The spotted gum is a gorgeous eucalypt tree with beautiful pale green spotted bark and graceful, twisting branches reaching high up into the sky. It grows in large groves on the hillside at Glenrock State Conservation Area, just a few kilometres up the coast from Newcastle Beach where we live. The spotted gum woods are a really special place for me. The light and colour under the trees creates mixed shades of green and when the sun shines through the trees, the place almost glows. My photos do not do it justice but they’ll give you a small sense of how magical this place is.
We walked down through the trees to Dudley Beach, past a hang gliding launch point at the edge of a cliff. By the time we got to the beach three gliders were floating over our heads. The sun and waves were just beautiful that day and there was also a relatively rare phenomenon in the sky – iridescent clouds. I was lucky to capture both the rainbow clouds and the hang glider in this shot.
Dudley beach is not only lovely,
it is also home to some cool petrified wood imbedded in ancient lava beds. These fossilized tree stumps date back to the Permian era, around 250 million years ago, before the age of dinosaurs.
On the hike back up to the top of the park we had a great view of Glenrock Beach, just up the coast from Dudley Beach.
Oh so beautiful. Magnificent!!!!
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