[Warning: this post contains photos of spiders, and bad puns. You have been advised.]
Day 3 of our excursion involved a bit of driving, much of it on rather corrugated roads. I’m sure my Subaru loved the bouncy bits, but it was a little jarring at times, and there was nice accumulation of dirt to remove when I got home at the end of our trip. Our discomfort, however, was minor compared to what must have been experienced by a couple of hardy cyclists whom we encountered on several different occasions in our time up in the north-east corner of Tasmania, as they patiently and uncomfortably laboured along the uneven gravel roads.
Anyway, today was not particularly exciting photographically. It was dull and “flat”, but there were still interesting things to see even if the photos didn’t turn out so well.
The first two shots need an advisory warning for anyone with arachnophobia. I’d seen the little coloured spiders the previous day not far from the shore of Sloop Lagoon, but it had been too windy to keep them in focus. Today was marginally better; and the bigger spider — that I nearly walked straight into — was, at least, an easier target.
The drive up to Ansons Bay went through some interesting countryside (some of which I wish I’d stopped and photographed, but I seemed to be in one of those “keep driving” moods). In recent months I’ve become a little alarmed at the number of skeletal eucalyptus trees throughout the state, suggesting an extensive die-back problem. They’re quite photogenic, but that may not be enough of a positive for the situation!
Near Ansons Bay we drove out to Policemans Point, where there was a bird that had taken a tern for the worse (I know it is a bad tern, because if it had been a good tern there’d have been another, and as far as I could tell it was on its own).
There was also a flock of dotterels, doddering up the beach ahead of me. (They were quite a long way off: this shot was at 200mm zoom and it has been enlarged by cropping.)
We then drove out to the lighthouse at Eddystone Point, with its impressive granite block construction. The nice thing about an 18-200mm zoom is that you can shoot long-way-off dotterels, and fit in a very tall lighthouse when you’re standing quite close to it.
We drove out to Musselroe Bay where I took a whole bunch of useless photos of the tide fairly racing out of the river (not included here), and where Dad and I managed to win an argument (eventually) with some scrubby, dense boobyalla bush that was hiding an old chimney ruin and a cache. The only photo I’m including is this eroded post, sticking out of the sand.
We took a detour on our way back out, in the hope of seeing some big Forester kangaroos. This is not a big Forester kangaroo. It was fairly shy, however, and curled up in a self-preserving spiky ball when I approached too closely. (For those not familiar with the echidna, this one is about 30cm/1ft long. They snuffle for ants, and burrow underground using disjointed-looking rear feet.)
We stopped briefly at yet-another-white-beach-with-aquamarine-water-decorated-with-granite-boulders (they’re lovely, but their abundance in the north-east allowed us to jokingly turn them into a cliche!).
After reaching Bridport, locating our new abode, and having a nice dinner, we went for an evening drive. We located a cache near a placid coastal river, and took a short and very bumpy drive along some small sandy coastal dunes, before returning and catching the simple sunset on the way back.
I need a wide-angle lens!
I love the spiders. And the echidna.