Thursday, March 3, 2011

Beautiful Scenery and a Blue Pirate

Tassie Day Six: Part II
After having our lives threatened by the little blue bully at the look-out above Pirate’s Bay we drove down to the coast on the bay.

Our target was this. Why am I showing you some ruined foreshore facility you ask?

Well despite the regular lines these blocks are entirely natural.They are part of a feature called (rather boringly) “the Tessellated Pavement”.

Looking at these amazingly straight level blocks it is hard to believe they are not artificial.

As you can see from above the pavement is quite extensive.While we were there the tide was coming in.And washed up onto the shore was this blue fellow.
This is known by Aussies as a “bluebottle”.
They are often called “Portuguese man o' war” overseas.
Maybe an appropriate thing to see in Pirate’s Bay

These are fairly common in Oz waters and are responsible for thousands of stings each year.
I’ve never been stung myself, but Poor Deb was stung by one on the chest when she was 16 and says it was so painful she thought she was dying.

From Pirate’s bay we drove south into the Tasman Penninsula.We stopped at a number of places just to admire the scenery such as these sea cliffs.Then “Tasman’s Arch” We went for a short walk there where I photographed this Melaleuca flower It is very similar to the one I posted a few days ago. The last one was taken at Sydney thousands of kilometres away.

And one of the many plants colloquially known as “Teatree” this one is a species of Leptospermum. As an aside the Teatree that is used to make “tea-tree” oil is actually a species of Melaleuca.

10 comments:

Hannah said...

ooh, I could stare at a bluebottle all day! Amazing pictures!

Hart Johnson said...

What GORGEOUS scenery! I've been places in the US with similar 'paving'--I think it is temperature/airpressure etc. when lava is cooling, but I might be making that up.

So the blue bottle is a form of jellyfish? It's GORGEOUS, but yeah... jellyfish--ACK!

Old Kitty said...

Nature is a truly sublime builder!!!! Look at those straight lines and perfect looking "bricks"!!! And better still only Nature can create something that blue and painful!! LOL!!!

Wonderful, wonderful shots!!!

Take care
x

LTM said...

GORGEOUS photos! And yes, those man o'war guys can be horrific! I've never been stung, but I've heard tales... Around here we just have the regular ole jellies. But I've heard occasionally we'll get one of those guys.

Love that tea tree~ :o)

Kristen M. said...

I lived in Hawaii when I was young and was stung quite a few times by jellyfish but luckily never a Portuguese man o' war. I was scared to death of those! The "regular" ones hurt quite enough.

I have seen photos of the Tessellated Pavement before -- quite amazing. I would love a chance to see that at some point. And I'm always a fan of cliffs. There's an infinite variety of them and they are always beautiful.

Anonymous said...

aww your bluebottles are prettier than ours! :o) Great reviews for Veiled in Shadows! Well done you :o))

MTeacress said...

Hi Al, I left you an award on my blog today. :)

Lisa said...

That Tessellated Pavement is amazing--how in the world has it happened that the water has not worn down and rounded the edges? I don't think that I've ever seen a Portuguese Man of War before. They really are beautiful

Al said...

Hi Hannah,
They are quite amazing to look at. But not really something you want to tangle with.

Hi Hart,
It is a beautiful part of the world.
I think you are partly right similar structures are formed in cooling lava. Apparently these are a bit different and form in sedimentary rock.
Strictly bluebottles are a “siphonophore”. Gee that is a big word! So they are similar to a jellyfish but not the same.

Hi Jennifer,
Nature is pretty amazing. Blue they are and painful.
Thank you!

Hi Leigh,
I’ve had other jelly stings, they were not too bad
Yes they do occur in the Atlantic, just not as common as in the Pacific.
The tea tree flowers are gorgeous aren’t they?

Hi Kristen,
I imagine they are fairly common in Hawaii. You were lucky to avoid them!
I’ve had regular stings jellyfish stings too, none of the dangerous ones fortunately. A lot of FNQ waters are too dangerous to swim in summer because of irukandji and box jellyfish. Luckily they don’t come too far south.
The whole area is beautiful, Tassie is a bewitching place.

Hi Niki,
Are they? That figures everything is better in Oz :-)
Thank you! I was really happy with all the reviews people have done.

Hi Michelle,
Thank you!

Hi Lisa,
The water uncovers the pavement and then grinds it away. Along the seaward side you can see where the blocks are worn down and broken up.
They are quite pretty aren’t they? Nasty in a way but definitely pretty.

Myrna Foster said...

You take such gorgeous pictures. They call the blue jellyfish "aguas malas" in Mexico. It translates to roughly to "bad water." They're beautiful, but you sure don't want to touch one.