to walk the Heritage Trail

And so it was on  one fine summer morning that Kayla and I set out just after sunrise  to walk along the Heritage Trail to Dep’s Beach and beyond. The sun was popping  in and out of the  morning cloud cover, the coastal wind was still light, and the Nankeen  kestrels  were keeping us company.

swirling sea

We past the spot of  the swirling seas  and we made it  to the western  end  of Dep’s Beach without encountering any kangaroos,  runners, photographers or trail bike riders.

I had a photoshoot planned of  the rocks lying west of the beach–I envisioned a picture of the  granite rocks with soft morning light playing across their surface  with  a bit of cloud above them.  

It was all looking pretty good.

Then we came across  a dead  seal that had been washed up on the western end of beach,  just past   the little fresh water creek.  That was the end of my planned  photoshoot.    I had my hands busy trying to stop  Kayla from  tearing  chunks off the seal’s flesh,   after she finished dancing in circles  around the carcass.

intestines of dead seal

Whilst fighting with Kayla  I decided  to  take some photos of the carcass,  since  it was  possible that   the seal  wouldn’t  be lying on beach the  following morning.    I did not know whether there would be a high tide in the next 24 hours,   nor did I know what the early morning light would be like the next day.

I had left photographing dead sea birds before, planning to come back with film cameras, only to discover the high tides  had washed them back to the ocean. So I took advantage of the cloud cover to  photograph the carcass until the cloud cover broke up. That happened in  a matter of minutes.