After two months of the most glorious weather things turned a little strange…

On Thursday 24th September we awoke to a peculiar blood red sky. Our house borders a nature reserve, and so our first thought was a bush fire – only there was no smell of smoke. We rushed outside to find all the neighbours in our street equally confused. I turned on the TV just as a special news broadcast was reporting on a dust storm that had enveloped Sydney. Quite a spectacular and very rare sight. Overnight our world had been transformed into a Martian landscape providing amazing photo opportunities!

9h10 The sun through the dust

9h15 Savannah in the front garden

Dusty view of the Harbour Bridge from a North Sydney appartment

And we thought the dust was bad... Look what else the storm blew in!

Eventually the dust settled and the clean up began… everything inside and out was covered in a thick layer of fine red dust – even worse than driving hell through leather around the Kalahari Gemsbok Park with the car windows open!

And then came the rain… which mercifully washed away the dust, but brought plummeting temperatures far colder than we’d experienced all winter. I'm so glad we hadn't packed away the winter woolies and electric blankets yet!