idea what horrors lay ahead.

The Big Dry

It was a a big family celebration in Port Macquarie last weekend. We were very fortunate that our plans were not derailed by bushfires. There was a huge fire burning south of Port Macquarie and another one to the north of Taree but the wind was blowing the smoke down the coast and it was enveloping Newcastle, the Central Coast and Sydney and the Pacific Highway was open. If we had been travelling this weekend it would be a very different story with catastrophic fires in the area closing the Pacific Highway and many other roads and destroying many properties. The problem is that the bush is tinder dry and even rainforests, which by definition are usually damp, are now dry and ready to burn.
After the weekend we headed inland into New England and up to Armidale. The original plan had been to drive the wonderful Oxley Highway from Wauchope up to Walcha and then onto Armidale. This is one of my favourite driving roads but it was shut due to a number of fires. So we headed north on the Pacific Highway and then onto a good substitute -the Waterfall Way via Bellingen, Dorrigo and Ebor to Armidale-a 298 km drive and there was virtually no traffic on the road once we had passed Dorrigo.
It's a beautiful part of the country. Vast National Parks on the Great Dividing Range and many waterfalls. Well there would be waterfalls if there had been rain but sadly the drought means that most of the waterfalls are dry or reduced to just a trickle.
The impact of the drought goes far beyond the poor farmers and the rivers. The towns are really suffering. Shops have closed and long faces are everywhere It is very tough time for people dependant on the land for their livelyhood.  Many cattle and sheep are on the Long Paddock-meaning they are grazing on the vegetation on the edge of the roads. Out in the paddocks cattle and sheep are being fed expensive bought in feed.
Although the coastal strip to the east of the Dividing Range is in drought some areas are quite green due to recent rain and as we drove back home on the superb Thunderbolts Way from Armidale to Gloucester we passed through one area which was really green. A local in the general store at tiny Nowendoc explained that this was due to a localised snowfall being slow to melt a few months earlier.
It was unseasonally cold and windy whilst we were in New England but there was no snow and the  light was, as always wonderful, and the sky was big. Here are my photos from the inland journey.

A green area on the Waterfalls Way north of Dorrigo looking south west towards the Gumbaynggin National Park

Ebor Falls on the Waterfalls Way. Usual a roaring torrent now just a trickle.

Roadsign for northern hemisphere tourists

Abandoned threshing machine near Dangersleigh south of Armidale

Mailbox for 133

Dangars Gorge, Oxley Wild Rivers NP. There was just a small pond of water under the huge drop which should be a waterfall.The gorge is a refuge for the brush-tailed rock wallaby but I was there too late in the morning to spot any.

Beautiful bush vegetation -above Dangars Gorge.

Abandoned farm buildings on road out from Dangars Gorge.

Where sheep may safely graze.Near Dangersleigh.

Werona Station, near Gostwyck

Near Gostwyck.

Cressbrook merinos

Rivendell

South of Nowendoc on the Thunderbolts Way.

Leica X Vario photos.