Skip to main content

Translation

Rainbows and Orchids


The Blessington Track -a Coastal Walk at South Arm


I had been a bit disappointed since going orchid hunting with Peter and friends last week. Each time I went out it started to rain and I hadn’t found a single orchid. Yesterday started much the same. As if on cue, it rained again as I was driving over the bridge, but I kept going anyway and continued on down the South Arm Highway. 

This is a high level walk with views of beaches and shore platforms

There was brilliant sunshine while I did the lovely coastal walk from South Arm to Blessington but there wasn’t an orchid to be seen. They don’t seem to be all that fond of the beach which is very unAustralian. I continued on to another coastal track at Opossum Bay where a lady I met had told me that she had seen a blue one, but the rain came back with a vengeance along with a biting wind  and I couldn’t get back to the van soon enough. If there had been a hundred orchids, I wouldn’t have seen them because my glasses were all splattered and blurred.  Note how quickly the weather changes!! 

Except for the Fort Beach section
 
Between showers, rainbows and sunshine, I did another couple of short walks - a bit of the Convict Trail; a look at the Cemetery – cemeteries are often surprising repositories of rare plants, but this one wasn’t, too well cared for obviously – all the grass mown and short, and then a couple of forays into the Coastal Conservation Area, all to no avail, though pleasant enough.

Beach below the Conservation Area

Still vaguely disappointed with my day and reluctant to go home, I drove some of the side roads and lo and behold, I hit the motherlode – masses of Tiger orchids and two kinds of orchids at another spot. It’s a pity I wasn’t very well prepared. Where’s a white umbrella when you need one? The wind simply didn’t stop blowing and most of my pictures are blurred, but I am happy to have seen them and hope you will be too.

Glossodia Major- the Waxlip Orchid, I think

There were masses of Tiger Orchids
Possibly Calandenia Carnea  or "Fairy Fingers"   

Comments