red glow over Sydney

Waking up today and looking out the window to check the current weather was quite different than the other days. The sky was bright red, not from the sun but rather from a big dust cloud hanging over Sydney. Overnight a pall of red dust blown in from the Outback clogged the skies over Sydney. It was carried by powerful winds that snatched up tons of topsoil from country's drought-ravaged inland and threw it high into the sky. As dawn broke, sunlight struggled to penetrate the dust cloud, casting an eerie red glow over the city.

Such thick dust is a rarity over Australia's largest city, and came along with whiplashing winds and other uncommon weather conditions across the country in recent days.

"It did feel like Armageddon because when I was in the kitchen looking out the skylight, there was this red glow coming through," Sydney resident Karen told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio.

The storms — visible as a huge brown smudge in satellite photographs of Australia on Wednesday — are the most severe since the 1940s, experts said.

"These dust storms are some of the largest in the last 70 years," said Nigel Tapper, an environmental scientist at Monash University, noting that one dust storm this week blew as far away as New Zealand some 1,400 miles (2,220 kilometers) away.

Drivers in the southeast of Queensland state, including the capital of Brisbane, switched on their headlights Wednesday and police warned them to slow down as dust darkened skies there. The winds also fanned at least one major wildfire in the area.

quotes taken from Yahoo News!

Sydney @ its best

On the road to Sydney for the long weekend.

More to come.

Surfing Noosa

After an awesome week in Airlie Beach with a beautiful sailing trip and too much party we were heading further down the east coast to Noosa Heads. On the map it didn´t look that far, but underestimating that huge country, we surley had to spend 17 hours on the Greyhound bus. What a journey! And why doesn´t anyone tell the bus company that trashy comedys of the 90ies or cartoons are not the best way to entertain the passengers. Seriously.

Arriving in Noosa - a rather posh Australian holiday destination, we soon found out that there is quite lot to do during the day, but not really much going on during the night. It´s also still off season, so there aren´t a lot of people hanging around either.

We spent our days crusing around Noosa in our scooter. Checked out all the beaches and maybe there was a nice bar we missed during the day, but not really. Everything peaceful and quiet. So we spent the nights at the neat bar at our hostel, the beautiful and laid back Halse Lodge. The hostel is in an old Queenslander building on a hill overlooking the town. It has a surrounding verandah with sofas and comfy chairs, and a bar/bistro downstairs.

We did the beautiful coastal walk in the Noosa National Park, with amazing views out to sea. The walk takes you right along the coastal line and back through lush woods. Really pretty.

Last night we hung out at the bar and met some crazy locals, who took us out around town - hey, there are some nice bars here, not crowded but at least. So after a few drinks we all ended up in Noosa´s niteclube "rolling rock"... a tiny little place... but it has to be said, that it´s only good there, when you are drunk. Seriously. We had some fun and also got to know our security man at the hostel, doing his rounds during the night, while we sat at the verandah eating our "after midnight snack".... :-)

Today I braved the waves and took 2hrs of surfing lessons. Hey, after 5 months in Australia, it was about time, to get to know their national sport first hand. And I surely did. High surf, strong current, chilly water and big beginners board mad my day. Having fallen off a gazillion times, swallowed litres of salt water, being thrown up side down and who knows where... I finally got it and stood on the board... like for 5 seconds... what a thrill. It was wicked. Now I am ready for more surfing...

Images are here