An early start.

When we drove back from Cairns last week we noticed some "rock sculptures" on the beach between Red Cliff Point and Ellis Beach.  I remarked to Philip that I would love to photograph them at sunrise and so a plan was formed.  We would wake early, photograph the sculptures, swim at Ellis Beach and breakfast at Palm Cove.
Today we set the alarm for 4 a.m. as it takes about an hour to get to where we need to go and I wanted to be there well and truly before the sun rose.  We arrived about 5.30 a.m. and there was already another photographer waiting to photograph the same thing.
The rock sculptures are quite amazing.  Some very clever people, who are obviously artistic and probably bored, have set up literally hundreds of sculptures.  I think it has developed momentum and anyone that visits also adds to the collection. A couple of years ago someone came up with this idea and there were a handful of cultures but before I could get a chance to photograph them some stupid person/s had knocked them all to the ground.
Some of the rock formations are very large and would take a fair amount of effort.  Some balance precariously and some use things like thongs to help to hold them in place.

The sunrise was remarkably unspectacular and the other photographer, who was from Coffs Harbour, and I, were just about to pack up when we noticed that a storm had brewed to the north of us and a smallish rainbow had appeared.  It saved our photography day!

We stayed for about an hour and a half fighting off the march flies the whole time.  I detest march flies and even though I applied enough aeroguard to kill an army of the blighters they continued to bite.
After the photo shoot Philip and I headed to Ellis Beach for a swim in the swimmer enclosure.  We quickly donned our bathers and raced each other into the empty stinger enclosure.  The water was devine.  After a couple of minutes I turned and faced the beach and asked Philip what a red flag meant.  We waded back out of the water to see what the sign beside the red flag said and, you guessed it, it meant "do not swim".  Apparently all the Cairns beaches have been closed because of the very deadly Irukandji Jelly Fish that have been found within the stinger enclosures!  Very lucky for us that we didn't encounter one.
After this little hiccup we drove on to Palm Cove for breakfast.  It was a gorgeous day and as we sat on the verandah sipping our coffee and devouring our meals we once again pinched ourselves.