A promise

I promised my third post on my latest visit to the Grampians would feature wildflowers.

On our third day I went for a very short walk (about 800 metres) to get a shot of this amazing formation which was once called "the Jaws of Death"
Now I would like to say more but I am out of time tonight so I will let the flowers speak for themselves. This is a sample of the dozens of species I saw along that short path.

Most of these are flowers I have never seen before. Oz flora is so diverse that you travel a few miles and you will find a very different plant community.
No idea what this one is
Or this one, I guess from the structure that it is an orchid.
There was a little patch of them growing in one boggy area.
I would guess from the flower structure that this is a Melaleuca species (but I could easily be wrong)
Some kind of native Iris (I think)
This is a tea-tree of some variety (a much larger flower than most)
I know these
Holly Grevillea opening
And fully open
and a whole bunch with a pea flower of some kind in the background.

Dozens more to come

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.