WB To the Lookout
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Mon 30 May 2016 22:47
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To the Lookout at Whitehaven
Bay
  No sooner than we had picked up a
visitors buoy than we had little friends chirping and
trilling in welcome.
   After a game the time was right to
head ashore. The tide was almost fully out exposing
the reef. I was about to hop out when I heard I’ll pull you in in case of stonefish. OK, I’ll
sit quietly, my hero took me almost to the
sand.
  Ashore the wind
had blown the rocks smooth.
 A quick
pose.
  Up the
steps.
  Information
boards at the top and then a path to
follow.
    Growing one to two centimetres a year,
grass trees can live as long as six hundred
years.
        From the Lookout we had just the most
amazing views.
The boards here
said........
If this sand could
talk: For at least 80,000 years, the grains have been here. They could tell us
of ice ages, speak of dinosaurs and whisper stories of changing seasons. The
grains have witnessed the fall and rise of sea levels, and the drowning of
long-forgotten mountain ranges now known as the Whitsunday Islands.
Wind and waves shape this land: The
sand grains continue to be blown by the wind and polished by the waves that lap
at the dunes’ feet. The process that created these sands has long since ended,
but the grains’ journey continues. The currents tug at the grains, pulling them
northwards to the shallow banks and swales here at Hill Inlet. And once the sand
is gone, it will be gone forever.
Washed by waves: The sea’s currents
carried the grains about a hundred kilometres north, leaving them on nearby
Haslewood Island, which was once a coastal headland connected both to the
mainland and Whitsunday Island. Over time the sea level fell, stranding the sand
island, where wind-blown grains began to shift and form the dunes of Whitehaven
Bay.
Why is the sand so white ??? For
millennia these ancient grains have rested here. As tides turned and seasons
changed, the elements stripped impurities from the grains until only brilliant
white silica remained. But these grains haven’t always been here, their travels
began many moons ago.........
  The track back with some
interesting trees.
  Along the way we saw a
huge lady – a golden
silk orb-weaver.
 Believe it or not, this
cape is made from Madagascar Golden Orb
spider silk exhibited at London's Victoria and Albert
Museum.
  Stranglers and an interesting
egg sack.
 A
sea eagle overhead. What a fantastic
afternoon.
 Back to
Beez.
ALL IN ALL A REAL BRUSH WITH
NATURE
A VERY PRETTY
SETTING |