Rick and Rae's Travels: Wed, 11th to Sun, 15th May

Another lovely day and we arrived at Sandy Cape at 10am. We paid our fee of $30.00 for two nights to the camp caretaker, who advised she would be leaving for Perth later in the day. After setting up, we walked around the magnificent sand dunes to a lookout where we could see for miles. The area was laid out well, with some privacy between the individual sites. There were dump toilets and some water, though not fit for drinking.

The next morning we headed back into Jurien Bay to do some shopping and then went back out onto the jetty to do some more fishing. We took the opportunity to connect to the internet while in town, as where we were camped we could only make phone calls and connect to the internet if we walked to the top of the small sand dunes. Rick caught 4 fish large enough to keep ... two Tommy Roughs (or Herring as they call them in WA), one Trevally (or Skippy) and one Butterfish. The rest weren't worth mentioning except to say they were a lot of fun! Later in the day we invited a fellow camper, Allan to join us for drinks.

Friday was not quite so warm and we end up being inundated with a goup of four vans parked right next to us. Rick laid down the law and told them they were welcome provided they didn't have generators running all night and have noisy parties. There were a couple of other vans in the area that ran generators all day and most of the night ... not very considerate of others.

We walked a long way down to the end of the beach and found it was more sheltered and warmer there, so Rick ventured into the water for a swim. When we returned, Allan invited us to join him for a roast pork dinner that he was cooking in a 'Cobb' (small, metal, domed oven with a fire brick in the base) that evening. The dinner was lovely but after having quite a few drinks Allan started to preach to us, so we said goodnight. We had invited him to join us for coffee the next morning, but he left very early.

Saturday was cool again and threatening to rain so we drove north about 20kms to a place called Green Head to have a look around. On the way we saw 2 feral cats and some emus on the side of the highway. We then drove to the Lesuer National Park. We had to pay $5 to enter the National Park ... you pay via an honesty system. You take an envelope, fill in your details and enclose your money and then drop it into a box. I grabbed an envelope and got the shock of my life when I turned it over, as there was a small lizard hanging on the other side. Needless to say, the envelope went in one direction and the lizard in another! Rick then had the good idea of getting rid of some of our small change. I filled in the envelope and we put the coins in only to find that the slot for depositing the envelopes is only big enough to take notes ... good idea Rick! Anyway, we enjoyed the drive through the park as there were a lot of lovely banksias, grevilleas and a white kangaroo paw, but there had obviously been a fire through there not long before. On the way out of the park we came across a dead wallaby carcass in the middle of the road that was being eaten by two huge eagles.

On Sunday we had a late brekky of omelette and toast. We did a bit of cleaning and tidying and our neighbours who were leaving, gave us their water (40 litres). True to their word, they hadn't run generators and were considerate with their noise. I decided to cook 1/2 a packet of scones with cheese for lunch. They weren't bad even though I had used the quantity of milk that was required to make up the full packet. A bit of extra plain flour got the dough back to something resembling scones! It had been spitting with rain and windy in the morning and ended up being overcast in the afternoon. The wind blew all night and was annoying enough for Rick to get up at 3:30am to put the awning away. Once the flapping noise stopped, we were able to get some sleep.