Saturday, October 9, 2010

Day 1 Cape Naturaliste to Yallingup

The day of the big walk has arrived. Steve and Nola collected us at 10.00am. The drive to Cape Naturaliste was a little over 3 hours. The traffic was quite heavy as this is the school holiday period, being Saturday many people would be commencing their holidays.

After lunch on the Busselton foreshore we made our way to Cape Naturaliste a short drive away. We commenced our walk at Approximately 2.00pm. The first leg was to Sugarloaf Rock, approximately 3 kms away. This was really easy as the walk trail is sealed, making it possible for those in wheel chairs to enjoy a short part of the walk.

There was many wild flowers, mainly in pinks, whites and purples to observe as we walked along. We passed one group of about 7 back packers, as they were carrying large packs we soon overtook them. I’m glad we only had to carry day packs as the sandy strips would become quite difficult walking with a heavy pack.

After we passed Sugarloaf Rock we were onto the sand tracks, which in some spots were quite soft. At times you walked on the ledge above the beach, other times there was small sections of beach walking. It was all very pleasant except for the quite strong wind, at least it wasn’t too hot. We also had a brief but pleasant encounter with Ray who was one of the authors of the guide book we were using. He was in the process of developing the 5th edition of the book. Steve said he was aware of him as a science teacher, although he was now obviously retired.

We saw some fauna, two kangaroos, nice red ones, they bounded away as we got near to them. Also saw a small goanna on the track, which didn’t move at all, maybe it was too cold. Also saw a beautiful Blue or Splendid Wren, tried to get a photo, but it was a little blurred.

The final stretch into Yallingup was along the beautiful Yallingup Beach, completing.approximately 14km on our first day, a 3.5 hour walk. We arrived in the car park at 5.30pm, Kathryn and Nola were waiting to take us back to Taunton Farm. Tomorrow we make our way from Yallingup to Moses Rock, approximately 17.5km.

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