6th Day on the Cape to Cape

We started today with a short drive and a detour to a lookout to admire the Karri forest, where both Simon and Mike gave us a history lesson on the Forrest industry by way of a comical and cleaver rap, which almost had us rolling on the ground in fits of laughter. We started the hike  where we finished yesterday in the Karri, Mari, Jarah forest. Today we were accompanied on our walk by the very knowelable Simon who is a wiz on not only naming every native flower and tree, but the whole ecology of the area. We are also fortunate to have Kathy on the trip as she is extremely knowelable on plant and bird life. We hiked for 8 klms through the forest in sunshine, a contrast to yesterday’s rain which was a blessing for nature as it made everything smell fresh and alive. We then headed towards the coast for morning tea and another two slices of delicious homemade fruit cake, and piping hot tea which was carried  Simon and his offsider Anja. Then the fun began a 6klm beach walk, at first we were all very apprehensive until we realised the sand was quite firm. We were scattered along the beach enjoying the breeze from the ocean, I was in front leaving the girls encouraging messages in the sand. Sadly on the beach we came across a seal pup which seem to have lost its mother, and was badly dehydrated, nature can sometimes seem to be cruel.

Lunch was celebrated today at Hamelin  Bay, at a beautiful picnic spot. Mike was there with our meals on wheels, and a healthy sumptuous lunch. Hamelin Bay is quite a treacherous beach due to a reef situated just if shore, and has been the place  of many ship wrecks.  
Yeh! Only another 6klm today to our pick up point, all feeling very relieved until we reached another beach of very soft sand, where we sighted a pair of endangered hooded plovers. After a steep sand climb to the ridge, affording fabulous views we looked back to the north, where could see in the  distance our lunch stop of yesterday. Today was an example of the diversity of sections on the track going from forrest to beach to limestone headlands. 
Mike met us with the van  and on the way home we spotted a metre and a half tiger  snake on the road., thankfully this week Ne was not on our walking track.  Time to celebrate our supreme effort by devouring an ice cream, and purchasing several bottles of some of the best wine in Australia from the Margaret region. Looking forward to another gourmet meal this evening and an even better day tomorrow before being our finale. Now for the hot tub!

Filed under: Adventure travel