Cape Arid National Park

Cape Arid National Park
5&6 December
It was definitely worth traveling the extra 100km on to Cape Arid, given our predilection for empty campsites. At the Thomas River campground, we opted for closest to the beach and furthest from the only other camper, rather than some of the panoramic views and proximity to nice new camp kitchens.

From Cape Arid

As I prepared the calamari for dinner, Fabian and Asher's trumpet playing wafted up on the sea breeze from the beach. Imagine my surprise when they turned up for dinner carrying a rabbit!

From Cape Arid

Apparently Fabian had shied a stone at it in the dark and got lucky. After a short discussion, we decided to kill it and eat it. After all, they do damage the national park, and it fitted in with our boys own adventure. So Fabian did the deed with a tomahawk. With a bunny hanging up, our camp looked quite rustic.
Next day after an unsuccessful morning fish for tailor, Fabian set about cleaning and skinning the rabbit - we really could have used the Dangerous Book for Boys for guidance but in its absence made it up.

From Cape Arid

Once he finished we had a body surf, then packed a lunch and took twiggy for a drive along the beach to the Mt Arid walking track. After the 30km drive to the start of the walk, it was slightly disappointing to find a sign informing us the track was closed to prevent the spread of die-back (a root disease which kills plants). Still, it was a nice drive.

From 2010-12-07

Back at camp, Fabian stretched out the rabbit skin to dry - even more rustic.

That afternoon we tried again for tailor then switched to herring. Herring feed on maggots (which hatch in the weed washed up on beaches). We had been told a small piece of drinking straw on a hook looked enough like a maggot to fool most herring so we gave it a try. Sure enough, almost every cast of the drinking-straw-on-a-hook rig caught a fish. I quickly made up a couple more rigs and the boys spent the rest of daylight hours catching herring.

From Cape Arid

Good fun. They paid for it that night though, filleting fish until 10.30pm.

From Cape Arid

Overall, the stay was quite a hunting gathering experience.

Esperance - Picking up Asher

Esperance and Cape Le Grande
5-6 December

Fabian and I got up early for a final fish at Waychinicup, but there wasn't much happening. Bro took over from me when he turned up at the fishing spot while I started packing. Then I checked the distance to Esperance - 450km – and called the fishing to a halt. Back through Waychinicup National Park and along the highway through hectare after hectare of blue gum plantations.

From Esperance

We took a scenic detour via Hopetoun but didn't have have time to stop anywhere. Lots left for another trip.
In Esperance, I checked into the Caravan park, successfully arguing that Broughton was not an adult, and left the boys to set up camp while I did a quick shop and picked up my Nephew Asher Caley from the bus stop. He had caught the bus down from Perth to join the cruise from Esperance to Wyalla.
Next morning we packed quickly and I sat down to do some work while the boys tried their luck fishing off the tanker jetty.

From Esperance

Bro quickly came back to tell me there was a seal lion lazing on the beach under the Jetty. When I returned from stocking up on fuel and food, Broughton had caught two squid. I set about the messy business of cleaning them at the cleaning table on the jetty. Unfortunately, unfamiliar as I was with the trigger spray nozzle provided, the first jet of water from the trigger hose sprayed my shirt front, and the second flushed the first squid tube down the pipe to the water below where it was claimed by a waiting pacific gull. I was much more careful with the second squid, although the sea-lion which had swum out to catch whatever else fell through the hole looked so imploring I was temped to through it a large piece.

From Esperance

Loaded up with squid, we drove out to Cape LeGrande National Park, home of Lucky Bay, the third most beautiful beach in the world according to some authority. We drove there for lunch just in case there was a vacant campsite but found the place not to our liking. Instead we picnicked at Hellfire Bay then climbed Frenchman's Cap past some beautiful wildflowers for some great views of the cape.

From Esperance

Then we left Cape Le Grande and headed on to the less visited Cape Arid National Park.

Waychinicup NP

Waychincup NP
3rd and 4th December
As I checked out of Cheynes Beach Caravan Park, the proprietor told me there was a whale on the beach so we drove down to have a look. It was a small sperm whale and seemed to have been dead for awhile.

From Waychincup

I had been disappointed we didn't make Waychinicup Inlet the day before, but didn't want to move camp every night, so we planned to head next to Fitzgerald National Park. Nevertheless I wanted to drop in a have a look at Waychincup Inlet on the way. What we found is a beautiful spot with the southern ocean surging through a small opening between granite boulder hills into a stream-fed inlet.

From Waychincup

The campsites were almost all full and both the remaining ones sloping and tight, but it didn't take us long to opt for two days here rather than in Fitzgerald NP. A bird in the hand and all that, plus campers we talked to who had been to both rated Waychinicup as better. To seal the deal, they told us they had caught a couple of King George whiting that morning. We just loved the look and feel of the place. So we pitched the tent as best we could and the boys headed down to fish in the inlet. That's where they stayed until dark and a rain shower drove us all back to camp with a couple of whiting, herring, a skippy trevally and a big squid.

From Waychincup

Bro fell asleep within seconds of getting to bed after dinner.
The night was squally – the tent flapped and the wind whooshed – not a good sleeping night, but the tent kept most of the rain out.

Next morning the boys were back fishing while I put silicon goop on a few pin-holes in the floor and rigged up the awning top fit around the tree in front of the tent. It turned out most of the other campers had come to Waychinicup together and they all left together leaving the place to ourselves. As the last ones left, the brought out a Joey to feed. Bro volunteered for the job.

