Watsons Crags, 1 year after the fires:
The Sentinel (1900m) has been barbequed!
Places along the top of the Crags have been severely burnt and now 1 year on, re-growth has been slow!
In a few months time this will be under metres of snow.
View from 400m north west of Watsons Crag Dome - 2022m.
Looking south east towards Twynam 2196m. Except in the gullies, nearly all the vegetation is gone.
It will take decades for it to "return".
Looking down towards Siren Song Creek. The drop to the Geehi River is about one vertical mile.
.
Mt Tate (2068m) can be seen 6 km to the north east - left centre horizon.
And to think that this could have been avoided had the firefighters tackled the lightning started fires
early in the 10 day period (8/1/03 - 18/1/03) before they became uncontrollable!
It will take many decades before this country returns to anything like its former self.
Here it was in November 2002 - just 2 months before the fires.
Feb 15, 2004.
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