We take it easy and instead of having a second cup of tea before setting off we decide to go to the local cafe to sus out what they have for dinner tonight, to have a coffee and meet the grumpy lady according to some trip advisor reviewers.......
We are served by a charming English girl on her travels around the world, with decent coffee and conversation, we then speak to a more senior lady and are soon sharing a laugh with her too, so no bad review from me.......
Off to what the publicity machine would have us believe is one of the greatest National Parks in Australia, we are not holding our breath on that as we enter Fitzgerald River National Park. It's Beach overload with bay after bay of white sand and turquoise blue and white breaking waves. We stop at West Beach which has a small amount of sand but incredible rock formations, these rocks would you believe we're once part of Antartica before Australia broke away and is still now moving 10cm a year away from that cold place down South. We are thinking of having lunch when we stop and talk to two women, now some of you may well be aware of my finicky attitude towards anything grubby and dirty especially where personal hygiene is involved, so I'm going to look at this next incident from both sides, theirs and mine.
We are talking to the two women when their husbands walk up and start to talk to us as well, fine to start with but then I notice something and one of the men does something which makes me sort of jump, I refrain from squealing and we say our goodbyes.
Now from the Australian guys perspective he may have thought, those English people are a bit weird, or he was a bit rude, what sort of behaviour was that, why did he move like that and then suddenly say goodby and walk away?
From my perspective when he walked up and started talking, I saw a 3/4 inch bogie hanging from his nose, I was standing down wind from him when he suddenly touched his nose, knocked off the bogie which then flew in the wind straight onto meeeeeeeeee. Thankfully once out of sight and my little girlie dance, my trusty giggling partner examined me several times before confirming nothing untoward was sticking to me.......
We stop at a so called beauty spot for lunch and find one lady sitting at a picnic table on her own, I get out and start a conversation to find her husband had left her here an hour ago whilst he has gone off on a walk, saying he will be back in half hour. I look at the board and point out the walk is described as two hours return, so whilst she may have to wait a bit longer, he is probably okay. Lunch is prepared and we sit at a different table just as her husband comes back, I'm not taking any more chances......... We get talking and find that he would love to move to Spain and live on the Costa del Sol, he is 70yrs, has had a heart attack, has a house here worth the equivalent to £200,000, has failed to maintain his Maltese passport and is married to an Australian who definitely did not give us the same vibe as to moving countries, especially with her granddaughter living in Sydney. It was hard but we were diplomatic in that we encouraged him it may be better to stay here and travel instead, one happy wife who thinks this is an appropriate time to leave.........at which two kangaroos come up, sniff us out and then are off to find something not so smelly. Now it's a good job they never sniffed us about 2hours later as we found East Mount Barren, yep you have guessed it, a pointy up bit of land higher than the rest around it. Only one thing to do, climb it. It's steep and possibly the worst path I have been on, it's all loose boulders but half way up and the sun has gone behind the high cloud, great perhaps I'll cool down a bit, then it suddenly feels cooler, I look up and the top is now starting to be covered in low cloud. Common sense takes over and I phone for a helicopter rescue....... Chance of having a signal would be a fine thing....... So whist it Galls me to say it, I never made it to the top, taking my safety rather than accomplishment as the priority. Bet my Mum says, "Good Boy" after reading that bit.....
We get back to camp and find someone has parked their car on our site, I ask around but no one knows, so we park in front of it. 10 minutes later a big gruff angry looking man with biceps the size of water melons comes up to me, I'm looking at the fire in his eyes, his nostrils flaring when he goes to say something but before he can do so, I lift my sweaty armpit up, his flared nostrils pick up my manly macho half a mountain climb odour and he moves his car........
The National Park local plant, Royal Hakea.
One of the views from half way up East Mount Barren
Australia being pushed away by the waves......
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