Esperance, Cape le Grande NP, Cape Arid NP, Nuytsland Conservation Park,
Israelite Bay to Cocklebiddy,
Rawlinna and start of Connie Sue
Three days at
Esperance didn’t do it justice and we could have stayed longer. We had a good deal on a cabin with stay two nights and get an extra night free. The beaches around
Esperance have fine white sand and which in turn makes the waters an iridescent colour, which then gradually fades in to a deep blue. I have only seen beaches like this in the Seychelles Islands.
We made our way to Cape le Grande National Park, which is, in my opinion, one of the prettiest spots in Australia with those magnificent beaches, which, believe it or not, you are allowed to drive on. I think that it may even be possible to drive all the way along the beach from
Esperance to Cape le Grande. This was something we did not investigate.
Our last fuel stop was at Condingup on Fisheries Road before we made for Jorndee
campsite in
Cape Arid National Park. We camped snug in the coastal vegetation in a designated spot. A very tame bandicoot came out of the bush looking for scraps of food and became an instant celebrity with the bush paparazzi taking many pics of it. The rain caught up with us at last and it poured through the night. We had a very sparse breakfast under a
camp lean-to, put the trucks in 4x4 mode and set out for
Israelite Bay. Once back on Fisheries Road it carried on as a developed road for 2km before deteriorating to a scrubland track, pock marked with holes, which were now full of water. I stuck to the middle of the track, which normally is the hardest part of the roadway. One hole was deep enough for water over the bonnet but on the whole the track wasn’t too bad. We made it in to
Israelite Bay around 3pm and had a look around the historic spots. Somehow we got separated and while Judith and I were looking for a
campsite George called up to say that they were going to the
jetty. I told them to look out for the
mud hole. A short while later the radio crackled. “Err…. can you come down to the
jetty please”. There the GU was, sitting on its belly in the
mud hole. No words were spoken as I winched George out of the bog. At
Israelite Bay the seaweed gets pushed up against the dune face and it is more than a metre deep in
places. It can even hold water, as we saw puddles, which had formed from the previous nights rain.
I had spoken with the Director of CALM at
Esperance about the old Telegraph Track. He stated that his staff had not been that way for a while but someone had reported burnt out country and overgrown tracks. He also gave us an information sheet stating that it was not advisable to run the beach unless the tides are .6metre. In winter they are normally 1.5metres and push up right to the dunes. With this in mind we set off in a northwesterly direction along an overgrown track. When we had set off the vehicles had been covered in mud from the previous days driving. After 20km along this track they were scratched clean along the side panels as
well as underneath. We saw old telegraph poles and wire lying by the side of the track. It was 47.8km of overgrown track with plenty of scratching to an opening on a samphire flat and a T-
junction. To the right it was 2km or so to the beach, which we still considered too dangerous, to drive on, because of the seaweed (although there were fresh vehicle tracks leading on to it) and about 2km back to Wattle
Camp which is a small
clearing near an old disused
well. After lunch we pushed on skirting the samphire flats and salt lakes until the track stopped abruptly after 17km in some coastal vegetation. We got out and searched but could not find where it continued on although the Raster Map showed it continuing. Down to the beach. Now there was minimal seaweed. It was 5 hours after High Tide as we dropped the tyre pressures to 15psi. There were some nervous moments along the beach as where the sea had reached the dunes and pooled, the sand was very soft. We kept the revs up and ran the 32km stretch in one hour and ten minutes stopping only to take some photos of the magnificent Bilbunya Sand dunes. These dunes are about 100 metres in height and rise up above the coastal plain inside a perceived 5 square kilometres or so.
I managed to find the exact spot to get off the beach and on to the track, which led up to a fishing
camp, known as Culver
Camp, halfway up the Wylie Scarp. The beach actually continues on from our exit point for about 7km where it meets the Baxter Cliffs at
Point Culver.
