Saturday March 1

As planned, we drove 80km west to Stokes National Park on Thursday and were thrilled to see properties with a little more in the way of vegetation than we had seen on our way to and from Cape le Grand and Cape Arid.  It is always deeply disturbing to see swathes of countryside with not a tree in sight, whether they be grazing or cropping properties, although the folly of it all is even more stark when you think about the sheep and cattle standing around in high temperatures with no shade to be had in any direction. How can that be good farming practice?

As we drove we noticed more eucalypt plantations, again as we had seen to and from Cape le Grand and Cape Arid, some of which have recently been pushed over and the timber piled up in rows. As always, such things cause all sorts of conjecture and we wondered if they were the result of failed agriforestry schemes.

Arrived at Stokes Inlet and set up camp in the parks campground, with what appeared to be relatively new ‘facilities’. Turned out they are about five years old as the previous campground had been destroyed in a fire following a lightning strike.

This is a very different environment to those we have been enjoying thus far. Stokes is described as an estuarine national park and the vegetation around the campground is predominantly small acacia, with many different understorey plants. Stokes Inlet lies in a valley with high dunes either side and with the Young and Lort Rivers flowing into it. There are magnificent large paperbarks lining the inlet and at the moment the mouth is closed to the sea, so the water is extremely saline.

Stokes Inlet

As we walked around the campsite we found a couple of different banksia species and explorations further afield and closer to the dunes, led us back into large stands of Showy Banksia. You may be surprised to learn that I just love banksias!

We also discovered Sollya Heterophylla, a creeper with blue bell-shaped flowers, which we all planted back in the 80s when we were first doing our native gardens and which turned into a dreadful environmental weed in Victoria and a Hakea laurina(the beautiful Pin-cushion Hakea, sadly not flowering yet). It is fascinating to see these ‘garden’ plants in their original sites.

Murray’s chats with a tinny-owning neighbour elicited directions to the Young River for a spot of fishing, so we drove out there later in the afternoon.  Was a very interesting spot with more huge paperbarks, although a chilly wind was blowing up the river.  Murray managed to catch about a dozen Black Bream, all of which were under size, but he was inspired to try again!

Young River and paperbark

The fisherman on the Young River

Discussions with the camp hosts at Lucky Bay had led us to suspect that the hosts here at Stokes were Graham and Lyn, who had been the camp hosts when we were at Kurrajong Camp in Cape Range National Park back in 2012. This was the case, so we resurrected the most enjoyable ‘happy hours’ they used to organise each evening at Kurrajong and caught up with their news.

Friday morning dawned with blue skies yet again and the wind which apparently afflicts this area in the afternoons was not yet up. More yarning over a cup of tea with the neighbour, Mike from Esperance, confirmed our wonderings about the piles of Blue Gums and the plantations and provided lots of local knowledge about good spots to visit.

Fishing down on the inlet was the next activity, but a quite unpleasant wind and a more importantly, a complete lack of interest on the part of the fish, soon brought this to a halt. Whilst I tried to catch up on the diary Murray set off on a mission to ride the bike along the side of the inlet to the beach, which he successfully managed, although it did involve some pushing and shoving of the bike as well as riding.

Mid-afternoon saw us back at the Young River, although a little further along where there were some great rocks and where we could get out of the wind. This proved to be more successful and Murray managed to catch four Black Bream which were of a legal size and which we planned to have for tea, while I managed to finish my book (a fisherperson I am not!).

Success!

Our catering plans were circumvented by another very enjoyable happy hour (or two) in the camp kitchen overlooking the inlet. By the time we got back to the van all enthusiasm for cooking fish had evaporated so they will do for tomorrow night - meeting other people is more fun than cooking!

We will pack up this morning and travel another exhausting 80km or so to Hopetoun, which is on Mary Anne Haven and on the eastern side of the Fitzgerald National Park. We are really looking forward to spending time here as it is one of the most botanically significant national parks in Australia and has the largest number of heathland species of any area in the world, so get yourselves prepared for a barrage of plant photos!

Wednesday February 26

Hard to believe that it is already more than two weeks since we left home!

