This is the first time I have been late to my own trip! It took me over an hour and a half to go from the Churchlands to the Jarrahdale turnoff on the South-west highway. At least everybody else was there waiting and ready to go. Including myself, the convoy consisted of Eugene in his Grand Vitara who arrived five minutes before me and had his daughter Chelsea with her friend Melissa on board, Mark with his Sierra that had a new carburettor, fuel tank and extractors and Geoff with his son Jordan, our old new member in his well appointed Sierra.
The late start and slow traffic put us behind schedule only just making a refuelling stop at Donnybrook by 8:00pm closing time. With full tanks and extra fuel, we pushed on only stopping at Manjimup for a food top up and so arrived at our destination just before 11:00pm. A few showers on the way down concerned us a bit but the rain had gone before we had even put the tents up.
When we arrived, Paul and Sandra where there in their “tractor” Sierra and so was Dohn, our visitor from Busselton, in his Jimny. After putting up our tents and chatting, Russell and Liz arrived in the Vitara followed by Angelo in his Sierra. Next morning, Doug and Irene arrived in the Grand Vitara.
After a casual breakfast we left the camp site at about 10:30am and headed off down the Mandalay road to the turn off to the western end of the park. We turned off at the 4x4 track to Banksia camp and Brooke Inlet with Red Rock being our first stop. Everybody was impressed with the vista especially that of Chatham Island and Needle Point (see photo).
The Next stop was Cliffy Head lookout. From there, we had a magnificent panorama west along the coast and back out to the land side of Chatham Island. Those not already impressed by the scenery were by now brought around. From there we proceeded out to the outlet of Brooke Inlet. Again the scenery was magnificent as we drove over ancient country and around the edge of the lake. The final “pièce de résistance” was going over the pure white sand dunes to break out onto the beach next to the outlet to Brooke. Everybody agreed the scenery was just magnificent.
Magnificent is not what I can say about the fishing. Try as we might, the only fish caught were two small whiting by Angelo. Not enough for dinner. During the return to the camp, we stopped at an old hut to try our luck in the lake to no avail. No fish dinner for me that night! After signing the visitor book, we returned to camp, dinner and a great campfire. (It was during the campfire period that Sandra mistook me in the half light for a tree trunk. You might like to asked her about the circumstances that led to this mistaken identity and the consequences if she had not realised I was actually a person standing very still and enjoying the tranquillity of nature.)
Next morning we had a lazy start in the opposite direction and elected Hush Hush Beach the best place to start. The track was a bit sandy and challenging where the long wooden planks had splintered up and pointed precariously at our tyres. Hush Hush was a great place with a steep, slippery track to the bottom of a 200+m descent. However, the fishing was fantastic with enough fish being caught (8 Tarwine and 7 Bull Herring) to feed everybody who wanted one. The climb out was easier than anticipated as Irene found the proper track up the ridge much to the relief of some of us older members.
Lunch was now paramount on everybody’s mind and, after a brief stop at the Long Point car park, we found the Little Long Point car park to be a Peppermint grove with lots of shade and a great place for lunch and relaxation. Not only that, the beach was not that far away and so quite a few of us went for a swim, body surf, bogey board and general site seeing. But that is not all. There were multiple fresh water streams running into the bay which provided me with the opportunity to (privately) strip off and have a bath after my swim in the ocean.
Next stop was to be Lost Beach but there was no parking space as another club arrived before us and took all of the parking. Thus we returned to camp. The fish was wrapped in foil with onions, olive oil, salt, pepper and white wine and then cooked on the hotplate over the camp fire. What a great entrée. Again we had a great campfire thanks to the pyromania of Angelo, but I was tired from the day’s events and had to go to my tent early.
Dawn saw Angelo, Mark and me out at Mandaly Beach for one last effort to catch fish but the gods were against us: I had one bite in the hour and a half we were there. However, the sunrise and scenery was magnificent so we left there in high spirit.
