August 28 working around the coast

After our visit to Point Smythe we decided to try and work our way around the coast in Cape Liptrap Coastal Park. Not so easy! 

Many of the roads we attempted ended in private property. In the end we just drove on to Cape Liptrap. What a rugged piece of coastline that is! 

The sea was rough enough and the wind strong enough to send big dollops of foam high onto the cliff where we stood watching birds tossing themselves into the wind - just for fun!

This lighthouse stands on the site of the original one built in the early 1900s. It was and is an unmanned, automatic lighthouse built to improve the safety of shipping along this stretch of coast where many ships had come to grief on the reefs.  



Tea tree rather special 

But look at their nuts - like cut limes. Very eye catching. 

From the rough seas of that piece of coast we headed to the sheltered waters of Waratah Bay and Shallow Inlet Marine snd Coastal Park. 

The Gurnaikurnai people of Gippsland and the Boonerwrung people’s of Western Port border each other around here. It was a land brimming with food from sea and land alike. 

Waratah Bay stretches seemingly endlessly flat and quiet - although not in summer I imagine. This day the sea was quiet in this bay as we watched the waves trickle in.

Smooth stones dotted the wide expanse of beach, stones of many colours and patterns. And in large swathes of beach the crabs had been hard at work burrowing and leaving tiny beads of sand as evidence of their labours. 


We had tried to reach Shallow Inlet  from Wilson’s Prom some weeks earlier but with park closures our attempts were all for naught. So we came from the other side of the inlet! Talk about flat and shallow!

Deserted! Except for wading birds. This inlet and Corner Inlet see 1000s of migratory birds arrive for summer feasting. 
It was a very gentle peaceful place to sit and dream.