Today we have woken to a nice day and our tour today was
down the western side of the King George Sound to West Cape Howe National park.
There are a number of natural features here which are interesting and
spectacular. First was a walking trail down to Dunsky’s Beach which is a bit of
rugged coastline on the way out to “The Gap”.
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| Dunsky's Beach |
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| Snake 1 Crowned snake |
A short walk from the car park
takes you down onto the rocks and had some great views back along the coast. On
our return we had the first of three encounters with Di’s nemesis the snake. On
the last set of steps at the top landing there was a Crowned Snake these little
fellows grow to about 30 to 35 cm long and are “mildly venomous”. Di managed to
step over it and didn’t see it and was “not happy Jan” when I pointed it out.
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| The Arch |
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| The Gap |
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| Looking back from the Gap |
Not to worry probably won’t see any more (oh how I was to eat these words).
Next stop was a few km’s further on and was called the bridge and is a similar
formation to the London bridge at the 12 apostles. There was a bit of swell
running and the water wasn’t quite as spectacular as it could have been. None
the less it was well worth the effort. A little further on the same walking
track is the gap and even with the relatively small swell running this was
spectacular. The waves entering this small, narrow cleft in the rocks produced
some explosive wave action. Back in the car and a few more kms were the blow
holes. This was by far the longest and hardest walk of the day with a steep
decline to negotiate and steps and the blow holes were not performing today as
the swell wasn’t quite large enough. That said the noise coming from the blow
holes was like the earth breathing. Gaz and I ventured down to the outlet in
the rock face and nearly got blown of our feet with the air movements. The
actual holes in the crevice would be no more than a meter square and the air
comes out in a rush. I can only imaging the effect if the swells were larger
and the holes were spouting water.
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| Snake 3 Same as snake 2 |
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| snake 2 Barbick Snake |
Our return journey up the walk way was not
without excitement. We came across not 1 but 2 snakes about 500 mtrs apart. They
are known as Barbick snakes over here and like our other friend only grow to
about 30 to 35cm long and are also “mildly venomous”. Those of you who know Di know how she loves
snakes and, well this sort of didn’t help her be at one with nature any time soon.
I found them quite interesting and felt a little important as I became the
“sacrificial lamb” to shepherd Di around the little fellows.
It seemed lunch
was now in order so we took ourselves and our picnic lunch off to the Discovery
Bay Centre and had a late lunch on the beach.
Munchies completed we headed back towards Albany and the wind power
observation area. Albany has a wind generation set up and this is about as
close as I’ve ever seen anyone get to these things. At the closest point we
were literally almost directly under the spinning blades. There are 12 in the
farm and they generate a significant portion of Albany’s power requirements.
Next stop was Limeburners Distillery and the thought of a single malt whiskey,
alas it was not to be at more than $300 a
750 ml bottle there are more pressing things to buy, the coffee there however
was more than acceptable. A fitting end to the day.
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