A Final Goodbye to the West Coast

So we were leaving Tumby Bay and decided to have one last fling on the west coast. A quick dash across the Braten Way would get us across to the cliffs near Mt Hope to hopefully have another look at the Eastern Osprey.

The first part of the trip was in glorious light, up into the hills, with the canola fields looking magnificent. The editor, however has banned canola photography for a while. Past Cummins it started to drizzle, but only along the road, it was clear and sunny either side of us but a strip of about 2-4Km  running east-west along the highway was under dark clouds. The rain even got to Melbourne rain levels for a bit. We were the rain gods. The clouds loved us and were watering us.

Once we reached the coast and started driving north a little we got out from under the worst of it but it was still overcast. The Osprey though were still at home. The female was looking for food whilst the male sat on the nest. These are in B&W as the grey sky made it hard to do colour photos justice.

This time Mum did not find any food, but she did manage to spook the seagulls and keep them at bay.

Eventually she needed a rest.

Then back out to look for food again.

No luck. She came home with talons empty.

The odd visitor had a look .

And eventually dad got up and had a go.

Dad needed to use the facilities.

The seagulls were really pesky.

So they both settled in to watch the clutch of three eggs. They are clearly visible in the last shot.

We were there for about an hour and I took about 1,000 photos. I could easily have stayed all day, even though the cliffs got really scary when the osprey were above me and a gust of wind blew. I just felt like I was falling.

We drove back...initially through west coast vistas....salt lake and distant hill behind the grain fields. We stopped off at Cummins which is a lovely little town. Some of the East Coast towns need to have a look at how it is done. The only downer for Cummins is the B&B named Passing Wind. We felt they were either catering to a market very much like ours, or had not thought through the name.



....... and then through lovely rolling canola crops......the ban is still on......and on to Arno Bay where the weather is fine but the wind is not merely passing.....

We are thinking a slack day by the water, a cultural immersion of a SA pub on grand final day before our two day drive home.