The starting point

The starting point

Wednesday, 5 May 2021

27/4/21 Yancep NP we're free

 

     Yahoo lockdown over , we head further north to Yancep NP - we'd booked it before the lockdown otherwise we probably would have kept going north . Anyway here we are all tucked up in our little enclosure , right beside the amenities building . Henry White Oval is beside us and it's greatest use is to feed the local kangaroos at night .


     After lunch we headed over to the parklands , koala enclosure and walked around the old buildings . There are millions of grass trees in Yancep NP , here's just a few , with a few cycads as well .


    The koala enclosure is about half an acre in size with elevated walkways to get you up to their height . These ones aren't your small variety , they are large !! We saw 3 of them having a serious afternoon nap !


     The parkland areas are beside Lake McNess and feature nicely grassed areas with beautiful trees , paved paths , table's, chairs & Bbq's . Then there's a few other buildings around as well - Yancep Inn , Gloucester House which is currently being renovated , Tea Rooms , then there's the 9 hole golf course . Yes you read correctly , a national park with a golf course . There's walks , caves and plenty to explore .


     Here's one of the local greys , having a rest under a grass tree .


     Some of the cycads have flowered & fruited , the locals seem to like the fruit , lots of it being chewed and left .


   Plenty of banksia's as well .


     Next day we went for a tour of Crystal Cave , it's a dry limestone cave with plenty of features , but not as full as the caves down near Margaret River . The water levels in the cave have dropped due to drier than normal conditions and more stress being put on the aquifer by an increase in population . WA is more reliant on underground water than the other states . 
  There are over 500 caves in the park , one of those is Cabaret Cave which can be hired out for functions , weddings etc .


     The limestone is pretty fragile and you can see where some of the features have been broken off , then re fused together 

  
    The caverns are fairly large , this one has a water level marker in it .



     There's a band of crystals in the walls of this cave .



     This is Yancep Inn , you can rent a room here as well as have a drink & a meal .


   This is one of the golf holes carved out of the bush .


    More banksia 


     This is Gloucester House .


     Just across the road from Gloucester House is Boomerang Gorge , at the start of the gorge are these enormous palm trees about 25m tall .


    This honeycomb caught got our attention in one of the many holes in the limestone . we were intrigued by the bands of colour in it .


     This is one of the many cave entrances .


     Next day we headed back out to Yancep Beach for a look , we came out the other day , but you couldn't see anything due to smoke from burn offs further down the coast .


    This is Yancep Lagoon and is reputed to be a great spot for snorkelling when the tide is right . There was quite a current flowing from left to right while we were there . It's a patrolled beach - I thought that all they would have to do is wait down the far end and catch the swimmers as they were swept down . There's a reef that's only about 40m out that creates the lagoon .


     Further up the coast is the town of Two Rocks , it has a large marina that has lots of cray boats tied up and also in dry dock .


    Here's an aerial shot of it and the shopping centre . King Neptune is looking over the marina .


     He was part of an amusement park back in the 1980's and is still there watching over everything .


     Another view of some grass trees from above .


    Back at the park we found a flock of Carnauby's Black Cockatoo's having a drink from one of the puddles on the side of the road - there were more than 50 of them . We had a reasonable amount of rain yesterday and last night .



  That's it for Yancep this time , here's a map link :- https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=10KSWhWO5Fr2ZuBNRbg9OSUf35WRVcQlv&usp=sharing







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