4/5/2019 Parry's campsite to St Mary's campsite - Fitzgerald NP

We started the day with a beach walk at Parry’s beach before heading on our way.  

There were wrens around our campsite and we were happy not to have spotted any snakes.

caretakers cottage - volunteer caretakers take turns of 2 month stints here.

The tide was still coming in, and the cars driving down the beach to get to the surfing carnival at the other end were starting to get a bit wet as they went.

the beach is part of the Bibbulmum walking track

We passed back through Denmark as we headed towards Albany.

We stopped in at Cosy Corner campsite.  The local tourist people had said this was the only free place to camp in the area now, but the signs said there were fees now.  Cosy Corner west has no camping but is a really lovely picnic area with a short walk to the beach.

The real reason for coming down here was to revisit Shelley beach where both us and Ross and Jan had stayed in the past.  Sure enough it was still there with the lovely turquoise water, the strong wind, the beautiful rolling surf waves and the surf fishermen. Not to mention the clear stream running out of the hills and into the sea. 

We laughed at a group of young guys trying to put up a shelter from the side of their ute for the coming day and night and then giving up . (last time Trev and I visited we put ours down in the middle of the night to avoid it being ruined.)

We stopped to shop in Albany and had lunch just on the other side at a “no camping” site by the side of the Kent river, then headed on to Bremer Bay.  Erica did her first stint of driving for the whole trip as Trevor started to nod off.

At Bremer Bay Trev’s map said there was a road across the inlet, and we had a look – no road, but there was a dry bed of packed sand, so we drove across and sure enough found a track on the other side. A short cut into the Fitzgerald River NP!! Turned out to be a short cut but maybe not a fast one.  There were sections of muddy cut in boggy bits even though the weather has been pretty dry, and , worse than this, there were long sections of massive teeth jarring corrugations.  The difficulty of this was magnified as we were running out of daylight and still had another 70km or so to make camp.

corrugations

very hard to see where to drive as we faced directly into the sunset on the dusty road at times.

In the fading light we could make out some really unusual plants on the side of the road, but no time to stop.  The most impressive and noticeable are apparently Royal Hakeas – they look like they are related to opened  cabbages – stacked on top of one another and coloured in yellows, oranges and reds – definitely need a photo of these and others when daylight comes.

 There were lots of other spots of colour from flowers too, so hopefully the new day brings lots more interesting ones to have a look at.

The sun set as we drove and we ended up heading towards the eastern bay and a blue horizon with dusky pink above it (the reflection of the dying sunset on the opposite wide horizon) . We were just making our way into the roomy campsite in the last of the fading light.  

A quick walk down to the beach gave the impression of sea haze and a long and beautiful beach with super squeaky sand.  A treat to anticipate tomorrow.  We are the only ones here in this terrific spot.  Large sites with bush separating us from Ross and Jan in the next one so that we can just make out the white of their vehicle through the trees.