25TH APRIL 2013 – D ENTRECASTEAUX  NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Moving on again to our next destination (hope your remember your French), ‘D Entrecasteaux’ National Park on the coast, a short journey of 80 kms. We had to stop at a tiny place called Northcliffe as our prepay for the phone was running out. As we often don’t know what the day or date is, we completely forgot it was Anzac Day & wondered why nearly everything was closed but the Info Centre & ‘servo’ where we were able to renew it. We had been told Windy Harbour Caravan Park, our destination, had a lot of seaweed on the beach & was quite smelly, but decided to go & check it out anyway as there were things in the area we did want to see. On arrival, although we couldn’t actually see the beach, I could smell it as soon as I alighted from the car. There was only one other van in the park which didn’t encourage us either, & the whole feel of the place didn’t do it for me. There seemed no-one around to direct us to a site anyway. This gave me time to check out the beach situation & it was not good! The whole beach was covered in smelly, horrible seaweed so as far as I was concerned we were not going to stay. Stu however thought it didn’t matter as we weren’t going to use the beach anyway & it was only for one night to explore the National Park. So I gave in gracefully & settled into a good site & before we knew it other campers began to turn up, the camp caretaker appeared as well, & was gruff but nice. It was only $18 per night unpowered (seniors rate of course), & there were lovely hot showers, free firewood for the fire again, & good drinking water for immediate use only. There are lots of quaint little baches just like the old days in NZ, & I suspect they are the buildings from the old mill town of Shannon, our stopover for the previous two days. We had been told they were all moved out to be used as seaside cottages & I’m interested to find out if I’m correct. They are all lined up in little unsealed streets, most unoccupied at present being a week day. I’m sure it must get busy at weekends, especially in summer.

Cliffs at Salmon Bay

 

Fishing at Salmon Bay

We spent the afternoon exploring by car & though you would imagine we might have seen enough sea & waves etc, we just can’t get enough of it here. It’s so beautiful & every area is different in someway or other. The Aussies really do things properly in their provision of lookouts, paths & roads to these attractions, some of them far from anywhere. All the lookouts here are beautiful stainless steel, but in some areas they are hardwood which is very prolific in their forests. Either way they are so solidly built & always built to attract the eye as well as being very functional. The cliffs & surrounding landscape is much more rugged in this area too. I was looking forward to a photo of the lighthouse on the headland, but disappointingly it was just a modern type with no character at all. The rest of the views more than made up for that though. It was a perfect day, about 22deg, sunny,& no wind , & though the waves were pounding into the cliffs, the ocean itself looked quite calm. At one lookout we thought we saw dolphins or whales, but they turned out to be rocks under the surface of the water. The day came to a pleasant end with another campfire dinner under a gentle sunset & a bright full moon. I think I’m reverting back to my Cub Mistress days & summer holidays up north when I used to cook Chinese etc on the camp barbie. Stu says we are getting more like Aussies every day!!!

Rock window D'Entrecasteaux National Park

Sunset Windy Bay

 

Windy Bay Baches