Australia Day - in the heat
Well, Australia Day's been and gone. What a day! It was scorching hot, with a maximum temperature of 41.2C.
We walked from our hotel, moving fast through the sunny bits, and slower through the shade. The last stretch across the bare, shadeless Langley Park seemed further than it was. Thank goodness for hats and sunscreen! We eventually reached the trees and glorious shade!
There were already quite a few people there, but not as many as would usually be expected. I'm not surprised, because of the heat. We watched boats moving in convoy to an area set aside in the river for those wishing to watch the fireworks from that vantage point.
This area would have lots of people gathered on it later (after sunset). At this time, no one was willing to stand out in the baking sun!
By around 5.00 pm boats of many shapes and sizes had gathered at the boundary set by the organisers of the fireworks display. There were LOTS of boats!
The fireworks were set off from barges in the middle of the river.
Advertising by the TV station that was showing a replay of the fireworks display later in the evening.
Some yachts making a colourful display. Not long after this, we returned to our hotel to have dinner.
After dinner, we returned to the river. It didn't feel any cooler than the last time we'd been there.
The sun was close to setting and the size of the crowd was growing. People brought along picnic dinners. The temperature was still around 37C at this time.
I couldn't resist a sunset picture!
The last aeroplane display of the evening.
At long last, at 9.00 pm the fireworks began!
At times the display lit up the area so brightly that we could see the crowd clearly.
This was the last of the three clearest pictures I took.
The end of the night had an unexpected turn. Two of the barges that held the fireworks caught fire halfway through the show! On the News tonight we learned that because of the heat and the hot easterly winds, the show had been in danger of being cancelled. It had only been decided about 40 minutes before the start to go ahead. They had been worried that the wind would carry sparks and cause fires. They most certainly hadn't bargained on the barges catching fire! There will, of course be an investigation into the cause.
You can see the fires in the last two pictures. We noticed after the display had officially finished that there were still occasional rockets going up. Then we saw the flames!
Adding to all this excitement, there was also a thunderstorm brewing. There were lots of lightning flashes towards the end of the show. I didn't manage to catch any of them in any pictures!
I shall post more pictures later that look rather...interesting. I had mistakenly set the camera to night photography. This caused it to take pictures with a short period of time exposure, resulting in some rather original-looking pictures!
We walked from our hotel, moving fast through the sunny bits, and slower through the shade. The last stretch across the bare, shadeless Langley Park seemed further than it was. Thank goodness for hats and sunscreen! We eventually reached the trees and glorious shade!
There were already quite a few people there, but not as many as would usually be expected. I'm not surprised, because of the heat. We watched boats moving in convoy to an area set aside in the river for those wishing to watch the fireworks from that vantage point.
This area would have lots of people gathered on it later (after sunset). At this time, no one was willing to stand out in the baking sun!
By around 5.00 pm boats of many shapes and sizes had gathered at the boundary set by the organisers of the fireworks display. There were LOTS of boats!
The fireworks were set off from barges in the middle of the river.
Advertising by the TV station that was showing a replay of the fireworks display later in the evening.
Some yachts making a colourful display. Not long after this, we returned to our hotel to have dinner.
After dinner, we returned to the river. It didn't feel any cooler than the last time we'd been there.
The sun was close to setting and the size of the crowd was growing. People brought along picnic dinners. The temperature was still around 37C at this time.
I couldn't resist a sunset picture!
The last aeroplane display of the evening.
At long last, at 9.00 pm the fireworks began!
At times the display lit up the area so brightly that we could see the crowd clearly.
This was the last of the three clearest pictures I took.
The end of the night had an unexpected turn. Two of the barges that held the fireworks caught fire halfway through the show! On the News tonight we learned that because of the heat and the hot easterly winds, the show had been in danger of being cancelled. It had only been decided about 40 minutes before the start to go ahead. They had been worried that the wind would carry sparks and cause fires. They most certainly hadn't bargained on the barges catching fire! There will, of course be an investigation into the cause.
You can see the fires in the last two pictures. We noticed after the display had officially finished that there were still occasional rockets going up. Then we saw the flames!
Adding to all this excitement, there was also a thunderstorm brewing. There were lots of lightning flashes towards the end of the show. I didn't manage to catch any of them in any pictures!
I shall post more pictures later that look rather...interesting. I had mistakenly set the camera to night photography. This caused it to take pictures with a short period of time exposure, resulting in some rather original-looking pictures!