Once we came down from the lighthouse, we made our way back to the beach below.  Locals were heading in to the rocky outcrop at the end and were clearly bringing up shellfish, probably paua.  The beach was mainly a variety of large or small rocks, but hiding amongst the larger parts were a few other natives.  (Just a word of caution, this is going to be a seally gratuitous photoblog today.)

He would have been about 20 metres away, give or take.  There was at least one more a bit further down the beach, but I couldn’t get a good photograph of him as he was partly hiding on the seaward side of a rocky outcrop, and I wasn’t game enough to get any closer than I did.

After Miss Oh and I walked down the beach away from the rocky area, and she had some time to get her feet wet in the sea, we headed back to the rocks where Mr and Master Oh had been fossicking in the rockpools.  We decided to head back along the road to a nice, photogenic outcrop of rocks and let me have a bit of a fiddle with the new camera.  The bonus being yet more natives.

The Outcrop:

The Local’s Bathing & Snoozing Spot:

A Native:

He was across a water gap and the photo was taken with my longer lens, but he would also have not been more than 20 metres away.
As it turned out, you had to be very careful of this bathing spot.  Just where it was easiest to get down on to it there was a nice little rock “cave” inside which yet another local was avoiding the sun and trying to take a nap.  Gave me the fright of my life when he raised his head and took a good look at me.  Anyway, he just looked (all of a few metres away from me) and I duly scampered back a few metres and let him settle back down.

After taking some more photographs of my little outcrop and the seaweed, I turned to snap one more of the sleepy friend above when I heard something that was slightly cough-like.  I was on the outcrop on my own, so it wasn’t any of the Oh Wailys.  I turned around and just about broke the sound barrier with the speed at which I launched myself up the rocks leading to the road.  Unbeknownst to me, while my back was turned, another native who had been frolicking in the water decided that the flat sunbathing spot was where he wanted to be.

Again, he would have been less than 20 metres away when this was taken, and a darn sight nearer before I realised he was there.   In hindsight, I needn’t have worried, he showed absolutely no interest in me at all.  But isn’t he wonderfully shiny?

So Cape Palliser was a very nice drive from town, and had the added advantage of the lighthouse at the end and the seals just below.  A very nice day trip.  Next time I head out here I plan to have a trek to the Dimholt Road, but that will need to be child free as our recce visit showed me that it is just a little too far and a little too steep and a little too rocky for little legs.

And to finish off our trip home, we had to stop in Ngawi and take some photographs of the grader/tractor fleet – and I mean fleet.

This barely scratches the surface, there were loads of them, absolutely loads !!  And some of them were very humorous, eh, Tinky-Winky?

So if you’re in the neighbourhood and you want a fairly pleasant drive with a beautiful bay to take plenty of photographs of, a lighthouse to climb to and some native animals to admire, then you could do very well to take a trip out here.

Have you been on a Field Trip lately?  Let me know, I’d love to visit.