Head of Bight

Between Tasmania and mainland Australia is the Bass Strait. Just to the west of this is a region called the Great Australian Bight. You can tell on map where this is by the northward bulge in the coastline as you head west from Port Lincoln. The northernmost point in this bulge is called the Head of Bight. This is coastline at this place.

As a teaser, you will notice that we are not alone. There is a whale just off-shore in the above photo. More on these critters later.



The ocean here has that beautiful, clear blue reflection of the sandy bottom and blue sky that is so typical of Australian coastlines. the photos simply do not convey the intensity and clarity of the water here.

I once went into the building at Oak Ridge that housed the swimming pool reactor and took a look over the edge (no doubt taking a few years off my life). That intense cerulean blue of the Cherenkov radiation is the only thing I've ever seen that is more eye-popping than the ocean here on a sunny. And there are lots of sunny days. Just to stand on the shore and gaze in wonder is real joy. I could do it all day.

The rugged cliffs make a place of great beauty and serenity for enjoying the land/sea interface.

While I'm sure that when the sea is bad, it is very, very bad, on days when we go to the sea with the sun out and the wind pleasant, the ocean seems to be having more of a conversation with the coastline than the ageless war we see evidence for in in the broken rock and jagged cliffs. More like the lapping of water in a giant's bathtub than the motion of what appears to be an infinite sea.

It really calls to the soul.