Climbing the Currie Lighthouse and other daytime delights

The weather can best be described as cold, wild and woolly with intermittent sun. I am later told this is average King Island weather.

After last night's rather enjoyable movie (Judy Dench in Victoria and Abdul) and a short-ish time in the spa, the wind kept me awake for quite some time, until I excavated earplugs from my toilet bag.

BOM says the strongest wind gust in the night was 57km/hr at the airport.  The airport must be more sheltered than here.

The wind and white caps seemed to have eased a little by the time I was ready to go out around 10:00 a.m. and I headed north through very green, very low, gently rolling hills, reminiscent of ancient sand dunes.

Low rolling hills reminiscent of ancient sand dunes

I do, of course, observe that very important King Island road rule and wave to everyone I pass. Nothing energetic like full arm movement or even vigorous hand movement. A simple inflection of a finger or two, barely raised from the steering wheel, is what seems to be expected. 

The dominant native vegetation that remains seems to be tea tree and it's in full flower, which is rather attractive.

With fairly low expectations regarding conditions, I headed down to Quarantine Bay and, to my delight, found quite a bit of shelter from the wind, some sunshine and a flat sea. So seizing the day I donned my snorkeling gear and headed into the water. 

Quarantine Bay

There was lots of very pretty weed and a little bit of sea grass. I only saw one fish, a wrasse, as it darted away from me. There were lots of the small colourful eight-armed sea stars and I saw one absolutely gorgeous bigger long-armed sea star with bright blue dots, a variety I've not seen before. I saw a single yellow Christmas tree worm which was rather exciting, and I'm pretty sure a long way from home. I wish I'd had my camera with me. There were heaps of turban shell and I could easily have collected enough for a meal of those had I felt so inclined but a couple of abalone of legal size presented themselves and came out of the water with me. 

On my way back to the shore, I spotted quite a large piece of broken pottery but it was semi-lodged under a rock and with my hands full I felt disinclined to duck dive to look closer at it. I speculate it may be from the wreck of the Shannon but I have no idea.

They came out of the water with me

I headed north along Yellow Rock Beach for some beachcombing and found a few interesting treasures, saw far too much trash for comfort and did my best not to stay too long in the vicinity at the small, long-dead seal. 

Yellow Rock Beach, looking south towards Whistler Point

I stopped for lunch and checked for the exact whereabouts of the wreck of the Shannon and came to the conclusion that walking to it from where I was could take me well into the evening at the pace that I like to walk on beaches, so I return to the car and explored the rest of Quarantine Bay. I contemplated also exploring nearby Whistler Point but while Google maps showed roads, I didn't think a hint of wheels having traversed grass constituted a road for the purpose of my hire car agreement.

Looking north across Quarantine Bay and Yellow Rock Beach

So I drove around in a bit of a loop to where the car park for approaching the wreck of the Shannon was. Once on the beach and across the river I aimed to walk briskly to the wreck. Not because I was anxious to see the wreck, but because I was anxious to get back across the river mouth before the tide rose further and necessitated either wet feet or removing my boots and socks to cross.

Assorted beach treasures

However, some interesting shells managed to distract me somewhat, including some nice little cowrie shells. And some tiny shorebirds, one of the plover species but I'm not sure which,  entertained me also.

Some of our lovely shorebirds:  tiny ?? plovers

A bit of rusting metal with all the remains of the wreck of the Shannon, once the queen of boats on the Murray.

Once the pride of the fleet on the Murray

I returned to my Airbnb and a clearing sky, despite the continuing wind and white caps, promises quite a pleasant evening for my next activity. 

Snorkeling gear was sorted, rinsed and hung to dry and abalone were put on for slow cooking and some quick ablutions and a change of clothes had meat ready for the evening.

I presented myself at the lighthouse around 7:00 and met Ian who was to be my host for, technically the next 45 minutes but it turned turned out to be for considerably longer than that.

From the top of the lighthouse

From the top of the lighthouse

We started in what was the old lighthouse keepers store room and I learnt some of the history of the development of the lighthouses on King Island and the sophistication and complexities of the optics of the actual lights. Also the history of the associated buildings and the people responsible for the lights, the Currie lighthouse was constructed, along with its associated buildings, well before the township was.

From the top of the lighthouse

From the top of the lighthouse

We then proceeded to climb the lighthouse all 90+ steps. At various points we stopped for information about the lighthouse about the people about the shipwrecks that prompted the construction of the lighthouses, shipwrecks that set World records for the number of deaths and shipwrecks that were remarkable in the number of people saved. And one shipwreck that reminded me very strongly of the movie Whisky Galore. Despite the guard on the cargo 70 cases of whisky evaporated overnight. 

Well there was too much cloud right on the horizon for a good sunset. I did get some nice pre sunset colours in photos.

Sunset colours from the top of the Currie lighthouse

After examining the light and its optics and operation, Ian blocked off the automatic light sensor to trigger commencement of action of the light. Rather fascinating to watch until its brightness just got too much for my eyes even looking out the window.