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!