Down By the Sea?!?!

When you go the the seaside you expect to find beaches with lots sand and waves along with all the wonderful sounds and smells of the coast.

However the seaside village where my parents-in-love live is also home to a rainforest. Not a jungle type of tropical rainforest but a seaside rainforest, a LITTORAL RAINFOREST, one by the sea.

This is one of the last remaining littoral rain forests in the Southern Hemisphere and it is world heritage listed.

I grew up in the foothills of large mountains and thick rainforest, very different to this rainforest. It seems rather strange to go on a rainforest walk while hearing the waves crashing nearby. Quite a delightful experience.

Not far from here you leave the rainforest and find yourself at the beach.

About half way along this 2.5km walk something special happened. This photo holds a clue but you'll have to wait for part two......

Not Alone

You could be forgiven for looking at my previous post and thinking we had the beach all to ourselves. However, this was not the case. Being a tourist spot on a long weekend, it was relatively busy for this quiet fishing village. Here you can see at least five 4 wheel drives.

Turning in the other direction you can see the sister village across the river which is far more developed.

It looks close but there is no direct bridge. A half hour ferry ride or a 40 minute road trip is required to cross over.

As we were leaving on dusk, the first of many local fishing trawlers was heading out for a long night's work.

Perched on Miss N's hand is my favourite "not alone" evidence of the afternoon....

Not alone.

Mr Sandman

Late yesterday we headed to Main Beach and before we had finished crossing the sand dunes a new sight met our eyes, an "inland lake" left behind from the high tide the previous night.

Children and water seem to be drawn to each other, especially safe and fun water like this!

Miss G had a plan in mind while others had some crazy island sandcastles dreams.

Some hair for the finishing touches to Mr Sandman.

Twin sister had some helping ideas of her own, however Humpty Dumpty must have been Mr Sandman's other names and soon he was no more......

A very pleasant way to end a warm autumn day.

We are now safely home and enjoying our usual internet access, I love feeling connected again.
:)

Sharing at This or That Thursday, SkyWatch Friday.

Seeing Red

We are enjoying a wonderful Easter weekend staying with my parents-in-love who live in a nearby coastal village. The weather has been prefect (so far). Tonight their extremely slow and unreliable internet is a little faster so I'll attempt to share some of my favourite photos from today.....

                                                                                                                                             Available for purchase here

Beautiful bold reds, all the more stunning amongst greens and deep blues.


Sharing at I Heart Macro, Macro Monday, And Then She Snapped.

Learning to Drive

Along our front path a lonely oxalis plant is providing another lesson in beauty. Having only thought of these plants as weeds I had never really looked closely, until this week. Both photos above were taken with my Lumix compact zoom camera using the Raynox macro conversion lens attached.

Monday afternoon my first DSLR arrived, a Canon 600D/EOS KissX5/Rebel T3i  Twin Lens Kit (a heavily discounted "group deal" from ebay). I've pinched the SD card from the Lumix for now and am learning how to "drive" my new camera. The two photos above were taken with the DSLR, using the Raynox macro conversion lens  this morning.
The Lumix performs wonderfully for macro shots.

The rest of the photos below are with the new camera also.

A little Prince-in-waiting rescued by the children as they were gardening - doesn't he look grateful, maybe he's pleading for that kiss!

The last photo is SOOC. I doubt I would have been able to capture this so well with the Lumix. I love my Lumix and it will remain my choice for long walks and often for macro. However the DSLR has already endeared itself to me and I'm sure will continue to do so as I learn more about using it.