D'Entrecasteaux National Park

D'Entrecasteaux NP
28 November
After seeing the girls off on the bus the boys and I had our first taste of packing up without their help – no worries there it seems.

From Black Point

Then after a quick shop and fuel up, we hit the road to Black Point. I didn't bother letting the tires down when we hit the soft sand – it takes too much time - but when Twiggy stopped progressing on a steeper section, we had no choice. Low tire pressure worked it's magic and we slogged our way along the narrow sandy track and out to the west side of the point at a place called the Stepping Stones.

From Black Point

The campsites looked a bit dubious but we had a nice body surf and another fruitless fish after lunch.
A surfer had recommended heading along the 4wd track towards Lake Jasper and trying for some tailor in the surf gutters of the beaches along that way. The track was still deep sandy wheel ruts winding over the scrubby sand dunes and after less than 1km, Twiggy again couldn't pull the trailer up the hill. It wasn't particularly steep, just too steep for the landcruiser to pull the 4 ton combined weight of the rig. A little bit of backing down the wheel tracks and some zig-zagging across the track with the trailer (10 point turn) got us heading back out the way we came in.

I went a bit too fast along the sandy track trying to make up time, and realised my mistake when I felt Twiggy unable to accelerate back on the pavement. With a sense of deja vu, I inspected the trailer brake cable – tight - and the older trailer spring – snapped! Kicking myself for driving too fast, I set about replacing the spring. Even though we knew exactly how to do it second time around, by the time we had coaxed the nuts off the dirty dinted bolts and put the slightly stronger spring in, two hours had passed before Fabian and I completed the repair.

From Black Point

It was already late so I was keen to camp fairly soon, and a campsite turned up at Grass Tree Hollow a few km before Beedleup Falls. As usual and in spite of not having help from Maggie and Millie, we made camp in no time flat. Again we had the place to ourselves for the night and even better, we were allowed to light a fire to cook on. Never has kangaroo steak and potatoes tasted so good.