Sculpture by the Sea

Already rather stunning, my morning run has been elevated somewhat this week, firstly by the sighting of wales and also by the installation of Sculpture by the Sea which opens on Thursday. Each day, I've watched the artists and dig little coffin squares of turf, and lovingly begin to place their pieces, either by hand, or by crane as I saw this morning.

There are still many half installed, which I didn't photograph, but it was lovely to meet some of the artists, watching their works come to fruition.

I think the concept is such a good one which could be adapted for many locations, including the not so glamorous.

Royal National Park

Another jolly Sunday out on the motorbike. This time down to the Royal National Park, just south of the city. This park is so big it goes for miles and we barely scratched the surface. We ended up in a little beach town called Bundeena which, as the crow flies, is not that far from the city across the water. We joined an art walk along the coast and stumbled across a herd of deer, which I realise is unusual for Australia. The park was apparently run by a trust who released the captive deet in the late 1800's and they are now running riot, eating their way through fauna and rubbish bins.

The journey back was interesting as torrential rain made us stop many times for cups of tea, but we ended up back, soaked to the skin for the second time in a week.

Looking down, 2 hours into our flight from Sydney to Perth, I said, "ooh look! We've reached the coast!" It turned out to be South Australia and the Great Bight to be precise - that great big chunk out of the bottom of the country, which is presumably how it got its hame. We still had 2 hours, and more land, to go.

We had a week of M's family, visiting them first in Busseltown, about 2 hours south of Perth, then down for more at Margaret River, and then up to the city. I was on best behaviour and hopefully, gained his mother's approval. We did however, have a few hours to ourselves at Margaret River, where his brother lives, and spent the morning at Gnarabar Beach.

Now I'm a bit of a beach connoisseur. Far too much time in my life has been spent lounging, walking or sitting on beaches. So I feel confident saying that this was one of the best. Perfect silver and green colours, sea refreshing and clear and the perfect breakfast at the White Elephant cafe of poached eggs on pan fried polenta. Yum!