Sun rising over forested hills and Mt Yengo. Yengo National Park, NSW Australia
Its 9am and you're at the local cafe with a steaming coffee, everything is well with the world until you hear a patron complain about how early it is and you've already been up for 5 hours. Some people just dont get mornings, nor do they understand its the best time of the day. Everythng is fresh, the morning has an energy about it that no other time of day has. If asked about the time I sometimes get up, I usually just say early, but then there's those that press the matter and, well, when you say around 3 or 4am they repeat parrot fashion 3am with added exclamation looking at you as if you've just dropped in from Jupiter. Depending on the person, the interest either dies and moves on to a more favourable topic that they can comprehend; or they wish to hear more, mainly for the entertainment value. My family are used to my nocturnal escapes to get to a place by sun up, they dont even bother asking me anymore, actually my wife often accompanies me. So it was on this occassion when we departed from Mum's place in Wyong 4am to get to a place in Yengo that I had in mind for the sunrise at 6:45am. A starry night and the hope of mist in the valleys wash dashed by a light Sou Wester, so my scheduled spot was a no goer and we went off exploring. It takes an hour from Wyong to Wollombi and then half from there to that Yengo spot, which usually gives me half an hour to absorb the scene and setup before the sun gloriously appears. The thing with National Parks is the good spots are usually accessed via tracks and in this case a 4wd only track; the problem is not that they're difficult, but that they are slow. Normally this is a good thing as it allows you to see more of the bush, but pushed for time its frustrating. So another half hour on (10k) and 3 quarters the way to my other spot, the Sun is rising and the available time to photograph starts shortening from here on. Another kilometre and I spot a view from the road, pull over engine still running just in case and dash to
Size: 6561px × 4852px
Photo credit: © Matt Smith / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: area, australian, big, bloodwood, blue, bush, conservation, eucalypt, forest, heritage, hunter, landscape, mount, mountains, national, park, parks, sclerophyl, south, sunrise, wales, wild, wilderness, woodland, world, yango, yengo
