Martin, Karen and Locky Archer in a Pajero towing a caravan
Roger and Jan Freegard in a Discovery towing an Ultimate camper
Peter and Denise Belcher in a Landcruiser towing a caravan
Jason, Jane, Lani and Tia McCarthy in a Pajero towing a camper
Bob and Bridget McPherson in a Lancruiser towing a camper
Glenn Bignell in a Landcruiser
Keith Parker in a Pajero towing a caravan
John and Viv Stampalija in a Landcruiser towing a camper
John and Rosalie King in a Prado towing a caravan
Trip notes. Duke of
Orleans Bay
Day 1, Sunday December 26, 2010. Boxing Day
9 vehicles met at the Gull Service Station at the corner of Canning Road and
Brookton Hwy, Karagullen.
We set off at a respectable hour of 9:45am heading south-east on Brookton
Highway. Despite very strong easterly winds causing additional fuel
consumption , the journey progressed well, stopping at Corrigin for a short
break before continuing on to Hyden for Lunch. Glenn suffered some
mechanical problems with his fuel line before reaching Hyden, so with the
assistance of John and Viv performed a roadside mechanical check while the
remaining party continued into Hyden.
A good long lunch break was had in Hyden until Glenn and John rolled into
town. Glenn had still not found the cause of the loss in power to his engine
but suspected it was a fuel problem. Glenn decided to dump the remaining
fuel in his tank and replenish it with new fuel. This was going to take a
little time so Stamps offered to stay with Glenn while the rest of us
continued for our planned overnight stop south of Lake King at the Pallarup
Nature Reserve. It was 4:30pm by the time we pulled up in a road side camp
area at the intersection of Muncaster Road and Lake King – Ravensthorpe
Road. A satellite phone call was received from Glenn who said he was staying
in Hyden overnight to see a RAC mechanic in the morning. John and Viv had
continued on to meet up with the rest of us, arriving at camp just after
6:00pm.
Total fire bans meant no camp fire that night and with strong chilling winds
we all decided to retire quite early.
Day 2 Pallarup to Duke of Orleans
Everyone was packed up and ready to leave by 8:00am and we headed for
Ravensthorpe to meet up with Guy and Wendy Lehmann. Guy had recently
purchased a new Pajero and a new caravan, so they were not hard to spot with
their glistening new rig sitting on the side of the road in Ravensthorpe.
Keith decided not to take the chance of making it to Esperance with what
fuel was remaining from Hyden and refueled at Ravensthorpe. It was a wise
decision as it turned out because, although it was just 380km between Hyden
and Ravensthorpe, the strong head winds and undulating roads saw myself
running out of fuel about 20 km short of Esperance. Luckily Bob had spare
diesel on board and was able to get me running again. As trip leader I
decided it was not significant enough to rate as a Piston Broke nomination.
After splitting up to re-fuel and have a lunch stop in Esperance we met at
the Esperance Turf Club to head for Duke Of Orleans Bay. We arrived at
Orleans Bay at about 2:30 where we found Richard and Helen Kingston already
settled in. Duke of Orleans Caravan Park was reasonably busy as we booked in
with a number of travellers being turned away because all serviced sites had
been pre-booked for the holiday period. The unpowered area allocated to our
club was a good size with plenty of room to spread out.
Glenn had managed to fix his fuel problem in Hyden and eventually joined us
later in the afternoon just in time for happy hour.
Day 3:
Today was a casual rest day with most people setting up a semi-permanent
camp for the two week stay. Towards the middle of the day several vehicles
headed for the nearby Wharton Beach. This beach is a wide expanse of white
sand and turquoise waters sheltered from the sea by a small peninsula. Ideal
for swimming and body boarding. There were quite a number of vehicles on the
beach, but plenty of room for everyone. We stayed on the beach for a swim
before driving further along the waters edge to the end of the bay where a
track marked with guide posts takes you across a sandy peninsula to the next
beach called Victoria Harbour. There is little need to reduce tyre pressure
because the beach sand is very firm in these areas, that is, if you have 4WD
engaged, but we wont mention that will we JK?
Happy hour was spent back at the camp beneath the club's two gazebos, which
by the looks of the weather forecast may be needed for rain protection
rather than shade. We hired a fire place from the caravan park for $15 per
day which included fire wood. The only stipulation was that the cooking
plate had to be left on top to prevent embers flying into the air. This
still made a central point for everyone to sit around in the evening with
the warmth radiating out from the fire.
