Avalon Beach + Dangar Island

Young surfers before jumping off the rock pool at Avalon Beach (one of Sydney's Northern Beaches).

View of Hawkesbury River from Dangar Island.

These pictures I took indicate the varied natural aspects of Sydney. Avalon has a surfing beach, and the suburb itself has a cultivated laid back, village charm. Here there is the air of something open and simple as people lounge on the beach or launch into the Pacific swell (strictly not the Pacific but the Tasman Sea), though the suburb itself is affluent. Behind the suburb lies bushland (not pictured) - as you venture in the topography and mood again changes. The Hawkesbury River on the other hand is a series of meandering inlets and small islands with the air of something secretive, people seem shaped by living on rivers. I haven't read The Secret River, but the name seems apt. Similarly the novel The River Baptists was inspired by a move to river living. Along the river are oyster farms (the film Oyster Farmer is set in the Hawkesbury and evokes the moody yet placid nature of the river).