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.

Southern Ocean ~ SkyWatch *9

The Younghusband Peninsula, a narrow strip
of land about 90 miles long, embraces behind
it's dunes the Coorong, a tidal lagoon fed by the
Murray-Darling rivers. This is Australia's most
important river system, unfortunately due to
the sale of water rights not only for traditional
farming pursuits, but also multi-national
corporations to grow export commodities such as rice,
cotton, wine-grapes, hay and oil crops in arid, almost
desert lands, its flow has been drastically reduced.
Water from the Murray river is also pumped to
South Australia's capital Adelaide as well as
distributed around the state by pipelines up to at
least 250 miles away. In consequence, the major
lakes near the Murray's mouth, Alexandrina and
Albert, are now but mud puddles, the associated
wetlands dry, and the Murray has nothing left to
feed the Coorong nor the strength to reach the sea.



Seeking solace for the soul by the sea, the roar
of the Southern Ocean looking towards Antarctica
and waiting for the sun to set.



A treacherous beach not recommended for
swimming but great to cool your toes.
Looking east at high tide.



The sinking sun casts shadows on the sea



and memories of dawn towards the east



then nestles in it's feather bed of foam with
one more glow upon the sand.


To enjoy the skies around the world, klick on
SkyWatch Logo on the right.