Western Australia’s south coast is mostly unspoilt, uncrowded, wonderfully wild.
However, in February 2025 sunshine, strong winds and big waves were generally “AWOL”, and the usually-brilliant, clear light was mostly flat, hazy and/or smoke-tainted.
This trip yielded an unprecedentedly low number of worthwhile opportunities for landscape/seascape photography!
Nonetheless, even on a “flat, grey day”…
I took the featured image at 4.30 pm on 07 February, from the lookout/shelter that sits above and adjacent to Lowlands Beach, just a few kilometres distant from mainland WA’s southernmost point.
Notwithstanding its “remote” location, Lowlands Beach is easily reached, via a short, 2WD-friendly, unsealed road, off the (sealed) Lower Denmark Road.
The turnoff is 35 ks west of Albany, or 25 ks east of Denmark.
On 07.02.2025 the Southern Ocean was unusually placid; I and my camera remained dry and “unsalted”.
On 20.09.2020, however, sea spray roared across the clifftop; I then had only a moment to take any photo, before I would have to clean camera and lens
The photo below was taken from the same vantage point as the one above, albeit looking south rather than west.
Musical bonus
Literally translated from Spanish or Portuguese, Ondas means “waves”.
It is also the titlepiece of a wonderful trio album, recorded in Norway in 1981.
In 2025 Mike Nock’s Ondas is still in the ECM catalogue; it has never been deleted.
Its pianist, composer and leader is from New Zealand, but made his international “name” when he lived in the USA.
For most of his life, however, Mike Nock has lived in Sydney, Australia.
Now aged 84, Mike Nock has been one of my favourite musicians for my entire “adult” life.
A deal more than six decades into his jazz odyssey, Mike Nock continues to make beautiful, distinctive music.
Click this to read an interesting 2024-vintage interview.
Here, in 1981, Mike’s colleagues were US bassist Eddie Gomez and Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen:
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