The weather cleared up for us , so we thought we'd go for a drive out to Fitzgerald River NP again , the signs in town still said it was closed , but we went anyway . To our surprise the gates were open so Lyn zoomed past them - once we were in there was no stopping us haha . We didn't need to stop to pay the vehicle entry fee as we have a parks pass - the only way to do it here !
Pulling up at the first lookout over Barren Beach & 4 Mile Beach - we were 80m above the water . This is the view .
From here we could see a cave in the rocky headland in the distance - it's called Cave Point .
It was a little cool with a breeze coming off the ocean - jackets and long pants were our friend today ! Down the road a little further and we found Mylie's Beach walk , so again we wandered out through a creek bed to get to the beach - there was some water and fortunately a bridge to cross to get over it . Mosquito's will be pretty busy here soon , the water is full of wrigglers - baby mozzies .
Out to the beach & back , then our next stop was Cave Point . The vegetation is quite astounding here - the NP is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve - and there are some species that are only found here . This one is the Royal Hakea and is quite stunning , tough as an old boot and multi coloured . You can tell how old it is from the different colours - the newest and latest season's growth is the cream & green colour , last season was the orange & green , the one prior is a red & green , etc etc - most of the older ones look a bit bit worse for wear .
I should mention that all these photo's were taken in a 20 m stretch beside the road . Most of these plants look to be pretty and nice , but they're anything but - sharp , pointed spikes , leathery leaves and stiff branches . You wouldn't want to fall over into any of these , you'd be pulling out spikes for months after you stopped bleeding !!
We got to the carpark and wandered up the wheelchair friendly track to Cave Point - this is the view over the edge to the cave .
Managed to get some more aerial shots from out over the water & above the lookout as well .
This is the lookout platform .
The track to the lookout and the lookout itself are at the top left of photo , certainly a rugged piece of coastline .
This grevillea had another interesting plant growing through it - it also is out to get you - it's nature's own barbed wire !!
These gum nuts got my attention as well - they were large .
Around from Cave Point West Beach is another small stretch of sand in between all the rocks . We walked down the track to the beach .
There were so many cuttlefish skeletons on the beach , this one was bigger than my shoe !!
While walking along the beach we managed to find a little bit of plastic lying on the beach . The under tray from someones car was the large piece , most of the blue is bottle tops , various ropes and fishing line . We did put it in the bin back at the caravan park .
Next stop was the last accessible spot available - Hammersley Inlet . There's camping spots there , toilets and a boat ramp . The inlet is down on water as there hasn't been the rainfall required . The inlet hasn't been open to the ocean for a few years and the water is getting very salty , so much so that fish are dying . We drove down onto the sand and stopped , it looked like there were many rocks & sticks lying on the sand , but no , after opening the door you could smell all these dead fish - they weren't sticks or rocks , just dead fish !! I've spared you the gory pictures .
This is the inlet a bit further back .
The first section from the carpark is boardwalk , then it goes to this - a narrow little track strewn with rocks and all of these tough plants ready to take pieces out of you if you stray off track !
The views back to Mylies Beach & Cave Point were amazing .
After a heart pumping climb I got to the top of the first ridge , the track got a bit rough for Lyn so she retreated , I continued on . The track levelled out a bit , then started a gentle climb before requiring some rock scrambling up the last climb to the top level . Here are a couple of aerial shots - one of Culham Inlet , 4 Mile Beach and Hopetoun .
Then there's this one from out in front of the mountain looking back at me .
After taking a few photo's , I made my way back down to the top of the last climb and had some lunch before going down . This was a Class 4 track - Frenchman Peak was class as a 5 - it was far more easy to climb than this one - who knows how they figure out the ratings !!
We headed back around to Barren Beach and hoped there wouldn't be anyone there so I could get this shot of the sculpture . It gives you a better idea of the coastline , complete with inlets and mountains . The pieces of rock beside each of the mountains actually comes from each of the mountains in the park !!
This is the Phillips River , when it flows , it flows into Culham Inlet . You can see East Mt Barren in the top right of the photo . There is a canoe trail that you can paddle 4.9 kms upstream - only possible when they've had some rain - you would be doing a fair bit of carrying rather than paddling !!
And that's it for Hopetoun , we are heading down the road a bit further tomorrow , here's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1cat2hFFBvSmJBKRLaiUzaoeSBeEPxbLV&usp=sharing
No comments:
Post a Comment