Sand Castles

Although Erik has always enjoyed building sand castles, since arriving in Australia, he has taken them, quite literally, to new heights. Not to belittle Northwest sand, especially not beaches of the Hood Canal where we passed many a happy summer’s day playing, but what I used to consider to be sand would now seem like a fine gravel. Not that it’s bad, but just more recent geologically, having formed from granite and basalt. The sand of Queensland’s beaches comes from coral and eroded sedimentary rock, which results in a sand high in silica that is pale tan in color and finer than sugar in consistency. All of this has quite serious ramifications when building sand castles. What would crumble in the Northwest holds together here. The sand also packs amazingly well and can be sculpted with ease. Without any special sand tools or extraordinary effort, we have been able to make some fairly fanciful sand castles. However, just like those at home, they last only as long as the tide allows and melt away with the wind and waves never to be seen again.

Just as a side note, the picture with Erik and I in it was taken at South Bank in Brisbane about a week ago, and the one with Mark and Erik was taken at Kingscliff in northern New South Wales on the Gold Coast where we went for day trip this Sunday. We’ve yet to visit Surfers Paradise since it has been “schoolies week” which is kind of an on going wild graduation party - spring break for those finishing high school. Needless to say it’s not exactly the time for a family to hang out.