We have just arrived back in Esperance after a week in Cape le Grand National Park, camped at the unbelievably beautiful Lucky Bay and two days a bit further east at Cape Arid National Park.  Lucky Bay is, as you can see below, just ‘picture perfect’ - no wonder so many people raved about it to us!

 

Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay - look carefully for the caravans amongst the trees!

More Lucky Bay

Lucky Bay from the Rossiter Bay walk

 Lucky Bay again from the Rossiter Bay walk

Just one more - the eastern side of the bay

The view from our campsite

Celebrating our arrival in the first national park of
our trip - thanks Bron & Glen!!!!

Apart from the snow-white silica sand, created by erosion of the huge expanses of granite which seem to flow down in to the sea, these parks are heathland ecosystems, which I have decided are a real favourite – a huge diversity of beautiful nectar-producing flora  and amazing, tough plants adapted to survive wind, sandy soils, salt and frequent drought.

Even though it is not ‘peak’ flowering time, the Banksia speciosa (Showy Banksia) and at least three eucalypt species (beyond it being evident that two of them are yates of some sort, the interpretive information available doesn’t allow me to identify them, which is very annoying!) are flowering profusely so the campground and surrounding areas are alive with noisy, aggressive New Holland Honeyeaters and Red Wattlebirds.  We can also hear many other birds, but our lack of identification skills and the excellent ‘keeping everyone else at bay’ skills of the honeyeaters means that we are not sure what they are.  Happily though the Willy Wagtails and White-browed Scrubwrens hop all around us and seem immune to their antics.

Showy Banksia

New Holland Honeyeater feasting on the nectar in the eucalypt

Insects are a valuable addition to the diet!

White-browed Scrubwrens were a delight 

Munji flowers

Some of the prehistoric-looking, semi-parasitic Munjis (Western Australia Christmas Plant) still have flowers and the large seed cases are also attractive in their own right, whilst a few of the mid-storey plants are flowering as well. Would love to come back here in September and October, when the weather would be much less appealing, but the flowers would be incredible.

Munji seeds

A 'grove' of Munji

Native Honeysuckle

Verticordia species

Eucalypt species

Smallish monitors frequently wander through the camp and cause the birds to launch into a frenzy of warning and scolding. I was amazed one afternoon to watch a Red Wattlebird dive-bombing one of these potential marauders and its attack was so effective that the monitor changed direction completely.

A group of Western Grey Kangaroos also lives around the campsite and they are, of course, very used to people and are often to be found sharing the shade of campers' awnings.  They (and the birds) obtain their water supplies in this very dry environment on the beach, as all along the front of the camp ground fresh water seeps out of the sand and creates pools and rivulets amongst the piles of seagrass and the sand.  The drying seagrass is obviously a food source as well, as the kangaroos forage amongst the large piles on the beach

Lunch time!

This certainly is the time of year to be here though – temperatures in Perth have been over 30, but we have had around 24 for most of the time and for three of the days at Lucky Bay the wind was very strong and quite chilly.

Murray has done lots of walking – from Lucky Bay to the next bay, Thistle Cove, to Rossiter Bay to the east and up Frenchman’s Peak, which affords great views across the heathlands.  He has also kept up his daily swims, with the exact spot chosen to avoid being swamped by choppy seas and has managed a bit of fishing, although this has been made difficult by the on-shore winds, so only one small Sweep has made it onto the menu. I have done a bit of walking, but in deference to the still-healing leg, have been ‘sensible’ (I have come to hate that word!).

 

Thistle Cove

Whistling Rock, Thistle Cove

One-sided Bottlebrush, Thistle Cove walk

Thistle Cove walk

Rossiter Bay walk. The holes in the granite were created by wave action when sea levels were much higher

Frenchman's Peak

Views from Frenchman's Peak

More views from Frenchman's Peak

Scott, Sally, Chelsea and Sami

As always when travelling, we love the opportunities it provides to spend time with some terrific people, especially in the national parks campsites, as those who visit these places and are not concerned about the ‘limited facilities’ tend to share our views on life (and if that sounds pretentious, I will swap it around and say that we tend to share their views).  At Lucky Bay we struck the jackpot with our neighbours  - ‘Syneysiders’ Sally and Scott and their gorgeous girls, Sami and Chelsea, who are on a seven month trip ‘around’ Australia, and Julia and Selgai from Munich, who are spending a couple of weeks here. We had lots of fun getting to know them all.