Day 4:
Today's trip involved a respectable 9:30am departure heading for Daniels
Beach about 15 kilometers east of Duke of Orleans. There are two ways of
getting to Daniels Beach from Duke Of Orleans. The easiest, but longest way,
is to head away from the coast on Orleans Bay Road, then taking gravel roads
to the beach. We chose to take the shorter route along a coastal track which
leads from Duke of Orleans Bay, crosses a creek and involves a sandy hill
climb. It wasn't long before commencing on the track when it was realized
that tyre pressures needed to be reduced, after which, there was little
difficulty negotiating the track to Daniels Beach. Daniels Beach was yet
another beautiful expanse of white sand and turquoise water. We had morning
tea on the beach before heading off along a track which headed inland along
the Munglinup River. The intention was to find a ruins marked on the map
about 5 kilometers inland. However as we progressed the track became more
closed in and eventually became too damaging for the paint work. We had the
Lehmann's new Pajero and the McPherson's new 76 series Landcruiser in the
convoy which were well and truly getting christened to bush driving. So we
decided to do an about turn and head back to the beach. With the convoy now
in reverse order the Kingstons were trip leader and Karen and I were
Tail-End-Charlie. Richard led us through several dunes before finding
another bay to park up on and have some lunch. Awnings were erected and as
we settled down several other people on the beach decided to take the
opportunity of an audience and ride quad bikes up and down the beach.
Beautiful location but tranquility it wasn't!
The drive back to camp was by way of the main gravel roads. A lot longer
route, but less stressful on the driver and vehicle.
Day 5:
With New Years Eve pending and a couple of members planning to leave at the
end of the week, it was decided to get a trip in to one of the main features
of the area. Cape Arid National Park is just over 70km east of Duke of
Orleans Bay. Several of the members decided to have a rest day in camp, so
the convoy was reduced to 7 vehicles. Cape Arid is separated by two
entrances, the first entrance was Thomas River Road which took us past the
Rangers residence and then split in two directions. The first track we took
led down to Tagon Bay which we soon discovered required reasonably low tyre
pressures for the soft sand. But once their we found a nice secluded corner
of the bay to stop for 'morno's.
We then headed back off the beach to the next location which took us past
some camp sites (all full) and onto Yokinup Bay. This Bay runs for over 11
kilometers out to the tip of Cape Arid. As we progressed along the beach the
sand became softer and beach narrower. A few of the ladies became anxious
about the conditions and suggested we turn back. We had received some
friendly advise from another person in the area on our UHF channel that the
tide was due in at 8pm and we needed to make sure we were clear of the beach
by then otherwise it would be a matter of staying the night. Although this
was handy to know, it didn't appease the ladies concerns. So after a little
heated discussion with my navigator and the rest of the convoy content to
continue we meandered our way along the beach. The ladies anxiety was
relieved somewhat when we were overtaken by a Nissan Xtrail. We eventually
reach the point of the cape which was a magnificent expansive sand bank with
a large rock outcrop. Although it was at the point of the cape, the waters
were considerably calm and the usual southern coast crystal clear.
After a long lunch break on the cape, we continued further over several
headlands and bays, all of which had one or two campers settled in idyllic
hide-aways. The idea was to try and find a track that would lead us around
to Poison Creek which would prevent us from having to drive back along the
beach. But to no avail, we reached a point where there was no way of
continuing further. The only possible track was closed due to die-back risk.
So we headed back the way we came, eventually coming across a couple of
Landcruisers bogged on the beach. We stopped and gave them some assistance
and friendly advise which they gratefully received. After clearing their
wheels of sand and lowering the tyre pressures they were soon on their way.
Since the day was getting on, the other side of Cape Arid, including
Israelite Bay was left until another day. We arrived back at camp in time
for happy hour. The McCarthys and Glenn headed for Wharton Beach to watch
the sunset.
Day 6:
Friday (New Year’s Eve) was spent by most visiting Esperance, either site
seeing or shopping. Others stayed at the caravan park relaxing before the
evening’s entertainment.
