Erskine Falls

Hydnosis

A couple of unseasonally wintry days had the ocean stirred up and pounding at the sandstone cliffs of the Shipwreck Coast at full force while we were down there. It's not hard to see why this coastline is on average receding at the rate of 2 cm per year. The rhythms of the waves and the patterns left behind as the water is sucked back away from the rocks is entrancing - I think I could sit there for days watching them, one never quite the same as the next.

Birds on a wire

Light entertainment

Having started out my first Sunday back in Melbourne with a leisurely stroll out of a plane at 12,000 feet, it was time to up the pace a little with some extreme coastal cruising. With a few close allies I spent 3 days heading along the Great Ocean Road to Warrnambool and Port Fairy, ensuring that I frustrated said allies no end with my constant requests to stop and take shots... Here's the first of them.

On the other hand

There are some local spots well worth appreciating no matter what, and Red Bluff would have to fall into that category I think. Sometimes I do have to admit feeling a little lucky that I have a place like this to call home regardless of whatever else I may be doing, or wherever else I may be doing it. Cue cheesy Qantas ad music...

Good neighbours...

So, back in Melbourne. I have a theory to put forward:

A little time away + a new camera = taking photos of the most ordinary crap

This flame tree has sat in the next-door neighbours front yard for years, and never once did I get excited by the prospect of getting up early to take photos of it in the dawn light until now. I'm glad I finally did.

I feel the need

As luck would have it, Camo's flatmate is a pilot, which coincided nicely with a beautiful day and the loose plans we'd made to visit Rottnest Island. This was my first experience in a light aircraft, in this case a four-seater Cessna 172. It really did feel like taking to the skies in a small car - you can really feel the aerodynamics of the plane. In a strange way this made me feel extremely safe and comfortable; I will say that the large eagle we came within metres (well, metre) of hitting did not. Nor did the cross-runway gust that had us landing on one wheel on Rottnest. But it was all handled in style by our pilot Anmol, who's only concession to the interesting nature of this flight was to laugh and admit "If we'd hit that eagle, we were f---ed".