Skip to content →

Category: nature and travel

Grand sands (#18 in series: lively exoskeleton, on the Skeleton Coast)

Published January 1, 2025 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#18 in series: lively exoskeleton, on the Skeleton Coast)

 

 

Today’s chapter in this series’  “wet sands” section features a fast-scuttling crab, on a northern Namibian beach,

Here,  rain hardly ever falls, but fogs often roll in from the cold Atlantic Ocean, and thence into the western section  of the Namib Desert.

Q: a terrible place to be shipwrecked?

A: yes…but this shoreline is far from “lifeless”.

The waters that lap it teem with life; human population density is among the lowest on “our” planet, but the local seafood is abundant and excellent.

read moreGrand sands (#18 in series: lively exoskeleton, on the Skeleton Coast)
Comments closed

Grand sands (#17 in series: fresh, clean, but “stained”)

Published December 30, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#17 in series: fresh, clean, but “stained”)

 

After taking in the panoramic view across Thistle Cove – as featured in this series’ previous chapter – we walked down to the beach.

This post’s photos offer a closer view of the “stained” water and sand that were visible in the bottom right side of #16’s photo.

You are looking at a freshwater spring’s waters flowing onto the beach at Thistle Cove.

read moreGrand sands (#17 in series: fresh, clean, but “stained”)
Comments closed

Grand sands (#16 in series: “next door” to “the best beach in the world”)

Published December 29, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#16 in series: “next door” to “the best beach in the world”)

 

By the shortest, sensible road route,  Esperance is a whisker under 700 kilometres southeast of Perth, and just under 400 ks south of Kalgoorlie.

A further, easy 50 kilometres drive, east of Esperance, will take you to “the best beach in the world”, according a 2023 list of “The World’s 50 Best Beaches”.

You are not looking at it!

This post’s photo shows the very next beach, westward; my beloved and I are not alone in liking it rather more than we do the adjacent, “best” one.

read moreGrand sands (#16 in series: “next door” to “the best beach in the world”)
Comments closed

Grand sands (#15 in series: Little Beach, before the squall hits)

Published December 28, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#15 in series: Little Beach, before the squall hits)

 

One of life’s great pleasures: to stand in sunshine, watching a storm form on the far side of a bay or lake.

It often includes a superb, entirely natural “light show”.

It is especially splendid when one is standing on the sands of Little Beach, looking across Two Peoples Bay, to Mt Manypeaks.

read moreGrand sands (#15 in series: Little Beach, before the squall hits)
Comments closed

Grand Sands (#14 in series: Two Peoples Bay)

Published December 26, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand Sands (#14 in series: Two Peoples Bay)

A few of my favourite things…

Unusually white sand that squeaks when bare feet walk across it.

Unpolluted, refreshing cool, brilliantly blue water.

Magnificent vistas in which other humans and built structures are nowhere in sight, or just a small presence in an otherwise natural environment.

Anyone who loves the above – especially when they all co-exist in a place that is not hard  to reach – will surely love the south coast of Western Australia.

read moreGrand Sands (#14 in series: Two Peoples Bay)
Comments closed

Grand sands (#13 in series: oystercatchers & wet sandy strands)

Published December 25, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#13 in series: oystercatchers & wet sandy strands)

 

 

This and the next several chapters in this series all feature wet sand.

Today’s post also has oystercatchers, in “reflective” mode.

Both of the relevant strands are on the northern edge of the Southern Ocean, according to most Australians.

read moreGrand sands (#13 in series: oystercatchers & wet sandy strands)
Comments closed

Grand sands (#12 in series: paradoxical sands)

Published December 23, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#12 in series: paradoxical sands)

 

By their very nature, sandy soils are “poor” – low in nutrients and unable to retain much moisture.

Yet in some places where rain often falls and the sun often shines – including some of Amazonia and parts of the world’s largest sand island – rainforest flourishes.

That island is Australian.  (Queensland’s Fraser Island/K’gari)

So too is this post’s sandy, “desert” location, which is circa 900 kilometres distant from any ocean’s shore.

Even an ignoramus would never mistake the Simpson Desert for rainforest, but s/he would almost certainly be hugely surprised to discover just how beautifully vegetated is so much of it. (as are a great many other sandy, “arid” Australian places)

read moreGrand sands (#12 in series: paradoxical sands)
Comments closed

Grand sands (#10: a glorious sandy shore, sans sea)

Published December 20, 2024 by Pelidoug

Grand sands (#10: a glorious sandy shore, sans sea)

 

 

“Rippled sand + moving water + rock” is one of my favourite natural “recipes”, especially when other humans and human-made structures are not part of the “mix”… or are only a tiny, discreet element.

“Remote” ocean beaches are not the only places that offer such delight.

The pictured location is much more than 1,000 kilometres straight-line-distant from any ocean shore – and there is absolutely no “straight line” (let alone “same-day”) transport route to one.

By definition, when a river flows through a valley that bears its name, that river’s bed is the lowest ground within the local landscape.

The pictured low spot – just a little upstream of where this river flows into one of the world’s most significant rivers – is more than 2,700 metres above sea level.

read moreGrand sands (#10: a glorious sandy shore, sans sea)
Comments closed