Birthday treats: nature's treats with local Field Nats and more
I started with a visit to the Currie Jetty. It's always interesting looking at a working Jetty. I chatted with a guy kitted up in scuba gear assuming that he was working and he was about to done a hard hat and go down for some serious maintenance work.
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| Currie Jetty |
He told me there's a couple of resident stingrays but I didn't manage to spot them from the jetty.
A quick visit to the visitor centre with a couple of specific questions didn't provide me with much information, but I was able to look at an out of print copy of walks of King Island to get more information about some of the other places I want to visit.
Then onto the kelp track which I'm being lazy and driving because I don't want to walk the 12 km or so return to the end of British Admiral Beach It's quite fascinating. The coast it's low but incredibly rugged and beautiful in a way that's very difficult to capture on camera.
There's lots of little bays that are quite sheltered, at least from today's weather, but I have no illusions about how rotten they would be in a high sea.
I am amused by the fact the track goes along the edge of the golf course and at times the greens are actually on the other side of the road, there was a sign warning one to watch out for golf balls! I was later told that golfers wait for no vehicle nor person to tee-off!
I stop at the site of the wreck of the Netherby which came to grief in 1866 but all 500 survived, and increase their numbers by one, as a baby girl was born in the time that it took the second mate, Mr. Parry to treck to Cape Wickham to seek assistance.
Behind the site of the Netherby wreck is another of King Island's higher-end short-term stay properties, with prices in the $6k-$7k range for a one-week stay for one person!
I proceed along to Netherby point, another little bay with a little beach and lots of kelp. There's a lot of kelp harvesting happens here.
My next spot was British Admiral Beach, the site of the wreck of the ship of that same name on her maiden voice voyage, with the loss of most of the 88 crew and passengers with only nine survivors. She broke up and sank within half an hour of hitting a reef.
A party of kangaroo hunters looked after the survivors and took on the task of burying the dead, excavating graves in the sand with their bare hands in the absence of any tools with which to do so.
While much of the wreck cargo was subsequently salvaged, one of the lighthouse keepers was known to have remote that he had no need to purchase tobacco for quite some time.
I walked along the beach which had once been sandy but storms had redesigned it. Fortunately, the kelp collecting trucks had made a track which had compressed the pebbles and made walking a little easier than it might otherwise have been.
A little way along the beach. I looked back and was somewhat horrified to see a grey four-wheel drive in the middle of the parking area and not where I had left it. I started to walk back thinking I must have not put the brake on but the car in question took off up the hill and I came to the conclusion that even if I'd not left the brake on my hire car would not done that on its own.
At the end of the beach, a commemorative gravestone had been erected by one young man's family.
I ate the first half of my lunch sitting, looking at a rock pool and overlooking the shallow pools beyond the gentle surf and the less than gentle rocks.
I walk back and stopped at the kelp processing plant a much larger enterprise than I had suspected it might be and enjoyed looking at their visitor centre, which explains their practises, processes and environmental considerations. It seems a useful enterprise using a resource that otherwise sat and rotted to the olefactory detriment of any living nearby. They harvest only washed up kelp, not the stuff that's still growing.
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| Drying the kelp - hung to air dry for a couple of weeks |
By then it was time to go to the bakery to pick up my pre-ordered lemon cakes for the afternoons activity.
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| Tall Sundew |
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| Miniature Sundew (these really are tiny!) |
I was meeting two of the King Island Field naturalists, Lizzie and Margaret who were to take me out Orchid (and other delights) hunting for the afternoon. What a more lovely treat for my birthday.
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| Caladenia latifolia, pink fingers |
Our first stop rewarded us with some lovely leafy green hoods, a very large species that I'd not seen before, and flowers of the pods I found yesterday.
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| Leafy Greenhood, Pterostylis cucullata - endangered |
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| Leafy Greenhood, Pterostylis cucullata - endangered |
My understanding of form was challenged, as the leaves of the pink fingers yesterday were elongate but pointed and probably no more than 3 cm long whereas the leaves are today were very strap-like and possibly up to 20 cm or more long. However, back on the road there were some of the Caledenia orchids with much smaller leaves and Margaret pointed out the variation was probably due to soil quality.
Our next stops yielded bearded orchids and twisted yellow sun orchids, along with a very tiny species of Caledinia, subsequently identified as Caladenia pusilla.
Further on I found some of the tiny pink bladderworts which are endangered, so that was pretty exciting,
and as we walked around looking for more orchids, we found assorted other interesting things, but also the green hood bearded orchids and buds of a blue Sun Orchid.
And all through the areas we were looking at were they miniature flag Iris which are rather beautiful.
All in all it was the most delightful excursion and Lizzie got most excited on the way back as she spotted a Latham's Snipe which apparently are quite rare on the island.
My offer to put petrol in Lizzie's car was refused and my request for an address to send a thank you gift was also declined until I explained my anticipated thank you gift would be ginger preserved, dark chocolate coated figs.
We got back to town just on 6 and I raced back to my accommodation for the quickest of showers and changes of clothes before presenting myself at the restaurant around about 6:30 p.m. for a delightful dinner of grilled snapper and roast potatoes with green beans and lemon butter. The restaurant had messaged me earlier to advise that kingfish was not available and would snapper be okay. I responded that it most certainly would.
I did comment at the restaurant that their decor was questionable, but she explained the kids of King Island have little to look forward to so they had set up for Halloween.
I declined the offer of a third glass of wine with my dinner on the grounds that avoiding the wallabies when driving back to my accommodation was quite a challenge at the best of times.
I arrived back in time for sunset colours, which was rather lovely.
A fruit platter for dessert and the third glass of wine without the need to drive, along with a chat with one of my friends from so long ago, made a delightful finish to a delightful day.
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