The shore of Lowland Point

I regret that I wasn’t properly attentive to getting a full set of detailled photos showing the Lowland Cove shore that runs from the mouth of Lowland Brook out to Lowland Point; I have some, including a number of duplicates, but there are gaps and the quality is not the best, due to the morning’s deteriorating weather (on the return trip, the lighting was adverse in spite of the returned sun and my attention was again elsewhere, alas). So, as I must, I’m going with what I have. Moreover, the camera’s GPS device was out of commission for the first three of these photos (I don’t remember why or if I even knew at the time), so I have interpolated them from the last reading before the failure and the first reading after the failure; they are reasonable estimates as I was definitely in the waters of Lowland Cove due west of the largest of the “mounds” when these photos were taken.

Photo #1, a relatively wide-angled view, shows the effectively inaccessible beach at the head of Lowland Cove, sitting below a cliff roughly 20 m (66 ft) high, according to the topographical map. Though somewhat deeper hued than the rocky finger at the far left, both appear to be of the same material. Behind the cliff above the beach is the cleft carved by Lowland Brook and, at the right, one can make out “Lowland Point Ridge”, which descends from the summit at the right and curves to the west to end in Lowland Point.

Photo #2, at the same scale as photo #1, continues to the right from photo #1, looking at the eroded cliff faces carved by run-off from the hill above; in some cases, such as that at the right of the photo, the vegetation has been stripped away.

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Photo #3 looks further to the right where more eroded cliff faces are visible. The chute at the far right appears to have been caused in the not too distant past by a land slide; no vegetation has managed to since claim a foothold. The large outcropping of rock, well off shore, must at some long ago point have been attached to the mountain and fallen down to its present location. Several cormorants (barely visible in this reduced photo), are drying themselves on the upper edge of the rock, where traces of guano can also be seen at the left. We saw numbers of birds of several species on this trip, most south of Lowland Point; it must be prime nesting habitat for them as it is so infrequently visited.

Since photo #3 is the last 2012 photo I have of this area of the shore, I’ve included photo #4, a 2009 wide-angled view of Lowland Cove, which shows the full shore stretching out to Lowland Point, and should give a rough idea of what the missing detailled photos would have shown.

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Photo #5 is again from 2012 and shows the land near the tip of Lowland Point. The very interesting cavity just left of centre was surely caused by a collapse of the cliff below the remaining cliff face, leading to the rocky rubble and boulders seen near the water; this was clearly not yesterday, as vegetation, including trees, have made a comeback inside the cavity. This part of the point is close enough to the end that it would get the full brunt of the winds off the Gulf.

Photo #6 was taken as the boat’s pilot moved to the west around the tip of Lowland Point, seen at the far right. At some distant past point, those huge rock fingers must surely have been a part of Lowland Point, which then most likely looked rather more like the mountains beyond.

With this photo, I have reached the end of the area I had previously seen: everything hereafter I laid eyes on for the first time on this boat trip. I was so wonderstruck by the spectacular scenery I was seeing up close that I kept on taking photos nearly oblivious, except for the increased motion of the boat, to the rapidly worsening weather. In the remainder of the essay, I have attempted to verify from the topographical maps and from Google Earth, which is an invaluable supplement, the accuracy of my descriptions, but, not having first-hand knowledge of this area other than from this trip, it is certainly possible I have made a few errors; if you recognize any such, please let me know so I can correct them: use the e-mail address in the footer below to contact me.