TUESDAY 7 NOVEMBER     DENHAM

After breakfast, refuelled Truck. $1.23cpl.

Went out to Big Lagoon again, because John was keen to try some more fishing.

I did some bird watching for a while, then tried the fishing.

We caught some whiting.

A younger couple, with a baby, turned up and stayed a while. He tried fishing, briefly – and was very chatty. They then headed off to go to Cape Peron. He said he knew all about sand driving, and had let his tyres down “a bit”. Hmmm…..

Ate lunch out there.

There was a build up of cloud through the afternoon.

Still life in sand

We stopped fishing and both walked around the lagoon shore, because I’d convinced John it was quite special. Walked around the corner that we could see from our fishing point and found there was an even bigger continuation of the lagoon around there. It really is big!

We were intrigued to see emus wading out in the water. Didn’t know if the water was actually drinkable for them, or if they were cooling their feet, or just doing so because they could!

Emus paddling

Eventually, we drove back to the old homestead, with an idea of looking for birds around that watering point, but it was a bit late, so we didn’t try that for long.

For tea, John had flathead, I had a Greek salad.

The night was very windy, and then it RAINED! I couldn’t remember the last time we’d had rain – think it was back in Qld a few months ago?

MONDAY 6 NOVEMBER     DENHAM

Packed lunch again and drove back out to the Peron National Park.

Followed the same tyre routine as yesterday.

Just a little way beyond the homestead area, took the track to the left and went to Big Lagoon. This is, as the name suggests, a large shallow, almost land surrounded inlet on the western side of the peninsula.

Fishing was allowed here, so John set up for that – he’d bought bait in Denham this morning.

Whilst John fished, I went for a long walk on the beach to the left. The colours, contrasts and wildflowers were superb.

Big Lagoon

I walked back to John and found him happy, because he was catching flathead.

So I walked the other way along the beach and took yet more photos. It was such a brilliant place for photography. I saw sharks and stingrays close to shore – and close to each other!

Stingray and shark

Ate lunch at Big Lagoon.

It was such a beautiful spot that I think, has it not been for the 4WD sandy nature of the tracks, we’d have been very tempted to bring the van out here to stay – regardless of time!

After John had enough of fishing, we drove back to the main Cape track, north to the birridas area – which look to be kind of continuous with the top  of Big Lagoon – then took the track east to Herald Bight. We’d not had time to see this yesterday.

We came to a place on the Bight track where there was a Disco, apparently bogged. There was no one there. They had laid long lines of dead scrub and branches in the wheel tracks – which could be a way to wreck their tyres too, because that stuff is sharp. Idiots! It did not appear that the tyre pressure had been reduced at all on that Disco, either.

We found a way around the stuck vehicle – and the section of track he’d messed up – and continued on to the Bight.

Herald Bight

There, we walked on the beach – very pleasant.

By the time we headed back, the Disco was gone. We caught up to him at the junction of the Herald Bight track with the main one. Being towed! It was a young guy. He told us he wasn’t bogged, but the  transmission pipe had split and he was overheating?? That did not ring true – it did not account for all the branch laying stuff we’d seen, which had clearly been him. Hmmm….

Another long but brilliant day. We drove 112kms.

Tea was gazpacho again, followed by savoury mince and noodles.