Saturday, May 19, 2012

TODAY'S FLOWERS - Near Salt Water


The diversity, colour and beauty of nature in the face of salt 
spray, never ceases to amaze me.


Like a garden of Eden, growing on dune sand and limestone
rock and often in the stench of bad egg gas, Hydrogen Sulphide,
as in this instance where I fled back into the car.

I high tailed it out of there at the top of the speed limit until we
hit some clean air a good quarter of an hour later . . . thank God 
we had not had lunch or the situation could have got really ugly.


Below you can see the Coorong, and just pick out the 
Younghusband Peninsula on the far side. The Coorong was 
badly degraded a couple of years ago during a prolonged 
drought, when Australia's largest river did not make it to the sea.

The mouth silted up and in consequence, neither fresh nor salt
water could replenish this 100 mile long lagoon that is one of
Australia's premier wetlands.


24 comments:

  1. wow, it is beautiful! but the sulphur stench would have done me in, too! thanks for the laugh!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Arija..Beautiful place,and the colors of the flowers are gorgeous but I guess the smell of the place isn't so beautiful huh...LOL..!!Poor you!!
    Grace
    PS...glad you got a good laugh from my Raccoon post.. ; } Thanks!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. They are simply amazing shots. Thank you.
    After that drought, I do not ever complain when it rains. Someone told me once that you can keep plants alive by watering them, but to get them to grow you need rain. And certainly rain operates like magic here.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The colors in your photos seem infused with light. I've seen cliff sides and dunes in western US where somehow vegetation survives on mists from the sea.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Amazingly colorful plants to grow in such a harsh environment. I'd run from the smell too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hidden treasure! Beautiful splash of color by the sea. Oh goodness, I cannot imagine the strength of that stench that it followed you for so long after you drove away. Yikes! Thank you for sharing these wonderful flowers with us sans smell.

    xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  7. The diversity of fauna, flora, and geography of Australia always astounds and fascinates me. Such lovely flowers in such a huge lagoon with such a harsh condition!

    Thanks for your revisit. Regarding the grandmother photo on my post, I’m next to the woman wearing white jacket. It was 12 years ago.

    Yoko

    ReplyDelete
  8. Beauty by the sea in such soft muted colours. ....what hardy
    Little gems to be able to survive in these salty conditions.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh I had a chuckle at you rushing away from the smell, Arija! I hope you're having a better day today! Blessings and hugs Jo

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi there - lets hope the recent more "normal" rains can do some good - but there's a hell of a lot of damage to repair.

    Your last comment on my blog hit the nail on the head.

    Stewart M - Melbourne

    ReplyDelete
  11. The smell you describe sounds nasty,yet the scenes are so beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  12. The colors could't be nicer. Lovely photos.

    ReplyDelete
  13. How marvelous of you to stay out there is that awful smell to get such beautiful pictures.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Wow...such a beautiful scenery! Amazing colours!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yes Arija, what's with that smell! I remember a caravan park interstate -almost deserted, close to the shore, similar salt-bush environment, a few weird- looking people staring at us drive past while they gutted fish - it looked like something out of Deliverence and that strong smell!!
    Daughter, ten at the time, said "let's get OUT of here" and we high-tailed it as quick as you did. Peeee-ooooo.
    The Coorong however is beautiful, particularly now.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Interesting that it by salt water.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Nature is amazing! I love that coral colour, whatever it may be!
    As for the smell - I came to Ottawa when there was still a pulp mill across the river, and there were days when it smelled pretty bad! And this is the nation's capital!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Those are very beautiful flowers and I agree about the diversity near saltwater. It amazes me too.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Beautiful flowers! Hopefully the Coorong will be able to fully recover from the drought. Loss of wetlands is a serious problem all over the world.

    ReplyDelete
  20. One day, I will pack a back pack and go and see all the wild flowers of Oz. My son is old enough so I don't have to stick to Dream world.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Amazing wild flowers and view...

    ReplyDelete
  22. Oh such poetic and lovely views! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  23. That is an interesting bit of natural (or unnatural, I guess) history! Yes, that smell would have driven me into the car and out of there but quick! But isn't it wonderful how the plants survive.

    ReplyDelete

Blog Widget by LinkWithin