Darwin Sunset

Friday 24th August

After the day I'd had, only gin and tonic could save me. The sunsets in Darwin are something else; the city faces west over the Timor Sea so this evening we joined some of the locals at the sailing club (which you can sign into as temporary members) for food and drinks and the setting sun.

In the first photograph, you can see the bush-fires south west of the city as the local aborigines practice their traditional burning of the land, which helps renew the plants and trees so they can be sustained. They've been doing it for literally thousands of years but coming from New South Wales it still seems odd to find fires being deliberately lit and allowed to burn in 33 degree dry heat because plumes of smoke like this on the Sydney horizon would spell major trouble, and they do every year.

Anyway, since Ella dropped my sunglasses onto a pebbled-ash patio, they're full of scratches, so I've had to give up on the cheat shots and buy an orange filter for my camera. Still, I don't feel such an amateur now and the effect in the second photo was worth the effort in going out to order it.