The remainder of the day was taken up in travelling back to Perth via the ice cream and toffee factory and Goundary’s winery. The rest of the trip was uneventful except for the odd crazy driver and bad service at Kojunup.
Those who came appeared to have a great time and I definitely did. Thanks to everybody who made the trip worth while and I look forward to the next one.
The late start and slow traffic put us behind schedule only just making a refuelling stop at Donnybrook by 8:00pm closing time. With full tanks and extra fuel, we pushed on only stopping at Manjimup for a food top up and so arrived at our destination just before 11:00pm. A few showers on the way down concerned us a bit but the rain had gone before we had even put the tents up.
When we arrived, Paul and Sandra where there in their “tractor” Sierra and so was Dohn, our visitor from Busselton, in his Jimny. After putting up our tents and chatting, Russell and Liz arrived in the Vitara followed by Angelo in his Sierra. Next morning, Doug and Irene arrived in the Grand Vitara.
After a casual breakfast we left the camp site at about 10:30am and headed off down the Mandalay road to the turn off to the western end of the park. We turned off at the 4x4 track to Banksia camp and Brooke Inlet with Red Rock being our first stop. Everybody was impressed with the vista especially that of Chatham Island and Needle Point (see photo).
The Next stop was Cliffy Head lookout. From there, we had a magnificent panorama west along the coast and back out to the land side of Chatham Island. Those not already impressed by the scenery were by now brought around. From there we proceeded out to the outlet of Brooke Inlet. Again the scenery was magnificent as we drove over ancient country and around the edge of the lake. The final “pièce de résistance” was going over the pure white sand dunes to break out onto the beach next to the outlet to Brooke. Everybody agreed the scenery was just magnificent.
Magnificent is not what I can say about the fishing. Try as we might, the only fish caught were two small whiting by Angelo. Not enough for dinner. During the return to the camp, we stopped at an old hut to try our luck in the lake to no avail. No fish dinner for me that night! After signing the visitor book, we returned to camp, dinner and a great campfire. (It was during the campfire period that Sandra mistook me in the half light for a tree trunk. You might like to asked her about the circumstances that led to this mistaken identity and the consequences if she had not realised I was actually a person standing very still and enjoying the tranquillity of nature.)
Next morning we had a lazy start in the opposite direction and elected Hush Hush Beach the best place to start. The track was a bit sandy and challenging where the long wooden planks had splintered up and pointed precariously at our tyres. Hush Hush was a great place with a steep, slippery track to the bottom of a 200+m descent. However, the fishing was fantastic with enough fish being caught (8 Tarwine and 7 Bull Herring) to feed everybody who wanted one. The climb out was easier than anticipated as Irene found the proper track up the ridge much to the relief of some of us older members.
Lunch was now paramount on everybody’s mind and, after a brief stop at the Long Point car park, we found the Little Long Point car park to be a Peppermint grove with lots of shade and a great place for lunch and relaxation. Not only that, the beach was not that far away and so quite a few of us went for a swim, body surf, bogey board and general site seeing. But that is not all. There were multiple fresh water streams running into the bay which provided me with the opportunity to (privately) strip off and have a bath after my swim in the ocean.
Next stop was to be Lost Beach but there was no parking space as another club arrived before us and took all of the parking. Thus we returned to camp. The fish was wrapped in foil with onions, olive oil, salt, pepper and white wine and then cooked on the hotplate over the camp fire. What a great entrée. Again we had a great campfire thanks to the pyromania of Angelo, but I was tired from the day’s events and had to go to my tent early.
Dawn saw Angelo, Mark and me out at Mandaly Beach for one last effort to catch fish but the gods were against us: I had one bite in the hour and a half we were there. However, the sunrise and scenery was magnificent so we left there in high spirit.
The remainder of the day was taken up in travelling back to Perth via the ice cream and toffee factory and Goundary’s winery. The rest of the trip was uneventful except for the odd crazy driver and bad service at Kojunup.
Those who came appeared to have a great time and I definitely did. Thanks to everybody who made the trip worth while and I look forward to the next one.
