ya gotta view this large at 11 vertical frames its a crime not to

This certainly a sweet little tunnel, I have been here 3 times over the years and it never disappoints, each time I have come away with something different – it even has glow worms.. well i hope it still does. I battled the crowds on this day, a lazy Sunday afternoon meant there were plenty of people stopping to take a look inside the tunnel nail a few selfies, I even meet a nice lad doing a photo project for his HSC.

I have previously been here in the dark to do some light painting (with glow worms) https://flic.kr/p/eh1rgq and when its pretty well flooded https://flic.kr/p/oTW41f , this time I only had limited time and I really did not want muddy feet, so I opted for the view from right back at the entrance to this part of the tunnel, it also meant I could get the, rather new, Helensburgh sign in the shot as well.

I am sure I will be back in a few years again and I do wonder how it will have changed and what composition will take my fancy 🙂

11 shot (vertical orientation) panorama, only mildly cropped, I did have two layers (normal exposure and under exposure) in it, but my poor computer complained and refused to save it 🙁

Exif love:
11 vertical frames taken on a pano head
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f10 and Shutter Speed: 1/3s
ISO 100
Out front – Hoya CPL and one cool tunnel

The lesser loved tunnel

The tunnels at Helensburgh are quite the popular tourist spot now, I remember years ago trying get info on them and it was a little more challenging and also not so well known. The other thing I did not realise was how close to the current trainline a few of them are – i have always driven there so never actually saw the current train station..

So, I had to make a somewhat impromptu train ride from the south coast back to Sydney and thought, sure why not, I'll jump off and take a few photos at Helensburgh.

Now, firstly, its been years..like really more than I can remember (sheesh I feel old now) years.. since I have been on the train down this way and I gotta say its actually quite a picturesque trip, i was gonna bury the head in a few serious sessions of Zombie call or crossy but found myself burning away the minutes away staring out the window at all the cool locations.
The train line follows the coast and often you have the escarpment on one side and the sea and rockshelves on the other – from the green dairy style fields near Gerrigong, to the fantastic view of Bombo and Kiama thru the industrial world of wollongong and finally up into the narrow strip of land where Austinmer and the seacliff bridge is, its not boring by any measure. It does not end there either, its then a tranquil run into the Royal National park dotted with various short tunnels.

The other great thing is you could actually just jump off at places like Coalcliff and its a short walk to the Seacliff Bridge and nearby rock shelf and beaches, time it well with the trains and you could just spend a couple of hours and then hop back on for the next spot 🙂 now only if they ran in time for sunrise sessions 😉

Anyways, ya probably gathered I am a bit of a fan of it 🙂 I do recommend it, its so much nicer than driving 🙂

Anyways, onto the image, everyone goes and looks at the Vera St tunnel, its more picturesque and you can walk into it, hence its poor neighbor (this image), which is covered with bog, blocked off and not as good for selfies gets much less attention – this is one side of it, the other side is pretty cool, but with a large steel pole fence and lots more water. I would have just climb over it but I did not particularly wanna get stinky wet feet for the rest of my train ride home 🙂

So, here's to you little forgotten tunnel, someone should really open you up and put a cafe or something there 🙂

This one is about a 10 shot panorama (vertical frames), I really like the cool roots of the trees which are reclaiming back the scar in their land.

Exif love:
D750 coupled with Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8 @ 24mm Aperture: f9 and Shutter Speed: 1s
ISO 100
Out front – Hoya CPL and one poor lonely tunnel.