Day 58

30 March 2013

 

This morning we were tired of waiting for the weather man to give us some beautiful blue skys so we decided to head to Cape Le Grand National Park no matter what the weather.

The day started off with pretty gloomy looking weather but we set off to our first destination, which was some exploring on 4wd tracks in and around the National Park. From where we are staying at Dukes of Orleans Bay it is a 40km drive on a mostly dirt road to get to Cape Le Grand. There is a few off tracks which pretty much just do loops back onto this dirt road but Joel was keen to do some 4wdriving so we turned left onto Saddleback Road.

The road wasn't too bad, a little washed away in places because of the recent rain, but fairly good for a 4wd track. First detour was to Dunnes Beach, this road was sketchy (to say the least), the rain had created huge pools of water every 100m or so which had us tracking up into bushland to go around them. Few ruts and few skippys crossing the track and then the track turned to sand, which made us think we must nearly be there! As we tracked a bit further the sand just got finer and boggier and as there was nobody around for miles we decided it might not be such a good idea to get stuck in here and turned back to saddleback road.

Back on saddleback road with the car sporting a very muddy look, the road progressively got more 4wd like as we went, the rain had definately done some damage to this track which we found out when we got what felt like hours down this road and the track had been completely washed away! Which you guessed it meant we had to turn and go all the way back to the main road. Oh well, you just never know what you might find down a 4wd track!

On our way to Cape Le Grand and the road turns to bitumen, if you come from Esperance the road is totally bitumen so it is easily accessible to anyone. There is a park entrance here and you have to pay to enter the park, which is $11 a day or we opted for the $40 for a month pass which allows access to all WA national parks. This park is so well kept and planned out, just really user friendly and you can see that the money paid to enter the park is actually going into making the park enjoyable to visit (unlike some NP's)! So well done WA!

Well where to start really here, think photos will probably speak louder than the words I write but a quick rundown. Firstly headed to Hellfire Beach which has a nice bbq area and toilets. You can walk up onto big rocks here to look down on the beach or why not walk along the purest whitest sand I have ever seen and look straight at the clear blue water! Now this water is not blue, it is not green, it is not a colour that is describable, it is a truly magnificent shade of aqua and turquoise and is completely clear and see through! They are right when they say these are the best beaches in Australia, would be hard to beat I think!

Then to Thistle Cove which homes the whistling rock. This rock is humungous and it is said that if you listen carefully you can hear the wind whistling through the rock. Now I believe I did hear this whistle; however I wonder if it is similar to the seashell (you know put a shell to your ear and you can hear the ocean) where everyone tells you you can hear something and eventually you just say you can even if you are not sure whether you really can! haha

Lucky Bay - Spectacular. Camping grounds here too if you are lucky enough to get a spot!

Cape Le Grand, camping here also, again if you are lucky! Beach access for 4wdriving. Spent a nice arvo here relaxing on the beach and soaking in the serenity. Also you can see as the day went on the weather just got better and better!

Back to camp and have decided to stay another night here and maybe take the boat out tomorrow for some fishing.

Carly & Joel

 

Posted with Blogsy