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Tag Archives: Handkerchief Beach

Ripples and subtleties

30 Wednesday Aug 2017

Posted by morselsandscraps in photos

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

haiku, Handkerchief Beach, Nangudga Beach, ocean art, ontheroad, ripples

I would like to make a haiku out of what touches my life, what my eyes see, ears hear, what my heart speaks to myself in a strong voice… I want to sketch things that left an impression in the depth of my soul.

from ”A Letter Written In Daybreak, 1922” – by Sugito Hisajo (1890~1946)

Suzanne quoted this in her “on the road” prompts: it’s presumptuous of me to think this post is in any way achieving what Sugito Hisajo hopes for, but the prompt was in my mind as I walked again along Handkerchief and Nangudga beaches.

On this beach walk, my eye is caught by subtle things. Water ripples and sand ripples and tiny leavings along the tideline: shell grit, seaweed, feathers, leaves. A landscape scribbled in dark and light sand. Things that are miniscule, indefinite, elusive, delicate, indistinct. Minimal things. 

Things that don’t require my mind to journey back 500 million years. 

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A beach and little things

21 Monday Aug 2017

Posted by morselsandscraps in beach walk, photos

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

flotsam, grass, Handkerchief Beach, Nangudga Beach, seaweed

Sunday morning is freezing. I cower in the living room as J thumps around the roof with the leaf blower. This weekend he spends a lot of time on the roof: on Friday I arrive just as he discovers the chimney has caught fire. At least in the chill (snow in the mountains), the fire is going safely again. Then we discover, after all this time, that our view of the progression of low tides is reality halved, and that coveted low tide doesn’t happen till 1pm. 

We set off at 9 anyway, and suddenly the world is warmer. We drive south and turn off the highway along a dirt road between a caravan park and a creek, and leave the car where the creek is in conflict with the outgoing tide in a swirl of rushing current.

The sea is blue and agitated, and the sun surpringly warm, although I still sport the innovative fashion of sunhat pulled down over beanie.


Today J takes the level high road in support of his leg and I walk the tideline. My pleasures are small ones and of the present. Geology takes a back seat in the face of expanses of sand, where seaweed settles, surprising colours and textures from the sea are showcased, and black and cream patterns emerge.







Along the dunes, sand collapses after high seas have made smooth shelves; trees tilt with a lifetime of wind; thick grass runs long distance, anchoring itself with runners and delicate shadows; and dead branches make a subtle pattern against vertical rock face. A lagoon glimmers dark with green reflections and then blue behind a barrier of trees, the same expanse of water you can see from the highway just past the high school.






I look at rocks and pebbles without geological speculation; explore the occasional track off behind the dunes; and try to see inside the greenish bubble-worlds the receding tide leaves behind.



Occasionally however geology does intrude. This is, I am assured, “unmistakable BIM.” Including chert.

J’s damaged leg has carried him the furthest he’s walked since the damage happened, and he discovers the comfort of barefoot walking on sand. We scrape off the sand, return to the car, buy a pair of custard tarts, and eat them looking out over Wagonga Inlet towards Gulaga. We end the weekend raking up leaves ready for a calm-day burn. It’s a long time since I’ve experienced the satisfaction of combing the surface covering of the earth into piles.

Beach assemblage: Handkerchief Beach

01 Wednesday Apr 2015

Posted by morselsandscraps in art, Eurobodalla beaches, photos

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Handkerchief Beach

Posted with BlogsyPosted with Blogsy

Eurobodalla beaches: Handkerchief Beach

29 Sunday Mar 2015

Posted by morselsandscraps in Eurobodalla beaches, Handkerchief Beach, photos

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Handkerchief Beach

If you head out from Potato Point, and drive down the coast highway between Sydney and Melbourne for about 20 km, you come to a turnoff onto a dirt road winding through the bush. You drive beside Nangudga Lake till you reach a car park and picnic area. If you cross the grass to the rippled sand, you can follow the lake, gleaming clear and crystomint green, to the rocks fanging at the outlet to the sea. Across the curling waves, Baranguba lies lounging and long on the horizon. Behind the beach the dunes are low and grassed and bushy.

I have a conversation with a fisherman, laconic as such conversations usually are.

Me: Any luck?

Him: One salmon.

Me: A good feed.

Him: Yum

A bit further along, I begin the same conversation with a woman on a deck chair, fishing rod between her knees.

Me: Any luck?

Her: I’m not really trying to catch anything. I’m just enjoying the sea and the sun. The rod’s just to please him. (indicating the salmon-catcher.)

I walk back down to the waterline and the hard sand. At the rocks, I encounter a conundrum. Where does a beach end? Usually the end is clearly marked by indubitable cliffage, and rocks that go under at high tide. At these rocks, the beach just seems to continue, but my beach bible (Beaches of Batemans Bay and the Eurobodalla Coast) calls the next stretch of sand to the north Nangudga Beach, which means I’ll need to return for another explore.

I head for the shade of the road, which is edged by casuarinas and banksias in yellow flower. Two sea eagles take off from a skeleton tree as I move towards them. When I return to the car, I find about twenty people picnicking in style, and two young Aboriginal men looking into the lake as if they had plans to catch something.

Posted with BlogsyPosted with Blogsy

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