Day 83 | Yardie Homestead Caravan Park: he takes the easy option and checks in to paid accommodation
49 km | zzOz total: 3,838 km
I haven’t seen so much wildlife in one day, ever.
Even at the zoo.
First up a few emus, nothing so special there, but then I saw about 6 little stripy backed chicks scooting around, trying to get stepped on by their flustered mum, about 600mm high so probably a few weeks old.
Down at the wharf where I had rolled to munch my lunch I saw the largest, except for those sharks back in Esperance, but certainly the fastest fish I’ve ever spotted in the open sea cutting through the water at a vicious speed.
“Why didn’t you catch that one? Not big enough?”, I asked a fisherman.
“Spanish mackerel”, he replied, shaking his head in disappointment.
Then more whales, their distinctive hump indicating they might be, well, humpbacks, this time although I was further away I had more height to watch their antics. They seem to have a good life, like another large mammal around here.
More terrific beaches, the water warmer than Coral Bay, I splashed about, hesitant to plunge in, Mauritius turned out to be clothing optional, a few wrinkled peanuts on the beach, I refrained from dropping my bike shorts.
Next a large goanna, like 2m long, just wandering over the beach track, but cranking up the legs like a beach sprinter when I was appreciated.
Two horses, where did they come from?
The termites have levelled the shrubbery to less than knee height and there was nowhere to stealth camp, the sea “breeze” whistling in, sand flying. I knew there was no hope in the National Park for a legitimate site, there’s not too many and the pensioners can hog a pozzy for a month at $10 a day, and in any case that gale I’d been cycling into this afternoon has been constant since the day I left Carnarvon.
Instead I lobbed into the last caravan park before the National Park, the cheapest around, it was the appropriate time, 430, plenty of shelter here, there’s even a few trees still standing. It’s straight from the 1970s, no city folk or pretension here, not much has changed in the last 40 years, ie, I love it.
$16 for me not the $30 in town, sheesh, I’m staying a week. There’s a decent patch of ground for tents, and not only that you can get all of the pegs in the ground, without even a hint of bending.
The people are friendly and I even got a discount because of my method of transportation.
My immediate neighbours had been out massacring the fish life while I had been inspecting those 12 beaches this afternoon and had a ridiculously large catch, helps that the continental shelf is just 12km offshore, it must be one of the most glorious places left in the world for recreational fishing, hence that cavalcade of boats heading this direction.
“I thought you were meant to throw the small ones back”, I said to one of the filleting knife weldors at the fish cleaning station, they had two sizeable Spanish mackerel amongst the catch.
“17 kilos and 15 kilos”, he grinned. (38lbs.) The sleek, shimmering pair were 1500mm and 1350mm long, ie, 5 feet and 4.5, and had a surprised look on their face, like I’m sure the day wasn’t supposed to end like this. There were plenty of smaller fry there as well, any of which were bigger than anything I’ve even caught.
They were going to be feasting on fish tonight, but then it would probably take a bit to fill those bulky boy’s bellies and those of their extended family.