Monday, 12th July. We stopped off at the tree-top walk between Walpole and Denmark. We were still having intermittent showers, and it chose to rain while we were there. Since we had previously done the walk Eric suggested he would slip quickly around while we had a cup of coffee. He was prepared to do it in the rain, but got a bit more than he bargained for, as while he was gone it started to hail. Fortunately it was quite small – somewhere between a peppercorn and a pea in size, but there was a lot of it. Admission to the treetop walk includes the ground level walk amongst the huge tingle trees.
We stopped for the night at Jerramungup. This is only a little town, but we had perfect TV and full phone signal. The outside temperature around six was 5.6 degrees! No wonder we felt cold when we arrived. The forecast for the night is storms and high winds (125kph) between Albany and Esperance - and we are about half-way between the two! It was a bit blowy – every now and then the van rocked from side to side!
On the Tuesday we passed through Esperance. We stopped to shop and drive around their Great Ocean Drive, past some beautiful beaches, and the Pink Lake that on this occasion wasn’t pink, then continued on to Duke of Orleans Bay. We had originally planned to spend two nights each at Cape Le Grand, Duke of Orleans Bay and Cape Arid. However, with the cold, wet weather we had been experiencing we decided to base ourselves at Duke of Orleans Bay caravan park where we would have power for the heater, and do day trips to Cape le Grand and Cape Arid from there.
Duke of Orleans Bay campsite.
On Wednesday morning we set off for Cape le Grand. We took Merivale Road instead of going up to the bitumen. It is shorter that way. However, after the rain it was terrible, and we came home along Fisheries Road on the bitumen.
Once at Cape le Grand we first went to the Cape itself, took a few photos and checked out the camping area. Hellfire Bay was the next place along the road to Lucky Bay. It was drizzling rain when we got there, but since our last visit a big shelter with four picnic tables has been erected, so we decided to have lunch while we waited for the weather to improve. We could hear lots of little birds in the bushes beside us, and got tantalizing glimpses of one we didn’t recognise, but it wouldn’t stay still long enough to get a photo. Just as we were finishing lunch a couple of families arrived, and shortly after that we saw the six children in the water! Brrrr.
We carried on to Thistle Cove and the Whistling Rock (that wasn’t whistling today). Just after we got there the sun came out, the sky cleared, and we had lovely fine weather for the rest of the day. We had been finding a few wildflowers along the way, but there were quite a lot at Thistle Cove. We were quite surprised to find so many in the middle of winter. While here a group of New England Honeyeaters came swooping through. Two of them landed in the middle of the road and started dancing around each other, beak to beak. Not sure if they were courting or fighting, but they looked so funny as they spun around and around.
Whistling Rock, and below, on the other side of Whistling Rock. The whistle (more like heavy breathing) is caused by the wind blowing between the main rock and the little appendage on the lefthand side.
And someof the wildflowers at Whistling Rock.
Lucky Bay looked just beautiful after the rain. The sand is so white and the delicate blue of the water was set off by the white of the breaking waves. We walked down to the Matthew Flinders monument, which reads, “To commemorate the naming of Lucky Bay by Matthew Flinders who used this bay as a safe anchorage on Saturday, January 9th, 1802 during his circumnavigation of Australia. Erected by the Esperance Bay historical society, January, 1974.” Lucky Bay would certainly be a lovely safe anchorage.
Finally we drove to Rossiter Bay where we did the wildflower walk. Not as many wildflowers as last time, of course, but certainly some. On the other hand, when we arrived at what they call the “bird sanctuary” at the end of the walk there were far more birds than last time. Myriads of small birds were continually flitting through the canopy, but so fast, and sheltered by the leaves, it was impossible to identify them, let alone photograph them.
It had been a great day, but coming home we hit a wallaby on the road down to the caravan park, which put a real dampener on the day. Fortunately it was killed outright, as its leg was broken. We drove back to it and Eric pulled it off the road, as it was lying in the middle of the road.
We spent Thursday exploring the Duke of Orleans Bay area. Big Wharton Beach is yet another beach with white sand backed by big white sand dunes, very similar to Lucky Bay. We carried on to Little Wharton Beach, which has a number of island offshore. More photos! While standing on the beach watching the waves we saw a pair of big birds on an island in front of us. They were huge, with a white breast and appeared to have a nest on the island. We think they must be sea eagles. We could hear lots of little birds in the bushes nearby us, but didn’t catch sight of them.
Little Wharton Beach
Approaching the beaches we had seen a big “rock” with a cairn on the top. From Little Wharton Beach we walked up a smaller “rock” and found it had a connection to the bigger one, so carried on up it as well. I only had my sandals on, and was a bit concerned about getting down the steep bits on the way back, so I stopped part way up while the guys carried on. They reached the cairn, and Eric added a couple more rocks.
The "rock" with the cairn on top.
We turned off onto the “gravel” (we think it was more like dirt) road that led to a view of Nares Rock. At the end of the road a 4WD track continued on, which Ron took. It eventually continued over the bare rock surface on the side of the “hill”.
