This is a combination of black and white photographs with a short written piece that I wrote back in 1986, about Witton Bluff at Christies Beach, just south of Adelaide in South Australia. I always wanted to publish this piece, and now on the internet I can. The photographs presented here are a small selection of many that were taken at around the same time that I wrote the text. I have also included a couple of drawings from the same time on page 2, because I didn't have any suitable photos (from that time) that provided an overview of the pathway under the cliffs.

The signs say “DANGEROUS CLIFFS — KEEP OUT” and “NO ENTRY”, but a lot of people still walk along the pathway which runs along the base of the cliffs. And it is not really surprising. It is a marvellous short walk. Just being close to these cliffs and also to the surface of the sea makes one feel extra alive, with heightened responses to the things experienced along the pathway. There is so much to see and experience around these cliffs.

I find that the area feels most powerful in full afternoon sunlight.

For me, there can be no substitute for getting outside and involved in the great world that is around us all; to go somewhere and “open out” to what is going on all around, as someone who enjoys looking and thinking, as someone who wants to understand more, as someone who enjoys freedom, and as someone who wants to see truth within life.

The pathway is like a narrow dirt road. The base of the cliffs form one side of this pathway, and on the other side is a drop, by way of a piled rock retaining wall, to the ever-changing surface of the sea.

The water here is quite shallow, with interesting reef patterns, banks of weeds, rocks, and colours of all sorts that stir the imagination. The waves, froth and bulks of water move gracefully in flowing patterns. The sea is a huge fascination itself.

The cliffs vary considerably as they build up along the pathway. Large outcrops, sculptured crests, vertical ridges and weathered channels. Each small section of cliff-face seems to have its own character.