Storm Watching at Balls Head – 7 December 2014

Lately Sydney has experienced an impressive series of afternoon thunderstorms. One just about avery day for the past week or so. I thought that Balls Head would be a good place for some storm watching. It has some good lookouts and nearby are some sandstone caves to shelter in the storm is bad. Some of these caves even have seats in them.

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Its only a ten minute walk to get to the headland from Waverton Station. When I arrived, the ground was wet – so at least one storm had passed over. But it looked very black to the north-west and the weather radar indicated that a storm was approaching. So – out with the camera.

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The storm soon arrived, and I retreated to one of the caves. It was a good refuge. The storm was brief and after it had passed over a few more photos, I went for a walk around the headland.

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There is an extensive network of old tracks – some of them are overgrown and no longer used. I went down the old steps to the sea at the far point of the headland. This is the place where the Blue Point Tower has the maximum intrusive effect in photos.

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I then headed back to my lookout – a nice rock shelf with views from the Harbour Bridge to  Greenwich. The radar indicated another storm, larger this time was approaching. It hit with a fury, and I had to shelter once more in the cave. This time the rain was quite heavy and there were quite a few drips.

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After the storm had passed, I emerged from the cave, and again got out the camera. More photos. And the sun was coming out. Nice!

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I stayed till the sunset. Unfortunately there was a cloud bank to the west that stopped any sunlight for the last bit.

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More photos are on my website here. Here is a very short time lapse video –

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