Still up in the air

Some people really appreciated the aerial shots, so I'll continue the weekend with a few more -the last for now.

Moree

Moree is situatied on black soil plains, which stretch, well, across the rest of the continent, and the next hill is somewhere in Africa! I lived in Moree for a couple of years as a young teacher.

See that racecourse to the right of the second photo? I once went to the races there and there was a dead-heat for first in a three horse race! They even passed the photo of the finish around the crowd for confirmation.

The main crops grown around Moree are wheat and cotton. I can assure you that despite appearances from yesterday's photo, it's NOTHING like England :-)

The other main attraction of Moree is its hot artesian mineral springs, which feed the local pool, and provide a magnet for immigrants of Eastern European origin, many of whom make a yearl pilgrimage to "take the waters" which are supposd to have curative powers. It also keeps the outdoor swimming pool deliciously warm all year round.


I know it's not Sydney, but , hey - it's accessible from Sydney!

Up in the air

Last week I flew from Sydney to Narrabri, a town of about 7, 500 people about 600 kms northwest of Sydney. The plane was a Dash-8. Today all Dash-8 Series 400s were grounded for mechanical checks after one had an emergency landing in Lithuania due to a faulty landing gear, and one crashed in Denmark a few days ago.

In the next couple of days I'll show you some of the Northwest plains from the air. This shot is amazingly green - crops planted after some great winter rains. Unfortunatley, 71% of NSW is drought-declared, and there hasn't been anything by way of follow-up rain, so many crops are threatened.