Australia

We spent two weeks in New South Wales Australia. We spent most of the time in and around Sydney. Most of the second week we were there we rented a car and drove up the east coast towards Brisbane. We didn’t have an agenda, just drifted from town to town. It was a glorious way to see some of the country.

We were fortunate that the end of our time in Sydney included Australia Day. Since we were right downtown we were in prime position to see the festivities.

Note: None of my images use AI generated content.

Tracking Point Lighthouse Pre-Dawn. Port Macquerie NSW Australia.

As we drifted north from Sydney along the East coast highway of Australia we came to a little town called Port Macquarie. According to Google, the town had a Koala sanctuary and a number of walking paths along the coast and into the rain forest. We stopped to explore.

After visiting the Koala sanctuary we found a nearby walking path. It meandered down from the rain forest to the beach then back up again across an outcropping of rocks at the base of a lighthouse. Then it dropped down a cliff to a tiny hidden cove (called Little Bay aptly enough) with a small beach and a number of rocks where the surf broke.

It was a beautiful spot. I thought it would be nice for a morning photograph so we decided to get lodging in the town and come back before dawn the next morning.

The next morning before sunrise we parked at the lighthouse and walked the path down to the beach. There were some rocks on the north side of the cove where I wanted to set up my tripod for the photograph. Getting there was rough going. In the dark we had to navigate sharp volcanic rocks, pot holes and steep ridges, much of it wet and slippery from sea spray. I found my spot and set up the tripod.

I was intending to shoot at sunrise but as I looked at the pre-dawn scene I was absolutely stunned by it’s beauty. It was too dark to really shoot but I decided to try anyway. Today’s cameras have amazing low-light capabilities that didn’t exist even five years ago. My Canon R5 performed spectacularly. Even in the dark I was able to capture this image that faithfully records what I saw from those rocks on that morning.

In fact, that image, with it’s dark and stormy moodiness was the best photograph of the morning. In fact it’s one of my top favorites from the entire trip.

The beauty of Port Macquarie won us over and we stayed for two more days.