We had a lovely time at
Hopetoun only 2 nights. We stayed at the caravan park but boy! was it noisy. The park was chockers and alot of partying people. I have a new appreciation for the free
parking out of towns :) The Caravan Park is owned by a couple called Leonie and Phil who have owned the park for 6 years. They were fairly disorganised with bookings as they couldn't find ours and we sat in limbo waiting for them to decide to let us in. Said something about the other Caravan Park using a name similar to theirs and causing them alot of problems however the other park is called Wave Resort or something like that. Wave resort is inland about 8 kms out of north of town.
Hopetoun Caravan Park is in an ideal spot right on the beach but protected by the dunes. The Park looks a little run down but at this stage still would consider staying again. Dont know about in 6 years time though would need more update info to stay again then.
Apparently, the folk lore for
Hopetoun is “
Easter rains”.
Well it did for the first day(dry enough to set up
camp though) but the second day was pretty close to perfect.The photos I took and uploaded were all taken on the same day. The morning shots were under cloud and then the weather cleared for the rest of the day giving me some very colourful shots.
I was hoping to get me some salmon but wouldn’t you know it there was too much seaweed to fish for salmon and apparently the only people catching salmon were people with boats out in deeper water. This is apparantly because of the climate change which is forcing the salmon to only stay in deeper water because it is colder.
Ravensthorpe is about 1/2 hour north and we set off to where I heard there was some Tourmaline spotted in an
old quarry some years back but low and behold the only things we kept seeing was “Active Mining” signs. The scenic look out at
Ravensthorpe was beautiful and
well worth the trip. Used my camera for a panorama shot which I had just learnt recently. Got some great shots! Did a 360 degree video shot.
We forgot the doona and would have froze but, thank God, I had brought a 12 volt electric blanket 12 mths ago and had never used it and it was already on the bed so needless to say it got a good work out over the two nights. It was fantastic! And saved the day. Moral of the story, "dont forget your blankets and doona as it gets very cold on the southern coast at Easter".
Wildlife is plentiful. Got to see and photograph a Wedge Tailed Eagle up close. I awoke to what I thought was my alarm but it was a little bird. Right on
cue 6.00 am the little stinker. Somebody must have trained him.
Hamersley Road which takes you from
Hopetoun through the Fitzgerald National Park was closed also for upgrade so it should be good when they reopen.
Hopetoun is becoming very tourist oreintated but not too over run by tourists at this stage only at the peak times such as
Easter and Christmas. People are friendly also.
Posted
forum notes below by Gone Bush to this description/review as I believe it would be most helpful to others:
There is another caravan park attached to Wavecrest Village in
Hopetoun.
I haven't been there but friends who live in Wavecrest Village say it has drive through sites and, I think, should be comparitively peaceful given it is not as
well known as the other one.