Stephen’s & Noyheneer beaches ~ expedition day 6

Night rains had washed the skies for clear expansive views to the Rugby Range, as the good ship Rumours motored teams round to Stephen’s. We filled our eyeballs with more treasures, drinking in views of devastingly wild beauty. We donned wet-weather gear for a challenging landing, daunted by our predecessors tales of rough weather and legendary rubbish hauling, on these 2 long beaches.

After yesterday’s sand-blasting, on-beach conditions we were primed to hunt for rubbish. Heads went down, finding rusty balls and small plastics on wind sculpted pedestals. Stephen’s Bay soon revealed her more ancient charms, stunning living places displaying the bounty available here. It’s impossible for a photo to capture the sense of deep time these ancient living sites whisper of.

We discuss an artwork, contrasting the muted tones of these majestic beach living places with the jangly-loud colours of the shocking modern midden of plastic we’re now building on the boat deck. A modern midden of marine refuse, sent adrift across the ocean, by just a few consumptive generations.

Meanwhile, among the debris, other locals still prevail: devil prints snag across the sand, dragging something back for the kids in the foredunes…

It was a nice change to walk through the back dunes to our second beach, where prints of a young wombat waddling the sands, inspired Steve to dive under bushes to avoid soaking his holed foot in the marsh, emerging triumphant to tackle one half of the second beach solo.

The rain pops the nurdles up, but buries other small plastics in sand, making a challenging mix of micros and large awkward items. Beach access made safe loading a particular challenge to our awesome dinghy maestro’s and skippers. Wetsuits were donned to extract a heavy steel ball, half a shipwreck, and the large items walkers had gathered into the 2 campgrounds.

Collab blog by Mel and assorted other crew