Cape Woolamai at the eastern end of Phillip island is worth a visit - in fact it’s worth a revisit! As Miriam Blaker (Out an About http://outanabout.com) says ‘Enjoy the journey and the destination whether it’s your first or fifth time .... the real voyage of discovery consists not of seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes’.
Having just recently ooh-ed and ah-ed over land formations and vegetation in other countries, this visit to a familiar part of Victoria has certainly been seen through new, freshly curious and appreciative eyes. We’re loving it! Travel really opens your eyes and mind.
So back to Cape Woolamai ... apart from breathtaking land and seascapes, it is a site of geological significance. The Cape is a granite peninsula of Devonian origin approx 360 million years old and is one of the highest granite massifs in Victoria. It is also important from a fauna and flora perspective. A dozen or so rare or threatened plants species have been recorded here and are now part of a preservation and revegetation program. It is also a significant breeding location for wildlife such as the Short-tailed Shearwater (also known as the Australian muttonbird and, on the Furneaux Islands, moonbirds). These amazing birds migrate 16,000 odd Km each year to the Bering Sea in the Northern hemisphere for the boreal summer - and back again to breed in SE Australia. They are burrowing birds like the adorable Little Penguins who have for many decades, drawn 100s of thousands of visitors to Phillip Island each year.
We saw burrows along the cliffs of Cape Woolamai yesterday. We assumed they belonged to the penguin, but they could very well have belonged to shearwaters as this is the largest breeding colony on Phillip Island. Like the penguins, the shear-waters return to their nests after dark. But as a little bonus, we saw a pair of hooded plovers nesting on the long, almost deserted, stretch of beach facing Bass Strait.
Glorious walk along the beach towards the Pinnacles with one eye on slaty grey clouds already leaking earthwards from approaching cloud banks. We didn’t quite make it to the headland, but loved every sand-squeaking step, our eyes all the while combing the beach for treasures. Simple things eh!?
Part of the track was inaccessible - said she with a huge sigh of relief!!
Wind and water erosion reveals rich orange sands.
The Pinnacles- I could gaze at scenes like this all day. Sand, sea and sky, even when it is bleeding - splendid!
cliff collapses reveal the roots of vegetation desperately trying to hold it all together. Natural grasses are being reintroduced.
What do you reckon? Penguin or shearwaters? They were a reasonable way up the dune but penguins are pretty tenacious.
Waves teetered shimmering and luminous grey green before smashing down in frothy delight on foamy sands. I could .... well I already said that but I have to say the water beckoned. And I thought I was a fire sign 🔥! There must be more earth in me than I thought.
What a palette!
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