What a beautiful surprise

Cape Arid

Although we probably shouldn't be telling everyone, Cape Arid is incredible. 

We really had our hearts set on staying at Lucky Bay, but after seeing everyone squished up in what was basically a car park in their vans we decided that wasn't really our thing.  A bit too close for comfort.

So we headed on out to Cape Arid, past Condingup and its quaint Tavern with excellent meals and friendly people. Meals were had, petrol pumped, essentials obtained.

aaaaah the serenity - the National Park campground was burnt out approx 7 years ago so all the vegetation is new, dense and pretty - the campground also comes with newish toilets and camp kitchen - all in great condition and there's even a view of the Bay from the kitchen. Leaves most caravan parks for dead.  Each site is secluded from each other and large, as you can see we had the van in with awning out and heaps of room for car and more if needed.  Surrounded by Banksia trees and heaps of undergrowth made you feel like you were camping on your own.  Awesome setup.

An image of the campground from above. Our van is the large white block towards the bottom of the photo, the toilets and kitchen are the blue roofed buildings and you can see other peoples sites - where no-one was ;-)

 A 3km walk saw Stephen, Oliver and Caleb taking a bit of a wrong turn and climbing up an inclined cliff face, rather than following the walk trail - they now know they can do it and should mum be along, they won't be. What a spoil sport!

 Oli got buried Again

And a Kangaroo decided they were too close for comfort

But what a view - Is there a word that describes this feeling?

The Condingup Tavern for dinner and a game of pool ended up being a longer drive away than we remembered but great food.

We were lucky enough to be sharing the Cape Arid campground with a lovely couple, Brett and Tess - they have been coming there for several years for a couple of weeks and were a wealth of information on the area, as well as tips and tricks on travelling, which we love to hear from people who've been there before us.

Brett and Tess took us off for a 25km drive along the bays to Mount Arid, along the beach and in and out of tracks we probably wouldn't have even noticed.  So we were very greatful to them for this insight into the area. 

To be honest everytime we would come over the rocks we would enter a new, beautiful bay, we thought the bays were never-ending. 

We even found a small 'shell bay' covered in large well formed shells.  Caleb dug down but couldn't find the bottom.

Being that we'd had such a full on day we even had a chance to use the car awning for the first time.  We didn't bring pegs to tie it down, which wasn't a bad thing as we got to see the poles levitating.

Thomas Fishery

The drive into Thomas Fishery was hard going on the corrugation and then the 4WD track came and this saw us climbing rocks and not knowing what was coming around the corner - we made it!

We're now back in Esperance and heading up to the Fraser Range Sheep Station tomorrow to have a Station tour so that'll be a great experience.

We will let you know how that goes.

Over and out (I used the CB.......)