Nares Island.
After lunch we set out on the walk behind the caravan park. This is along the track that Eric uses when he goes fishing. The track is very narrow and requires the walker to push through the bushes. Wildflowers were growing along here as well.
At the end of the track we dropped down on to the beach, and at this point Eric decided he wanted to show us where some big birds (he’s not sure whether they were Pacific Gulls or Sea Eagles) use the rocks to break open shellfish, by dropping the shellfish from a great height. It was quite a scramble for me to get over the rocks. I only managed it because Ron took my camera, leaving me with both hands free to hang on to the rocks. Once we had reached the spot where the shells were, we then had to decide whether to go back the way we had come, or continue to scramble over more rocks and across the banks of seaweed along the beach, back to camp.
We decided to carry on along the beach, and after a few more rock scrambles got to the path Ron had found earlier in the day. That was a bit easier going, but though it bypassed a lot of the rocks, we still had the seaweed to negotiate. These banks, or drifts, of seaweed are quite deep, and sometimes there are logs or branches out of sight beneath the seaweed, that could trip us up. We sank into the seaweed with each step, and it was hard to keep our balance.
Friday was our last day here, and we drove out to Cape Arid National Park. Since our last visit, the park has been devastated by a fire in 2006, right out to the western boundary. There was no rain in the next year, so the vegetation we saw was only three year’s growth. With the big banksias gone everything is much more open at the Thomas River campground, and macrozamias have been revealed that previously were hidden. There are lots of young banksias, single stemmed so far, up to about six feet high.
View from the campsites at Thomas River, with the river in the centre of the photo.
The ranger has been very busy, providing a new graded path down to the beach, and two camp kitchens and new toilets. The campground will be ready to re-open in August. Everything looks great. The camp sites have been increased and access is easier so that big caravans and even fifth-wheelers will be able to get in.
One of the new kitchens.
We carried on to Dolphin Cove carpark, and walked from there down to Dolphin Cove and then Little Tagon Beach. These two beaches are smaller than Lucky Bay, but still have the white sand and blue water, and huge expanses of rock, that give them a beauty of their own. Leaving there, we drove down the 4WD track to Tagon Beach. What a difference to last time, when the vegetation formed tall walls, higher than the car, on either side of the track. This time we could actually see the track winding down to the beach. Tagon Beach is a much bigger beach than the other two, and although it still has the blue water and white sand, with big white dunes behind it, it doesn’t have quite the same magic. The vegetation hasn’t grown back to the same height here as at Thomas River. At one place there was a big area of wattle in bloom – just a few feet high as yet.
Dolphin Cove, and below, Little Tagon Beach
To reach Poison Creek we had to exit the park, and re-enter it further east. We decided to try Melville Road. The first part of the road, to the 4WD section was in good condition, and when we reached the area that really was 4WD a big sign announced “traffic hazard ahead”. The road became a sandy track. That was okay – it was slow, but just a 4WD track. However, we soon had water holes along the track. Someone had been along before us, and we followed their tracks through the waterholes. After that it became very corrugated between the patches of water – worse than the corrugations at Karijini! Not long before we arrived at Poison Creek Road we saw a big stretch of water ahead – with a couple of ducks swimming in it! Now, we have experienced ducks beside the road on occasion, but never ducks swimming on the road! They flew off before I could get a photo.
The Poison Creek road had a “4WD only” sign at the start, but we think it may have been a temporary sign. The road was good, though wet in places, which was probably why the sign was there. However, it was smooth driving and Ron mostly drove at about eighty. When we finally arrived at the creek we found it had overflowed across the road. We got out and walked along the bank at the edge of the road to see around the corner. Last time we were here the creek flowed into the bay, and Ron and I waded across it to the beach. This time the creek was blocked, which no doubt is why it has flowed across the road. Anyway, we could see someone had been through the creek. Ron checked the hardness of the sand under the water with a stick (it was too cold to walk through), and decided to carry on to the beach. As it was possible to walk around on the bank beside the road, I got my camera to get some photos of Ron driving through.
This used to be the road!
Ron driving back through the creek.
After a bit of time on the beach, having a look around, taking some photos, and having afternoon tea, we decided it was time to head back to camp. This time we carried on up to Fisheries Road – a much, much better road, and our trip home was uneventful except for a huge flock of White-tailed black cockatoos that took off ahead of us.
The weather forecast was not good. Another low was on the way, expected to reach Esperance around midnight and Israelite Bay by sunrise. When Ron went up for his shower that evening the outside temperature was under 8 degrees. When I went up, only five or ten minutes later, it was over 8 degrees and by the time I got back it was over 9 degrees. We got up around two in the morning and it was over 11 degrees, but the sky was still clear and there was no wind. Not long after that it started to rain – lightly at first, then it just poured. When we got up there were pools of water lying everywhere, but the rain had stopped, and though the sky was cloudy, we had no more rain while we were packing up.
Jan Barham