Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
Q: what do the mostly-grey, stark rocks atop East Mt Barren have in common with the mostly-white sands that are a feature of so many beaches on Western Australia’s south coast?
A: both are composed almost entirely of the second most abundant mineral in the earth’s crust, namely….
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20 kilometres southwest of Pemberton, in southwestern WA’s “Karri country”, the Yeagarup Dunes cover circa 30 square kilometres.
They are the Southern Hemisphere’s largest mobile, land-locked dune system.
The Yeagarup Dunes are currently advancing inland at circa 4 metres per year.
This post’s photos were taken from the top of their “hungry” edge, on 27 October 2016.
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Collectively and individually, members of the genus Banksia are among the world’s more spectacular and surprising flowering plants.
If one accepts the reclassification that brought the 94 Dryandra species into the Banksia fold, the genus has circa 170 members; if one does not, there are 79 named Banksia species.
Either way, all but one species are endemic to Australia.
The overwhelming majority naturally occur only in Western Australia, and most of those have very small ranges, in near-coastal parts of WA’s southwest.
Even by Banksia standards, the six prostratae species are “wondrous strange”.
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This chapter’s hero is another of the enormous number of WA-endemic flowering plants that thrive in Cape Arid National Park.
Most “wildflowers” position their actual flowers well clear of the ground.
In Australia’s southwestern corner, however, some of the region’s plants are “prostrate” – their flowers may sit on the sand, literally.
If you look carefully at the featured image you will notice that the nearer, otherwise-strikingly-red flowers are sand-flecked.
Leave a CommentYes, the beach really is that white, and the ocean shallows’ shades of blue are also “true”.
(the various blues’ intensity is in large part thanks to the sand’s whiteness, acting in concert with the sun, high in a clear sky)
The featured image looks down (and east, over Yokinup Bay, to Mt Arid) from Belinup Hill in Cape Arid National Park; visible, “naked” sand occupies a small portion of the photo, but millions of tons of “hidden” sand are invisibly-present through most of its field of view.
Southern WA has some of the world’s poorest soils, but what grows in and “hides” those very sands is (arguably) “our” planet’s greatest natural wildflower “show”.
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The featured image illustrates what just a little elevation can do to one’s view…if one is in a magnificently wild location, the sun is high in a perfect Spring sky, and sand, sky, rock, vegetation and water are basking in clear, clean air.
Leave a CommentMandalay Beach is near Walpole, in Western Australia’s “Deep South”.
I have seen many wild ocean beaches – on every continent, bar Antarctica.
Mandalay Beach – named after a ship that was wrecked there in 1911 – is one of my all time favourites.
It is really wild (do not swim there) but easy to reach; any able-bodied, sensible driver of a 2WD vehicle will easily “manage” both the track that leads off the South Coast Highway and the short walk from car park to beach.
In every direction, the vistas are splendid.
However, you should never forget, also, to keeping look down to the sand at your feet. (ditto the rocks, any clefts therein, and the rock pools)
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Banky Beach is just one of the many beautiful beaches and coves in and around Bremer Bay, on Western Australia’s south coast.
By road, Bremer Bay is 180 kilometres closer to the preceding post’s location – Aldinga Beach – than is Albany.
From Bremer Bay, the drive to Adelaide is a mere 2,530 kilometres!
Aldinga is 45 kilometres south of Adelaide.
Western Australia has (by far) the longest mainland coastline of any Australian state or territory.
Leave a CommentThis post’s photo was taken shortly before sunset, at 8.11 pm on 21 January 2023.
Near the southernmost kink in Aldinga Beach’s Lower Esplanade, I was standing on the top of the stairs to Silver Sands – the southern section of Aldinga’s long strand.
As had been true at the same time on the previous day, a cooling breeze was blowing.
Accordingly, sandgrains were dancing; click here to see a photo, taken at beach level, with a wide-angle (24 mm) rather than a telephoto (146 mm) lens.
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Oryx gazella – the gemsbok, aka “African oryx”/ “South African oryx” – is the largest oryx species.
Namibia’s emblematic mammal is prodigiously well-adapted to a very demanding environment.
Gemsbok would probably handsomely defeat the “ship of the desert” in any global championship for “most efficient/ hardiest mammal in sandy places where rain hardly ever falls, and where no “permanent” rivers flow”.
The Namib Desert’s “sand sea” – most especially, around Sossusvlei – has some of “our” planet’s most astonishing landscapes.
More than a few of its dunes dwarf even the largest local inhabitants!
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