Of Barking Sands, Bush Fires and Twilight Kangaroos

While in Hawaii in 2007 we went to Barking Sands Beach on Kauai, and although I managed to get hopelessly stuck in the rental car, I couldn't get the sand there to "bark". I guess the conditions weren't right. I have no idea how it works, but the sand at Birdie Beach consistently makes a sound that could reasonably be called barking. I decided to record the sound for posterity. Unfortunately, it was always windy at the beach, so there is some wind buffeting noise, but the "barking" is unmistakeable. I couldn't figure out how to make this blog play the audio file, but you can download it by clicking this link.

The sand on the path to Birdie Beach.
We spent a little time nearly every afternoon at the beach, so the tan begun as I splashed and jumped around in the pool in Oklahoma has evened out a bit. I mentioned before that we were making daily trips to Cooranbong to check on some friends' property and take care of their pets. On 4 October, there was a bush fire about halfway between that forced the closing of a railway line as well as some business closures. They mostly got it knocked down, and we were able to get to the farm after supper. However, the next day the wind was ferocious and at the beach we saw this:


The Wyee bush fire from Birdie Beach.
At first it seemed very near, and I thought it was in the Munmorah State Conservation Area of which Birdie Beach is a part. I fact, I thought it was just on the other side of the dune ridge you see in the photo. We were almost ready to go anyway, but we decided it wouldn't be a good idea to hang around. As we wound our way back to the house, it quickly became obvious that the source was much farther away than it had appeared. In fact, it was the same fire that had flared up the day before, and was on the other side of the lake from the house (and the beach). As we crossed a finger of Lake Macquarie on the way to Cooranbong, we were met with this view looking west across Mannering Bay:

Pretty. Also disturbing.
We were forced to retrace our tracks just around the bend from where this photo was taken. The alternative route would have meant going miles out of the way in the opposite direction, so we went to supper at nearby Doylo RSL club in hopes that the situation would change by the time we finished. Afterward, the road we needed had reopened - and the one we normally followed had been closed off - so we were able to make it in, and our usual route was clear by the time we headed home.

Another evening at the Cooranbong farm Claude took me for a short spin intentionally at dusk. His experience rewarded us with this:



I'm sure that at some point I'll have much better video and photos of these critters, but ya know, it was my first time... :-)