The next short distance up the rest of the Wylie Scarp was quite an easy run as at the most critical and steepest section, CALM had laid down
conveyor belting to facilitate better traction up the jump up. Once on top we reinflated tyres to 25psi and set off to
Point Culver. This track was 13km return and took two hours to drive, which included a quick photo session. It was all
limestone rock outcrops. Back on the Telegraph Track we were travelling at 10km hour and it was a bloody hard drive too over numerous
limestone outcrops. We visited Baxter Cliffs
Lookout and camped a few hundred metres distance from
Toolinna Cove. We had progressed 57km for 8 hours driving and that did not include the 13km return in to
Point Culver. Found enough wood to
cook a roast on the coals and have a few ales and wines before turning in.
The Baxter Cliffs are magnificent, dropping straight in to the
Great Australian Bight. However they are a tad crumbly at the edge and care must be taken not walk too close to the edge. Then there is the added danger of being blown off the cliffs and into the sea far below by a sudden gust of wind. So we were careful. At
Toolinna Cove we marvelled at the daring fisher people who abseiled down to the beach to fish. They have also rigged up a windlass so as to get their gear and/or catch down or up by means of a vehicle winch. There used to be ladders down the
cliff face but CALM have removed them, as they want to discourage this practise.
The track improved a bit the next day. We saw camel and
dingo tracks and some very large Red Kangaroos. Mallee scrubland covers this
limestone area and it is quite scenic in
places. Judith found a
sinkhole and some caves and they went looking for more. I walked about 30 metres from the vehicle to get a better look and sank up to my thigh in a
sinkhole. We moved the trucks away from possible danger, in a hurry.
We passed by the turn off to
Caiguna and drove on to the Baxter Memorial and then Perpendicular Cliffs just as spectacular as the others.
John Baxter was a companion of Explorer
John Eyre and was killed by aborigines in this area.
We camped back near the
Caiguna turn off in a large natural
clearing.
The next day we had breakfast at the
Caiguna Roadhouse, refuelled and paid 50c/l for water. They do desalinisation to get drinking water and there had not been much rain during summer. We weren’t sure of water supplies at Cocklebiddy or
Rawlinna and as it turned out there were none to be had. This day George had two punctures with his MTR’s. He was running skinnies with tubes and it was tiny rocks, which work their way in past the rim, and prick the tubes. At Cocklebiddy we split the rims and repaired the punctures before setting off again to
Rawlinna.
At first the road to
Rawlinna is a broad graded road but after Arubiddy Station it deteriorates to a track. It is here one crosses the
Nullarbor Plain which is so flat you could see in to the middle of next week. We found an old Citroen wreck on the plain. The track weaved its way through numerous gates and a
vermin proof fence. As it was getting dark, I decided to
camp. But George and Maureen had other ideas and talked me in to driving to
Rawlinna. This I agreed to against my better judgement. At night, tracks take on a different spectre and it is difficult to follow them even with the help of a GPS.
Eventually we could see the lights of
Rawlinna but the tracks were now turning west and east and we were supposed to be heading north. We were virtually driving in circles. Somehow we found the right track and got to
Rawlinna. The old railway siding has a historic value. The rest of the township is operated by a humungous Lime
Mine operation. We saw a light on in a bungalow and enquired to where we could
camp. We were directed to the Nullarbor Muster Gymkhana Grounds. Turn left here over the railway line, then go, maybe 1km, then turn right at the white pole(no sign)……… We found it in the pitch dark and set up
camp behind a large shed to be out of the bitterly cold wind. Only the next day did we found out that the shed was an old aircraft hangar and we could have fitted both vehicles and tents in there…Oh
well!
Had get directions out of
Rawlinna. “Go down that track mate, and turn left at them tyres and go through the
gate. That’s the start of the Connie Sue, mate” Hmmmm…tracks going everywhere. Just follow your instinct. This is where the GPS and laptop worked
well, even if I had to do it manually.