Contrasts

The approach of a cold front always provides opportunities for spectacular photographs, no matter how insignificant the equipment or inept the photographer. The vast expanse of sky provides room for vast cloud formations and our situation on a tiny promontory at the south-western tip of a continent exposes us to some fairly extreme weather.

But within hours, the blue sky returns, the odd black cloud moves in from the south west and dumps a bucketload of water on the thirsty land, and sweeps inland to make way for more blue sky. The fresh beauty of rainwashed vegetation surrounds us, with birdlife relishing an invigorating shower.

Despite man's ongoing pollution of the air, nature determinedly fights back and returns the debris to the earth, to be disgorged into the oceans in an endless recycling of the elements.