Lisa and I haven’t been out for a walks of late, and with each passing weekend there has been one reason or another as to why we didn’t get out. But with each passing week it seems to be harder and harder to get motivated, and get back into the swing of heading out for a wander. This morning however, while the motivation didn’t seem to be there, I suggested we nip out for a quick local wander. With the hope that a short trip out to Meelup Beach would be just the kick start we needed to start getting out again:
There was a limited window of opportunity today, due to other commitments for the afternoon and evening. But enough time was available for a short loop walk we did last October. When the sun was out, the relatively calm waters in the bay turned a beautiful aqua blue. Our local beach has small patches that will turn this colour, but here it feel like the whole bay lights up and it is a stunning sight. Not having had anything to eat before we left the house, we stopped after a short distance and parked ourselves on the rocks for a snack, as we looked out to sea:
Our timing was great and within minutes we spotted a number of whales. Far out to sea a couple were playing. One was lifting its tail high out of the water and smashing it back down, the other swam one way fully breaching out of the water before going back towards the tail display and breaching again. This seemed to continue for ages, as we sat there long after our snacks were consumed. We also saw a third whale that swam past at a leisurely pace, much closer to shore, but all we ever saw was its rump:
Eventually, and only after the show had come to its natural end, we got back on the track to head up to the Meelup look out. There were heaps of flowers out. Small displays of purple, yellow, white, pink, blue, orange and more were scattered around in individual patches, and I could have taken numerous individual images of each of them. However, I thought I would wait till the real wildflower display arrives. With such a wet winter we might be in for a flower extravaganza, it is already happening up north and as the weeks go by we hope it will extend further south:
During our walk today we talked about the need to make sure we manage a trip or two out to see this year’s wild flower display. It is starting to move southwards far enough to be worth a day trip, and will get closer as spring starts to arrive with its warmer weather. I couldn’t however resist the above image of a Banksia bud. I’m not going to try and identify what Banksia it is, but all the new growth was lovely to see. Lots of shoots and leaves were popping out of the ground, with that fresh almost vibrant colour and vigour that new growth seems to bring in a plant:
As we reached the top of the lookout it seemed rude not to take a load off and look out to sea, just in case the whale show was about to begin again. After Lisa had caught up with me we munched on a mandarin, watched a couple of half-hearted breaches and then decided that the sudden drop in temperature was a sign we should keep moving. Sure enough the drops started to fall, just as I spotted a small clump of Cape Spider Orchids. This species is only found in the granite hills near Dunsborough and the Ludlow Tuart Forrest and was declared as rare flora in 1991:
Back then it was also listed as critically endangered with less than 250 identified mature individuals. More mature plants have since been found and so it is no longer deemed critically endangered, but is still at the mercy of us humans with the key threats being recreational activities, weed invasion, inappropriate fire regimes and grazing. I was pretty chuffed to find the orchid, as I’ve not seen this variety before. I even checked my post from our walk here last year just to make sure, which was aptly call Creepy Crawlies:
A bit uncanny as my next and last find, as we made our way back just in time to miss the biggest downpour, was this caterpillar. It was showing evidence that the rain was falling with its matted hairs and being covered in droplets. I’ve had a bash at figuring out what it is and the closest I can get to is maybe a Gum Moth caterpillar. If I am right it was lucky that I kept my distance. The hairs are both brittle and barbed, and can be extremely irritating and painful once embedded in your skin. While I avoided this I’m hoping that this little hike has been enough to get the walking bug back under our skin:
Sandbagged 