We walked out along the foreshore part way to Cape Kidnappers, (first place on the planet to see the sunrise) on a grey day with a howling wind for company. Through a caravan park at the end of the road, which had been rebuilt and chunks of roadway now laid on the narrow beach. Pigeons are nesting in the cliffs closer to vans. There is a skull and crossbones flag flapping, and I swear strains of duelling banjos are audible. “Wish I’d known it was all along the beach,” says Rod.
“I did tell you.”
“Would have gotten organized and gone the whole way.”
Hopefully the day would have been prettier, and the wind less the sort that was set on tumbling us head first onto the sand. Waves biting into the already heavily eroded shore. Waters are churned so much that it look like miso soup.
It’s all very different from the solitary ranger’s hut, where you registered your walk and were warned if it was too close to the incoming tide. Now there are two caravan parks, albeit basic, substantial café and wineries in the area offered accommodation. There were several tours, but as usual we opted out, and were just doing our own thing. It all seems so ‘big-business’ to look at Gannets. “Oversized sea-gulls,” Rod calls them.
Several vehicles passed by, quad bikes, trail bikes, 4 WDs and small tractors with backpackers perched behind drivers. Awesome cliffs totally dominate. Wind forces us into a lean forward posture. Stronger gusts lift any loose sand, the back of our legs are grit-bitten. Recent rock fall and pine trees litter the scene, with giant rubble heaps. (Mccarthy’s The Road – ish) Water flows from under boulders, some gargantuan versions sit on the beach and we are sure these were washed there rather than fallen from above.
One overloaded tractor could not make the incline through the pebbles off the beach. So eventually everyone had to dismount and walk. Made for some interesting photographs with a half bogged tractor.
I release some stones from being trapped on the beach.
“Don’t you think the tide would have done that?” Says Rod.
“Yes, but I got there sooner.”
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