1-Oct-2004
We are still on the North West Cape. The weather is really good except for a Southerly wind but it would be so hot without it. Someone told us that they had seen indications that turtles had been laying eggs on one of the local beaches. We went along to see and sure enough there were tracks up the beach to a large hole in the sand and tracks back to the water. It must have been a large turtle, as Ali could not step across the tracks without disturbing them. It was probably a Loggerhead Turtle. We decided to go back late at night to watch for them. It was almost full moon so we drove off at about 10:00pm to the beach. The moon was so bright it was casting shadows; we didn't need to use torches. Well, these turtles were typical women - real teasers. We could see them swimming along in the surf about a metre off the beach. One even came out of the water and up the beach a bit but turned and went out to sea. We gave up at midnight. The drive back to the campsite was interesting as there were hundreds of kangaroos everywhere. At one point they looked like a swarm of rats crossing the road in front of us. We managed to avoid them all but we know why you are advised not to drive at night here.
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Here we are at the bar-b with our neighbours, Ali, Richard, Lin, Pat, Louis and Pru. (Pat - we will pop in and look at the horses we get to Denmark as I expect they will have settled into their new paddock by then!!) | |
| We moved a bit further down the coast into the National Park and stayed at Kurrajong in a bush camp for 4 nights. The site is really nice, only 3 or 4 caravans and a couple of tents. |  |
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| The site has 'Camp Hosts'. Theseh are people who camp on the site and volunteer to look after it for the National Parks. Val and Tom were our hosts and they made us really welcome. There are two toilets on the site but that's all. We had to bring everything else with us including water. We have a couple of Solar Showers, which heat up in the sun during the day. They consist of a black plastic bag with a short length of hose and a shower nozzle on the end. They work very well. | ||
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The site is in the sand dunes right behind the beach. The reef is not far offshore so we can hear the roar of the surf breaking on the reef. (I thought it sounded a bit like Esso back home but Ali says it's nothing like it!). The lagoon inside the reef is full of marine life and the snorkelling is great. We were watching a couple of humpback whales breaching just outside the reef opposite the beach today. | |
| I said it was a bit windy here, just look at the size of the tent pegs I had to use! |  |
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