Sandys Adventures in 2008

2/7/2008 - Fingal Head, NSW

Winter is here, the days are perfect, so what better place to spend it than at Fingal Head, just over the border in New South Wales. Who would have thought a visit to a light house would be the start of a fantastic morning. My thanks have to go to Cora, my friend in Georgia, USA, who wet my appetite by sharing her beautiful photos of American light houses.

This is the Fingal Head Lighthouse, built in 1878 with Sydney sandstone. Fingal headland was sighted by Captain James Cook in 1770 and named Point Danger, which it is still known as today. ………………The Island seen from the headland is Cook Island.Fingal Head is rich in aboriginal history and mythology and is home to many aboriginal people. The local name for Fingal Head is Buninybah, meaning Home of the Echidna or Echidna Country. According to aboriginal mythology, Fingal Head contains the spirit of a giant echidna that is embodied in the hexagonal columnar basalt formation on the northeast point. The columns are said to be the spines of the echidna. The headland is part of the Mt Warning caldera and the basalt columns were formed from slowly cooling lava from the Mt Warning volcano.…The views of course are spectacular and school holiday makers enjoy the perfect conditions in the surf.……With this much ocean in front of you, sightings of whales heading north on their annual migration are common and of course, pristine waters like this, must have dolphins.…………………And then the highlight of my morning.An Osprey having his fish breakfast in a tree, so close that I felt I could nearly touch him.……………………………………………………………As I watched the Osprey soaring through the skythis Whistling Kite flew so close, I couldn't fit it in my viewfinder.What a great morning!