Coastline contrasts – Day 2, part 1

On day 2 of our week away I took over 260 photos. I have since thrown out over 60 of them, but a large number remain, and I have struggled to decide which few to include in the blog. In the end, day 2 is going to get three posts, and, for better or worse, all three will have quite a few photos (I liked them; your own mileage may vary). Much of the day had an ornithological focus (see the next post) but we saw lots of interesting coastline, so there are some more generic coastal photos thrown in for good measure as we made our way around various bits of the east coast near Binalong Bay and St Helens.

We began the day by heading north from Sloop Lagoon, and visiting The Gardens. Despite the grey day, the water still held a  strong aqua colour, and the ubiquitous granite boulders broke up the landscape in many interesting ways.

Occasionally the sun broke through the cloud, and lit up the horizon; we saw at least two yachts heading northward but the extensive reefs meant that they maintained a decent “offing” from the coast.

I returned to a little spot we’d visited yesterday — when my sunscreen-thumbprinted lens had ruined my photos — and took a few more shots of a patch of burnt coastal scrub. The burnt sheoaks (?) made a striking contrast against the granite boulders, creating a rather eerie effect. I tried out the monochrome setting too (but I wish I had time to play around with the image, as I think it could be made a bit more interesting).

Not far from the burnt area, down another of the dead-end roads leading to coastal campgrounds, we came across a lovely lagoon, with a big granite outcrop as a highlight. Most of the lagoons were blocked from reaching the sea, and the second shot below — in black and white — shows the bar (the lagoon end is in the foreground, the sea meets the beach on the other side of the sandy ridge and boulders). Just as we were about to leave a family clambered down over the rocks and were silhouetted against the skyline.

The striking prominent outcrop that identifies Sloop Reef is seen in the photo below.

After exploring some of Humbug Point, we arrived in Binalong Bay itself, where the sun peeked through and lit up the beach and water. There were some Norfolk Island pines growing at the coastal reserve, and I loved the texture of the leaves/needles.

We stopped at the cafe in Binalong Bay for afternoon tea, but although the food seemed fine and the location was lovely, the service for our simple scones and hot chocolate request was ridiculously slow (the scones still hadn’t arrived 15 minutes after our hot chocolates had), which necessitated a complaint which made me feel a bit out of sorts; fortunately our later travels, as revealed in part 2, got me into a better frame of mind.