Julia and Selgai with Sal, Scott, Chelsea and Sami

Cape Arid is also a beautiful place and on arriving in the park on Monday morning a question that had occurred to me about whether we were trying too hard to see ‘everything’ was quickly answered – absolutely not! This is a different environment to that at Cape le Grand. Still stunning beaches and rocky headlands, but the heathlands include extensive stands of Showy Banksia which are flowering profusely and many large Grass Trees, which have incredibly thick leaves. As the camp site is actually amongst the banksia woodland, my collection of photos of WA flora has grown exponentially. Oh dear – get the reference books ready Scott!

Yokinup Bay from Cape Arid National Park campground

Thomas River and Yokinup Bay

The campsite

Grass Tree starting to flower

Banksia speciosa (and bee)

Following the obligatory swim and lie on the beach on our first afternoon, during which we amused (wrong word really – their bites are not particularly amusing) ourselves by providing many dead March Flies for the local ants to cart back to their larders, Murray was very excited to catch two Australian Herring from said beach - he had to abandon the rock fishing as the local crabs were dining out handsomely on his bait! 

Murray off for a swim!

Our first taste of Australian Herring and very nice they were too!

My clever plan to sit outside in the evening and keep my eyes peeled for any of the local populations of nocturnal Honey Possums, Chuditch and Quenda or Southern Brown Bandicoot which may have been wandering about was quickly abandoned due to mozzie attacks - the minor disadvantage of camping here near the Thomas River, which is not actually flowing into the sea at this time of year.  Any feelings of disappointment were quickly put into perspective when I remembered that the ever-present Camp Hosts had advised that my chances of seeing any of these creatures were decidedly remote and that the Thomas River Estuary promised opportunities to see even more wading birds than the Hooded and Red-capped Plovers and Sooty and Pied Oystercatchers we had spotted as we walked down to the beach. Mind you, as it is permissible to drive on the beach here, as has been the case with most of the beaches we have enjoyed thus far, and I would assume that it is highly likely that any of the identified endangered birds which manage to lay eggs would have them squashed by some passing 4WD,  it is incredible that we were seeing these birds at all.

Sooty Oystercatchers 

Our second day in the park was devoted to more extensive exploration and we enjoyed the Len Otte Nature Trail, designed and established by Len Otte, the first resident ranger in the park, in 1979. It was the first nature trail in any WA national park. The interpretive brochure Murray had picked up in Esperance was not as illuminating as it should have been as only two of the original twelve stops described are now marked on the trail, but luckily our ever-growing knowledge of the local flora, fauna and geographical features allowed us to do our own interpretation. We even found ourselves remembering important bits of information about heathland species that Alan Tinker had shared when we were at Western Flora Caravan Park in 2012.

 

One of the many Zamia Palms (really cycads!) we saw

Views to Yokinup Bay

Feldspar intrusion in the granite gneiss - more questions which require explanation!

Hakea clavata - has the thickest leaves of any Hakea species and looks
very much like some sort of succulent 

A visit to the river before the all-important morning coffee was very worthwhile as we saw a pair of Cape Barren Geese feeding on some shrubs on the opposite bank.

Tuesday afternoon was spent walking along the coastline to Dolphin Cove and as we traversed the many granite outcrops we were astounded yet again by the amazing views and marvelled as always at the forces of nature which have created this landscape. How we need a geologist travelling with us to answer the myriad of questions which continually arise!

Dolphin Cove

Looking back to the beach in front of the campground

So here we are back in Esperance for just one night, to stock up for our visit to Stokes National Park, catch up with everyone and update the blog. We will spend two nights here before going on to Fitzgerald River National Park.  More beautiful beaches and amazing heathlands to endure – we trust that you are appropriately concerned for our well-being!