January 7, 2021

My original post about the genesis of this blog remains below, but it seems appropriate  to provide an update as so much has changed in the past couple of years.

In mid-2020, we moved from the edge of one emerald (Sydney Harbour) to another about 120kms north (Lake Macquarie), a transition which had been pending for a while, but which came about quite suddenly, just as the pandemic was getting serious.

For those reasons – and others – this blog took a bit of a break. It didn’t mean the adventures had ceased, only that the publishing process paused as other priorities took over. And the new year seems like a good time to kick things off again. I’ve spent the past six months starting to explore my new environment, and the opportunities are endless.

One of my goals in moving to Lake Macquarie was to explore it by kayak, in entirety. It is a fascinating waterway, steeped in history, and with a multitude of moods and personalities. A major indulgence has been taking possession of my “dream boat”, a Mirage 532 built in Kevlar IRT, which I’m loving to get to know. The waters of Lake Macquarie can be tricky, challenging and changeable, so there’s much more learning to come.

Some weeks after arriving, I found that former ABC journalist and Wangi local, Scott Bevan, had already completed this adventure, and chronicled it in his book The Lake. It is an interesting read which I would highly recommend. I have learned much about the region’s history and continue to dip in and out of it. But I have no intent to replicate his work – this blog is all about the photographs and the experience.

As I began exploring the lake, I realised that not all trips lend themselves to the type of photo narrative that I’d developed with this blog. There are always good photos and experiences, but they don’t always tie together into a story. And there are many great photos which don’t come from a trip – magical sunsets, fascinating waterfowl, intriguing watercraft have often been shot during a short stroll along the shore.

So I decided to set up some photo galleries covering a range of subjects – birds, boats, beaches, sunsets etc – and add to them over time. There will still be some stories about trips, because those opportunities still present themselves.

The Hunter/Lake Macquarie region is blessed with some outstanding beaches and bushland areas. There are national parks and state conservation areas on the coast, and to the west of the lake, offering an enormous number of walking and cycling paths. And there’s still the original emerald, and its outer reaches. In 2020, I rediscovered canyoning in the northern Blue Mountains with my old bushwalking mates, and hopefully that will continue. As will some walks closer to Sydney.

From a tech perspective, my cameras remain the same as detailed in my original post below. I have added a waterproof Nikon Coolpix W300 which suits the environment and has delivered some great shots, but doesn’t really match an SLR for the hard stuff…

It’s a learning process. I’m looking forward to continuing the journey – and if you’ve read this far – I hope you are too.

Cheers,

Dave Noble

A Few Words About This Blog

A Short History

Walking the shores of Sydney Harbour was never something I planned, it just happened by accident. In my running days, I preferred bush tracks, which naturally took me into the nearby national parks, nature reserves and local parks, many of which intersect with the Parramatta and Lane Cove Rivers. When my knees started to play up, I started riding a bike and ventured further afield, and again found that many of the hard surfaces skirted along the edges of the watercourses which feed Sydney Harbour, but also took me to some interesting, hidden places.

Somewhere along the way, I came across Walking Coastal Sydney which gave me some ideas about new routes to try. I downloaded their Harbour Circle Walk map to my phone, and followed some of their routes by cycle or on foot. Their maps are good, and their trip notes are pretty detailed. But I like to explore, so I found myself deviating from their guides, or skipping some parts to spend more time in areas of interest.

Around this time, I was transitioning my company website to a WordPress blog, and I came up with the idea of capturing my walks and other travels around the harbour on a blog. On one of my walks, the name On The Emerald Edge evolved, inspired by David Williamson’s famous play Emerald City. There is no relationship to the plot, I just liked that a Melbourne playwright had made a connection between The Wizard of Oz and Sydney.

But there the idea remained. I was busy doing other stuff, and went no further.

So What Then?

As a self-employed consultant, my workload goes up and down, and along with it the time that I devote to my other interests. After a couple of years of busy worklife and personal lethargy, I decided to resurrect On The Emerald Edge. I needed to get some exercise, get some space, and start enjoying the outdoors again. I also scaled back my original idea about writing a blog which was just another set of track notes.

I’ve enjoyed photography since my early teens when I was given a Kodak Instamatic, and I’ve used most camera formats since. That said, I’m not a great technical photographer, but I love the process of finding and framing an interesting shot. And these days, I enjoy the process of online digital editing, to make an image stand out better than I could ever take on my own.

And while I’m a one-time journalist, I’ve found less joy in the writing process over recent years. Maybe this will help me rediscover that, but the plan is to not let the prose dominate, and let the photos tell the story. I’ll write about my impressions and the interesting aspects I observe, plus some historical notes where appropriate, but this won’t be an exhaustive dissertation on my wanderings.

I hope you’ll find this blog to be interesting and entertaining, fun but informative, light but enlightening, and so many other superlatives I could pick from Roget’s. But most of all, I want to share some of the highlights of Sydney away from the beaten tracks.

Sometimes I’ll wander alone, sometimes I’ll enlist some old friends to keep me company. I may cycle , kayak, take a ferry or even take to the skies. But along the way, I hope to introduce you to a different side of Sydney Harbour and its environs, to explore the hidden spots which only the locals know, to provide views different from the postcard perspectives, and to uncover some hidden gems. I expect this journey will go beyond the harbour – to Pittwater and its many feeders in the north, to Botany Bay and Port Hacking in the south, and – of course – to the many outstanding ocean beaches which grace greater Sydney’s shores.

These will be journeys which can be undertaken easily, in a few hours or no more than a good day, at a relaxed pace or something a little more challenging. And most importantly, they will be planned to end at a Sydney pub where we can toast a great day out with an icy cold beer (or appropriate alternative)!

A Few Technical Notes

I’m a somewhat lazy photographer, so I rely on my equipment to help me out. I mostly shoot in Program mode on my Nikon D7200, because it forgives many of my sins, and allows me to augment in editing. And I’m starting to enjoy using some of the presets in the Scenes setting, which provide extraordinary results. I mostly use a Nikkor 18-55mm zoom, but my Nikkor 70-300mm covers the long shots and my Nikkor 85mm macro produces beautiful close-ups of flowers and insects. I also occasionally rely on my ageing Nikon D80 and its versatile 35-200mm Tamron lens. For quick shots and social media, I’m incredibly impressed with the detail delivered by my Google Pixel 3 smartphone – though not enough to give up on proper cameras.

For tracking my progress, I use Walkmeter, which does a reasonable job of keeping tabs on where I’m going but occasionally loses me in wooded valleys. Overall, I get a fairly good idea of distance travelled, and ascents/descents, which are the things I care about. If I need to really narrow down, I default to Google Maps, though I’m also playing around with Avenza Maps. The folks at Walking Coastal Sydney also have an iPhone app, but not apparently available on Android.

Dave Noble