the summer-holidays are over

The early mornings along the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula  over the summer-holidays were  often  quite colourful.  It’s was very picturesque and uplifting. An example of an early morning at Petrel Cove  during  the recent heat wave over  the  Australia Day weekend:

early morning , Petrel Cove

During the short periods of  the   summer’s heatwaves   we would start to   walk the poodles before sunrise in order to avoid the intensity of the heat. Then we would spend the rest of the  day inside an air-conditioned  house powered by our solar panels.    The heat didn’t stop people from spending the best part of Australia  Day  on the beach at Petrel Cove. They came well equipped with   their tents, beach umbrellas,  body boards  and portable barbecues.

Australia Day, Petrel Cove

Petrel Cove looks charming,  but it does have a darker side due to its two  rips.  Thankfully,  there were no drownings from the rips at Petrel Cove  this year. There is usually one a year–people are caught in one of the rips, knocked unconscious when they are dashed onto  the rocks,  and  their bodies are swept  out to sea.

Once the  Australia Day weekend was over,  the summer holiday crowds disappeared;  along with  the fun fair,  the boats,  hikers and the walkers on the Heritage Trail.  The schools holidays were over, the circus had long gone ,  and we were back to having the rocky coast west of Rosetta Head  to ourselves in the morning and the evening.

granite, sand, grass

During the heatwave I would be  on Dep’s Beach when the sun rose , where I would witness the first rays of  gentle light  gently  slowly highlight the granite, sand and grasses at the northern end  of the beach. This is a good time to do the photography for either the Littoral Zone project or the abstraction one. 

salt pond, Petrel Cove

The weather changed  dramatically after the Australia Day weekend heatwave.     A cold front came in from the south west and  the  overcast skies, big waves  and  gusty 50 km/hr winds   stayed  around for most of the last week in January.

These kind of  conditions  make the daily routines associated with  seascape type photography  more difficult.