Leeuwin-Naturaliste

I could have titled this More Margaret River, but you have to admit, the name of this National Park sounds a lot more exotic and intriguing. Leeuwin-Naturaliste is a strip of protected running a couple of hundred kilometres down the coast of south west WA. It had been an eventful few weeks and a few days of doing bugger all seemed an attractive option. There are several different camp grounds in the area so we split our time between two of them, one forest one beach, Jarrahdene and Conto Beach.

I will say this about WA – they do know how to set-up and manage campgrounds. Jarrahdene is situated in a jarrah forest on the site of an abandoned timber mill. The mill has long since disappeared but there is a history trail and a few remnants. Apart from the birdlife, it is very quiet, although we did have one unwelcome visitor. I’ll let Tamika tell the story:

Intruder Alert! I never would of thought! This happened on and off for a few hours..Wow what an eventful night of crazy noises and plenty of broken sleep. Since retiring rather early (after a little tiff with you know who) we lay in bed quietly on our phones.

Suddenly scratching noises, was weird almost like something was bouncing around outside. I thought kangaroo. Am too stubborn to say to John I am freaking out and scared. I turned the light on outside and saw something dark scurry away. Back to bed lights off.

The Scratching Noise is louder and louder like something was going to rip through the front door. I am shitting myself imagining all kinds of crazy scenarios in my head, up jumped John opens the door – NOTHING. Back to bed. Scratching is getting louder more desperate, again John jumps up again thinking it’s at the door then he looks up and there sitting on the brand new flyscreen we just had fitted to the overhead vent is a possum who had come through the open vent. In 3 years on the road, this has never happened to us. All I heard was “Get out of here!” and the vent shut close. Could hear that possum running around on top of the van scratching around on and off all night…

Thank God for my hero John, who the hell knows what would of happened if it was me who saw the possum first, I envision scratches, a loose possum running round the van and all hell breaking loose.

To add insult to injury, that little bastard put his claws though the flyscreen in a couple of places, and considering what it cost us, we have decided to have collective amnesia about the damage. But apart from that little incident, we were true to our mission of laying around, getting a little less foggy and froggy each day.

Conto Beach is literally 5 minutes back towards Margaret River, but the landscape is completely different, from tall trees to coastal heath in a blink of an eye. The first morning was a beautiful blue sky and we headed along the dirt road down to the beach. We decided to fly solo with our fishing and spent the morning catching and throwing back numerous small whiting. Tamika did however succeed in catching lunch for one, and the bait to plate cycle was finally complete.

The further south we go, the more variable the weather. The endless blue skies that we had just taken for granted the last two years are becoming a little less predictable. So when the clouds rolled in the following day we found ourselves at a loose end and ferreting tracky dacks from the back of the wardrobe. Tamika is not an ‘inclement girl’, so I took a drive further along that dirt road as it wound it’s way around the coastal cliffs. The geology of the coast has changed a lot since the heady days of Ningaloo. Reefs and outcrops of granite now command most of the headlands, part of a more wild and vaguely menacing look. Trees have been contorted by the prevailing winds. Plants hug the ground. An opportunity to photograph something completely different.

Tamika received some sad news about the death of a cousin in far north Queensland. A sibling chatroom was quickly thrown together and it was decided that Aunt Betty would appreciate a visit. So here we were straddling two destinations for the flights – back to Perth or further south to Albany. In the end, after doing our usual cost/benefit analysis, we figured in spite of the extra cost, we would push on to Albany.

Tamika’s departure was over a week away and Albany about 380k’s. We figured we’d take our time and a few side trips to fill in the time. The sun returned on our last morning at Conto Beach and just in time for a couple of quick pics before she disappeared in our side view mirror- literally.

John & Tamika