The Driftwood and the Mangrove Tree

I've noticed in the past few entries that I've been slightly negative to the thunder from down under. That really does not reflect the experience I've been having so far (let's be honest, I'm funnier when I'm bitchy). Australia is a country that is beautiful to extremes. It's like the rogue continent said to the rest of Pangea, "I'll see you a desert and raise you an outback, oh and you think you have coral my 'lil Caribbean homies? Well, tell it to my Great Barrier Reef". However, the two things that struck me as unexpectedly and disarmingly beautiful in Australia are a little more mundane: the driftwood and the Mangrove tree.

While on Fraser Island, we walked across one of the large sand dunes to a clear water lake (I asked Matt if he felt like Moses leading his people through the desert). Fraser Island is known for its pristine sand dunes that seem to form right in front of your eyes. Sand dunes however aren't inately beautiful. They're beautiful because they provide a perfect canvas for the refractory powers of the sun. What caught my eye are the large peices of driftwood that randomly speckle the dunes and beaches. They remind remind me of a Calder mobile. The driftwood individually, is sculpture-like but under the blazing Australian sun, take on a 3-D form with the shadow it casts over the perfectly smooth, flaxen sand. Every angle is unique.

Mangrove trees are not unique to Australia but I've never seen them grow as large, elegant and far from land as on Fraser Island and the Whitsundays. Mangroves are interesting little things. Their roots filter out the salt from the ocean which allows them to seemingly grow on water. As a result, their roots have to be so strong and farfetching, they also protect the coastline from erosion, storm surges and tsunamis. Growing on water, turning saltwater to freshwater, protectorate of its coastline, sounds a little divine to me.