We are savoring another beautiful autumn afternoon as we prepare for our first ever trip in Australia outside of the state of Victoria. The resort town of Port Douglas in FNQ (Far North Queensland) is our destination for this adventure, and excitement is running high as we plan to visit both the Daintree Forest and the Great Barrier Reef. In the meantime I will leave you with pictures from our excursion over the past weekend to the town of Frankston, located about an hours' drive south of Melbourne. Our faithful friends the Kellers invited us to share in what has become an annual tradition for them, a visit to the Frankston sand sculptures.
We had a laugh over this one: it expresses perfectly how we feel about Vegemite!
The best part, hands down, for the kids, was the opportunity to play in the special "brickies' foam" and attempt a sculpture of their own. The sculpting sand differs from beach sand in its shape: It is square, rather than round, and therefore packs together better.
The wetter-than-normal weather conditions this past summer meant that the sand sculptures never hardened properly, creating a challenge for the resident sculptor in charge of maintaining them. We saw several in various states of disrepair.
The sculptures duly admired, we opted to take advantage of the sun to enjoy the Frankston beach. A walk out on the pier allowed us to admire the sailboats on the water in one direction, and then turn around, as Kent pointed out, and take in thirty million dollars of real estate in another.
We finished up the afternoon with a short nature lesson, thanks to Crystal, watching both the Rainbow Lorikeet and the Little Wattlebird feast on the flowers of one of the many species of the Banksia plant, named after the famous English botanist Sir Joseph Banks. The Banksia is a heavy producer of nectar, and is best known for its elongated flower spike, each of which contains hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of flowers.
The Lorikeets seemed especially brilliant on this autumn afternoon, and provided a most pleasant finish to the day's outing.
Love the sand sculptures! What talent the people have that make them! I can't even make a sandcastle.lol
Have a wonderful and safe trip. I can't wait to see your upcoming posts.
Posted by: Nikki | 04/24/2011 at 12:46 AM
Those sand sculptures are amazing!!!
Posted by: Shanda | 04/28/2011 at 11:16 PM
Extra cool (very and really were not enough) sand art. Especially the pile of frogs!
If I were there for a lifetime, I would still never get tired of watching the Lorikeets. The Cardinal and Blue Jay hold my fascination here on this side of the globe, and the Lorikeet is like those two multipled (OK so 1x1 is still 1, but you get the idea) :) They are as a child's coloring page with their bright stripes of color.
Posted by: Suzanne Pannelle | 05/07/2011 at 01:44 AM