A group booking was made for a New Year's Eve dinner at the Condingup
Tavern. This tavern was discovered on day four when some of us had coffee
there following the Daniels Beach run. A lovely designed compact tavern with
a very cozy dining room has been run by the same family for several
generations. They were more than happy to organize a set menu for our group
of 19 for New Year's Eve. A wonderful 3 course Dinner was enjoyed by
everyone before we headed back to camp for the last couple of hours of 2010.
Although the camp ground was fairly noisy when we returned with lots of
stray teenagers excitedly wondering around, they all soon disappeared
courtesy of a fireworks display on the beach. We decided to celebrate at the
camp site to make use of the fire Jason and Jane had stoked up for our
return. Midnight soon came along and hugs and kisses were enjoyed by all,
but the men folk were soon outclassed when a group of about 7 topless blond
young men came walking through the camp giving the ladies a New Years Eve
hug and kiss. The club's defibrilator almost got its first taste of action
with some of the ladies getting over-excited by the lean male bodies.
Day 7:
after a party-recovery morning we decided to have a relaxing day on the
beach at the nearby Victoria Bay. Access to Victoria Bay is via Wharton
Beach by driving along the beach to the western point where a track marked
with posts crosses a sand flat. This area is not too difficult to cross,
however, you could find yourself bogged to the subframe and being
photographed by the Subaru Club if you forget to put your car in 4WD; Hey
John? Things could get more embarrassing if one of your convoy returns to
give you a hand, you don't recognise them when they beep their horn and you
give them the finger!
A relaxing day was spent under shade awnings, swimming, fishing and kite
flying.
Day 8:
We headed off at 9:30am in a convoy of 10 vehicles for Dunns Beach which is
the Eastern Side of Cape Le-Grande National Park. Access to this beach is
via Saddleback Road and onto a sandy track that winds itself through sand
dunes and hills down to a wide expanse of white sand on the beach. The
alternative route is through the main National Park Access via Lucky Bay.
But that involves a lengthy trek along the coast. Once on the beach we
headed east towards a rock outcrop hoping that it would provide some
protection from the strong winds that day. The small bay did not afford much
protection from the flying sand, but the rock outcrop did provide a good
platform for fishing which most of us took advantage of. Glen, Jason and
Roger had some success catching cod and herring.
We received a visit from DEC Rangers who where out patrolling the Cape Le
Grande coast. We suspect they had heard our radio conversation and came to
check us out. They were very pleasant young men who engaged us in
conversation for a while before picking up some rubbish left behind by other
campers.
The wind persisted through the afternoon after we had returned to camp. Guy
and Wendy offered the protection of their new annexe for happy hour which
proved a challenge getting 20 people into.
Day 9:
The McCarthys had planned to travel home today, so after seeing them off in
the morning we had a 10:00am start for today's trip to Lucky Bay and Cape
Le'Grande National Park. With some of the crew deciding to have a rest day,
we ended up with 6 vehicles in convoy. We took the same route back to Dunns
Beach as the previous day, stopping to look at a 4 foot brown snake cross
the track. Upon reaching Dunns Beach we headed west as opposed to east the
previous day. This took us up to a point called Dunns Rock where there is a
track crossing the point into the next bay which is called Rossiter's Bay.
However, before leaving Dunns Beach we assisted some people who were having
trouble pulling their trailer out of a camping spot between dunes. They had
bogged their Prado which was eventually freed by a bit of digging and tyre
deflating.
Rossiter Bay is a little soft to drive on but has a firm tidal stretch when
the tide is out. With tyres deflated it did not pose a problem either way.
Another snake was sunbathing on the sand and was quite annoyed when our
convoy disturbed its peace. Tail-End Richard gave it more angst by circling
it in his car to prevent it heading back to the bush.
A Gravel road lead from the west end of Rossiters Bay to Lucky Bay where we
found the camping ground full but the beach itself was not too busy. Lucky
Bay is a very popular camping area due to the excellent scenery and
sheltered waters of the bay. We set up shade awnings for our prolonged lunch
stop.
We received news from another UHF radio user that the beach access to
Esperance near Wiley Bay was closed due to a bush fire. So after leaving
Lucky Bay we stopped at the Ranger Station where the Ranger confirmed that
news. With our planned exit from Cape Le-Grande detoured we finished the day
off by visiting the 'tourist' bays at Hellfire Beach and Cape Le-Grande
Beach before heading back to camp.
