One of my memories of the early morning walks that I used to do in the last months of Ari’s life in 2017 was one where I ‘d walk with him along Jetty Rd. On these occasions Suzanne would take Kayla and Maleko up and over Rosetta Head, and I would walk with Ari down to the beach, then along Jetty Rd, which runs around the foot of Rosetta Head.
Jetty Rd runs from Whalers Convention Centre to the little jetty at the northern side of Rosetta Head, and as it is easy walking, it was suitable for Ari. The jetty is a favourite of the recreational fishermen and we’d alway meet someone fishing from the jetty early in the morning.
It was a slow walk to and from the jetty, and Ari and I would often hang around an old palm tree and cactus on our way back. I would take a few photos with the little Olympus XZ-1 that we had purchased for Suzanne to use on her various walks.
However, Suzanne preferred to use her iPhone 6 on her various walks, so I started using the little Olympus for close ups in low light situations. Looking at the archives I wish that I had used the Olympus more regularly for this kind of photography, given the the Leica M 35mm rangefinder lens on the Sony NEX-7 is terrible at close focus.
Another walk that I remember was one with Ari along the Encounter Bay beach in the early morning. The slow pace would allow me to photograph the seaweed lying on the beach or in the water.
This beach walk was an easy walk on a flat surface, and we usually were walking along the beach around sunrise. This allowed me to photograph the seaweed in the first rays of sunlight before the light became too bright and contrasty.
It was only very rarely that we would see a dead fish lying on the Encounter Bay beach:
There is a reef at Encounter Bay and so it was infrequent that dead birds or fish were washed up on the beach. It mostly seaweed, and even that was infrequent. It was mostly seagrass lying on the foreshore.