From Waychincup

It was going to a wildlife refuge later that day.
We ended up with more whiting plus two good squid which we prepared and marinaded in milk for later.

Albany

Albany
2nd December

Driving into Albany, we spotted a sign saying strawberries $3/kg. Conscious of the need to keep up our supply of vitamin C, we drove out along a dirt road to the strawberry farm where scores of pickers were walking in for lunch. The strawberries were B grade but looked and tasted perfect to us although the odd one had a bit scooped out. So we continued in to Albany for supplies happily devouring a kg of strawberries.
Once stocked up with food and fuel, we drove around Frenchman's Bay and through Torndirrup National Park to Whale World at what was from 1952 to 1978 the Cheyne Beach Whaling Station. The loss of the whaling station still seemed very raw. As we walked from the flensing deck to the top deck and then down to the boilers, the tour guide spoke in the present tense about how the whale was processed.

From Albany

Unlike most historical museums, there was colour video footage of the whaling station in action. We all learnt a lot about whaling and how steam power and harpoon guns led to rapid depletion of the resource. Same story as we had heard about sheep on the Darling, pink snapper in Shark Bay, trees in the south west – rapid exploitation of a resource followed by economic collapse.
We drove to the dramatic Gap and Stone Arch

From Albany

on the way back through Torndirrup NP, and took a scenic route round the picturesque part of Albany town and a less scenic route through the suburbs to get us back on the coast road towards Esperence. We had hoped to get to Waychicup Inlet but after after taking one wrong track in the fading light (there is no signage to it), we piked and headed on to the Cheyne Beach Caravan Park. We were all very tired and the hot showers very welcome.

Stirling Ranges

Stirling Ranges NP
30 November & 1st December

For the first time in the trip, Fabian took over the navigation. He guided us to another forest drive - this time through Shannon National Park, passing the site of Shannon township which had built up around a sawmill only to disappear when the resource was quickly exhausted with a few decades, and then on along the coast past Mandalay Beach and through the Valley of the Giants and lots of other places we could have visited ... With his help, we found the western end of Stirling Range Drive, a dirt road which traverses the length of the western section of the park.

From Stirling Ranges

Rising up from such a flat plain, they provide a dramatic backdrop visible from many kilometers in many directions. As in much of south west WA, everywhere in the park there is signage about preventing the spread of die-back, a fungal root disease which has devastated large areas of the park.
We set up camp at Moingup Spring which is a bit too close to the main road for my liking but the road trains trucking out the wheat harvest stopped rumbling past before midnight so it was fine. Camping has become much cheaper without the girls. Just $11 per night for the three of us in WA national parks. That night we enjoyed a delicious fish curry of feral Redfin. Yum!
In the morning, we drove to the start of nearby Mt Toolbrunup which is shorter than the popular Bluff Knoll by 50 meters but a harder climb and affords views over the rest of the parks peaks. Well it does when there is no cloud. As we scrambled up the rocks to the last shoulder, we caught a few glimpses of the side of the mountain before all we could see was white.

From Stirling Ranges

Although there was no rain, water was dripping off all the bushes as they caught the mist from the cloud racing up the mountain-side. We sat on top eating our morning tea and a bit longer, but no break in the cloud, so we turned to face the wind and headed back down. As Sod's law would decree, the top of the mountain emerged from cloud once we were three quarters down.

From Stirling Ranges

Ah -well you can't win them all. We drove over to bluff knoll lookout to eat our lunch but spared our legs from another 3 hour climb with a white out view at the top. We'll have to come back to the Stirlings another time.

On the drive out next day, we detoured slightly to the start of the Castle Rock walk at the Porongurup Ranges. Unfortunately it was closed for trackwork and the other walks didn't appeal in the time we had available -  another one to come back for.

New birds – Golden Whistler, Scarlet Honeyeater

Southern Forests

Southern Forests
29th November
The southwest corner of Australia is famous for it's forests and we were keen to see some more. After leaving our overnight camp at grass tree hollow, we drove to Beedleup Falls which are in a beautiful setting but to be fair were not at their best with little water flowing over them.

Next we headed around a section of the Forest Drive to view a few particularly large Karri,

From Southern Forests

but got off the route and drove along some other narrow bush track. When we did rejoin the route, we discovered we were heading the wrong way on a one way loop. So much for that.
Continuing on the forest theme, we visited the Dale Evans Bicentennial memorial tree which you can climb on steel spikes stuck into the trunk and then 5 storeys of ladders till you are standing above the canopy and 75 meters above the ground. It is not in fact an old fire spotting tower but a new tower built to commemorate the past. Still, it is a fun climb and not for those prone to vertigo. Photos do not do it justice.

From Southern Forests

With plenty of time left in the day, we drove another forest loop to Warren Campground beside the Warren River which Bro's research told him was full of redfin. This is an introduced feral fish species which are OK eating and fairly easy to catch on spinning lures.

From Southern Forests

The boys immediately rigged up a couple of spinners and determinedly worked their way along the river casting at any likely looking snaggy hole but to no avail until fairly late in the afternoon when Bro emerged successful with a small redfin.

From Southern Forests

Before long he caught another larger version as the fish finally came on the bite. Encouraged, they fished on until the light faded but no more redfin were hooked. Fabian especially was keen to get one and next morning at first light, he slipped out of the tent only to return triumphant with an even larger fish. The boys could have stayed another day at Warren fishing but we were on a timeline so we took our fish and headed for the Stirling Ranges.

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.