6/4/19 Hopetoun

Leaving Esperance and heading to Hopetoun was an easy drive assisted by a bit of tailwind - it's been a while since we had one . We'd arrived and set up before lunch so went for a drive into & around Hopetoun .

 This is the view from The Groyne - it's a break wall with jetty and boat ramp . As you can see , the weather is less than perfect , but it is what it is . The view is to Fitzgerald River National Park and the mountain on the right is East Mount Barren .

   One of the few original buildings in Hopetoun is the hotel , which sits a mere 70m walk to the beach .

 We headed out to the National Park for a look , and discovered the park was closed and roads were blocked off . We could still get to Barren Beach and 4 Mile Beach campground though . This is the small Barren Beach .

 This is a section of 4 Mile Beach .

At Barren Beach there's this sculptural look at the coastline and National Park . The Aluminium mountains are the mountains in the park , the gravel is the land area covered by the park and the smooth concrete is the ocean - the seemingly random edge is the coast line and the sawn expansion joints in the concrete are actual latitude and longitude lines and have the bearings etched into the concrete - very clever - it would look good from above - hmm food for thought .

From here we headed east along Southern Ocean Drive , it's been blocked for a couple of years now when there was some flooding in 2017 - apparently some of the road is still underwater . We decided to have a look how far we could get . On the eastern side of Hopetoun is Jerdacuttup Wetlands and there's a sliver of sand dunes and vegetation that separate it from the ocean . These are the wetlands near 5 Mile Beach . Another drone shot !

 This is the sliver of land between them .

The drone got some more airtime , this is 5 Mile Beach .

Next day we headed east again to Munglinup Beach , it was again overcast and breezy so we decided it would be good to be in a vehicle checking the area out . This is Munglinup Beach . There are several camping areas along the coast with interesting names like Starvation Bay - obviously they couldn't fish ????

 Mason Bay was another campsite , it also had a seawater pumping station that was built to supply water to the Nickel mine that closed down a few years ago . It also had a powerlines built to supply the power required - a big investment to just shut down - there ares rumours it will reopen later this year , which will help Hopetoun no end . There are about 150 empty houses in town !!
 Back from Munglinup Beach is the Oldfield River inlet , this is it .

 On our way back , we did a bit of a loop and along Jerdacuttup Rd we found this bush on the side of the road that resembles the Smoke Bush we have seen around Kalbarri - this one however is a lemon colour rather than the white .

 This is the small park beside Hopetoun Beach - The Groyne is picture to the the top left of photo - on a nice fine day .

 Here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=15-BGObq6PGiTncLbQ8cwc9fzdgCOwjn_&usp=sharing