04.12.2019
Thanks to Fay’s plunger, I was able to start the day with ‘gumboot water’, as we fondly refer to it – enough to get me on the road to Naracoopa just after 7:30. I enjoyed a good ramble along Sea Elephant Bay, the Jetty, and down a Lovers Lane to another tiny bay of beautiful green rock formations and bright orange lichen.
I contemplated whether it was possible to drive along the coastline to Grassy, but with only a quarter of a tank of fuel, didn’t think I should try it, so followed the main road there. I stopped at the impressive ‘Grassy’ sign, and crossed the road to photograph these strange turkey fellas I keep seeing! I guess they are the ones immortalised in the funky bench seats in Currie.
I pulled up for fuel, but the place was unattended – a lady stopped to tell me she’d seen ‘Ernie’s van outside the club’. Righto, no hurry. I cruised out to view the old scheelite mine, before pulling up beside Ernie, clearly impressed with the amount of pink (hair, lips, eyebrows, earmuffs), who told me he’d be there shortly.
I drove out along the harbour wall and filmed the wild ocean crashing on the rocks, with kelp roiling within it.
It was time to head home for lunch, recharging myself and my equipment, then I walked up to the Council Building, the library, and down to the harbour. I couldn’t believe that after all the rock hopping I’d done today, I wrenched my ankle on the uneven library path! The weather was holding, so I headed out around the harbour, waving at those in the Cultural Centre. Once I was out past further than I was with the car the other day, I found there were hundreds of bluebottles – I can’t get enough of them!
The way they are caught in the movement of the tide – that’s the memory of movement I’m after. It started to drizzle, and I took shelter near the creek. There was large kelp washed up at the mouth – some half buried, which again held the ‘movement’.
They are like stories in the tideline – little vignettes of a life, and of a death. Carcasses of birds – succumbed to the wild seas – are scattered amongst the seaweed, bluebottles, and shells. I was close to succumbing myself – weary, wet, and with a back aching from lots of bending over and strange photography positions! I trudged back to the CC and was happy to slump by the heater and chat for a bit with Liz, Lyn, Emma and Robyn.
I took some photos of their lovely space, then decided I’d better get home before I totally collapsed. And here I’ll stay for now.