afternoon walks

We–Suzanne, Maleko, Kayla and I — did some walks together  between,  and just after,   the Xmas-New Year period. We wanted   to avoid the Xmas crowds gathering around the coastal beaches,  and I had used google maps to  look for possible ways  for us to walk along Hindmarsh River.  Most of them  turned out to be duds. There were just no walking trails. It was mostly all private property.

One of the afternoon walks that we  did early in the new year (2018) was  one  along the  trail of  the Hindmarsh River,  which  ran adjacent to the old McCracken residential development.

Hindmarsh River trail

It had been years since we walked along the upper  section of the Hindmarsh River Walk . On the day we walked the river was  low,  with  little in the way of a flow, and we noticed that  there had been some planting on the old flood plain,  which was now a park with a playground.     Continue reading “afternoon walks”

memories

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.

cactus leaves, Jetty Rd,

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.  Continue reading “memories”

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.   Continue reading “to walk the Heritage Trail”

Summer has arrived

Summer is here on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast in South Australia.

The  weather  has now settled into its normal summer pattern of  clear,  bright light; sunshine;   blue skies; and warm to hot temperatures.  Kayla and I  start  our walk  along the coastal rocks  early  in the morning in order to avoid the heat of the early morning sun.

We usually start  just after  sunrise:

Dep’s Beach landscape

On our  afternoon  walks Maleko and I  struggle with  the heat,   as the sun is still quite high  at 6pm,  and  there is little by way of open shade amongst the coastal rocks.   We   welcome the cool breeze that keeps the temperatures down and dread the hot, north-westerly wind.  Continue reading “Summer has arrived”

clouds

The very changeable, early  summer  weather that we have been experiencing at Encounter Bay in South Australia,   has meant that there  has  been some good clouds along the coast.  We have had hot  days, cold days, sunshine, rain, lots of gusty wind from the south-west, calm days and striking  cloud formations:

storm clouds, Petrel Cove

We have been walking along the coast, rather than the Bluff, and we’ve  often we’ve been caught in the wet weather  whilst walking in the morning and the evening,  and I have had to find whatever shelter amongst the rocks that I could until the quickly moving squall  had passed.  Continue reading “clouds”

wet weather

Cold, wet weather  that came in from the south-west replaced the few days of hot weather after my Sonex  flight along the coast of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula earlier in the week.   The temperature is  now roughly half of what it was  during that hot spell.

Suzanne and I got very wet on a couple of occasions on our walks  — we were caught in the fast moving rain  that swept in from the southern ocean whilst  out walking with the poodles.

granite, quartz, sea

There is little shelter along  the coast west of Petrel Cove.  On an afternoon walk  Maleko and I had  little choice but to continue  walking and  to get wet in the process.  At least it was not as cold as it would have been  in winter. Continue reading “wet weather”

Aerial: The coast from above

I had the great fortune to  experiment with  some aerial photography yesterday. I was given the opportunity   to  fly along part of the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coastline,   courtesy of  Chris Dearden  in his yellow, homebuilt    Sonex aircraft– a Xenos motorglider.

It was the first time  that I’d  had the opportunity  to  experiment with  aerial photography and flying in a recreational aircraft was a blast.

Rosetta Head

We took off from Goolwa airport and  flew along the coast from the Murray Mouth near Goolwa  to Newland Heads in Waitpinga, then back again.  The above image  is a picture of Rosetta Head, Petrel Cove and Dep’s Beach, which is  where  we  do a lot of  our coastal poodlewalks.  Continue reading “Aerial: The coast from above”

on The Bluff

Whilst Suzanne was away walking the Wilderness Trail on Kangaroo Island with her walking friends, I looked after, and walked, the two standard poodles twice a day.  That’s the daily  routine with hunting dogs.

Maleko + Kayla

These portraits of Maleko and Kayla was made whilst we were on an early morning walk up, over and down Rosetta Head  (or The Bluff). Ari had  just died a few days earlier, before Suzanne  went walking on  Kangaroo Island.

We were hanging about on the top of The Bluff having a bit of fun as it had been the first time I’d walked up Rosetta Head in the early morning for ages

Continue reading “on The Bluff”

upgrading poodlewalks

I have decided to upgrade the poodlewalks blog from the free WordPress blog platform that I have been using for so long to more of a website platform with its own blog and galleries. The galleries will bring the offshoots or spinoffs from poodlewalks that are currently on various standalone Posthaven blogs–abstractions, the trees series, and the Littoral Zone. The blog will continue the traditional poodlewalks format with the website titled known as poodlewalks.

flowers, memorial

My reason is that a lot of my daily photography —outside specific projects like Mallee Routes—centres around poodlewalks. I am walking twice a day –in the morning and afternoon–with each of the walks around an hour’s duration. If the light is right, then the walks are 1.5-2 hours in duration. Often I go back and reshoot for the Fleurieuscape book and portfolio. The new format will bring all the work around poodlewalks together.

Continue reading “upgrading poodlewalks”

Spring time: explorations

During the recent couple of days of warm, sub tropical Spring weather on the southern Fleurieu Peninsula coast I was able to go on longer, coastal poodlewalks with Kayla and Maleko as well as scoping in the various cthat I would usually walk past, and photographing in my makeshift open air studio.

One of these longer walks was a return to exploring around the mouth of the Inmam River near Kent Reserve with Kayla to re-connect with the Fleurieuscapes project that I am working on.

Inman River, Victor Harbor

I was interested in scoping a way to photograph the site of the Ramindejeri’s burial ground in the sand dunes near the Inman River’s mouth. The SA Museum states that the Ramindejeri were a local group of the Ngarrindjeri but the public information the Museum has is pretty minimal

Continue reading “Spring time: explorations”