After an early dinner most people headed down to Wharton Beach for a spot of
evening fishing. We arrived there just in time to see the spectacular
remnants of a beautiful sunset. Fishing was continued into the dark of the
night without much success. Despite the lack of catch, the evening was calm
with skys lit with brilliant stars.
Day 10:
Another rest day saw most people head down to nearby Nearn's Beach for a
casual fish and rest near the calm waters of this sheltered bay. Fishing
proved more successful with a number of Brim and Cod caught by those that
ventured, including 5 year old Locky who impressed everyone with his casting
and landing a cod almost as big he is.
After a day of relaxing and leisure we prepared once again to head for
Condingup Tavern for dinner. This time it was to celebrate Jan's birthday.
Another faultless meal was served by the Tavern who also prepared a special
chocolate birthday mud cake with sparkling candles for Jan.
Upon return to camp the warm and clear night was extended further with a
night cap around the fire.
Day 11:
With a 9:30 departure (on time again... gee what a good crowd) we headed in
a convoy of 7 vehicles for Poison Creek on the Eastern side of Cape Arid
National Park. The round trip was a little over 230km with about 20km of
that distance over severe corrugations at the eastern end of Merrivale Road.
Most of the corrugations were inside the National Park which we thought was
a very poor effort on behalf of DEC in maintaining the track. This
considering they had closed the access track from the western beaches to the
eastern side some years ago to prevent die-back spread and haven't reviewed
it since. It is by no means easy for visitors to see this breathtaking part
of the coast without suffering possible vehicle damage by traversing the
bone jarring corrugations. Despite that small complaint, the visit to Thomas
Fishery Beach, Hill Springs and Poison Creek was well worth the bad road
conditions, 40+ heat and afternoon windy conditions.
We began driving back to camp with the outside temperature still above 40c.
We reached Duke of Orleans after 4:00pm and decided to head straight for the
beach to cool off. We found Little Wharton Beach a little busy, but with
enough room for us to make our own commune near the water edge. The crystal
clear water was very enticing and soon everyone was enjoying a swim. An
approaching storm saw everyone pack up quickly as the wind conditions
suddenly turned for the worst. We made it back to camp just in time to
batten down awnings as the front came through with strong winds and heavy
rain.
That evening was spent inside our camps away from the rain; although the
high temperatures made things a little uncomfortable.
Day 12:
No specific trips ran today. Some went to Esperance and on to Gibson Soak
for a hearty lunch, others stayed at Duke of Orleans and the local beaches
for swimming and fishing. The Lehmanns departed camp in order to make a
weekend wedding function.
Day 13:The Freegards departed to visit friends in Albany. Another
unexplored bay was found using Oziexplorer, so plans were made to go and
investigate it. Located between Nearns Island Beach and Little Wharton Beach
this bay is only accessible by a sand track. Our 4 vehicle convoy (2 other
vehicles to follow later) navigated the soft sand tracks eventually driving
onto the rock outcrops nearer the coast and then descending a steep sand
hill onto another large sloping rock. From here it was decision to maneuver
over boulders being swept by waves or use a very steep and soft sand bypass
track. The first option was chosen with just a couple of the vehicles
undersides slightly scraping on the rocks.
The day was spent on this wonderful secluded bay swimming, reading and
fishing. The difficulty of the track meant that we were only disturbed by a
family on quad bikes for a short moment during the day. Eventually the Kings
and Stampalijas found their way to the beach using directions over the UHF
from those on the beach. Rosalie was much relieved to have made it in one
piece, but the fun was yet to be had in trying to get out.
Later in the afternoon the kings were first to try the steep exit track upon
which the third attempt was successful after Rosalie decided to vacate the
passenger seat and walk up to the rock platform. Glenn made three attempts
before opting out with the rest of us deciding to use the alternate exit of
a rock navigation.
Day 14:(Saturday): Departures were made by the Kings, Stampalijas, Belchers,
Glenn and Keith. This left just the Archers and Kingstons at the camp. The
vacant sites were soon occupied by other travellers. Those remaining spent a
day on Little Wharton Beach before returning to camp in the afternoon to
begin packing for our long drive home on Sunday.
Thank you to all those that attended for being such a fabulous group of
people to holiday with. The same area has been booked for Tuesday Dec 27,
2011 to Saturday Jan 7, 2012.