Wow there has been a spectacular change in the scenery as we have entered the cape (the area around Margaret river is called cape to cape). From arid desert nothingness of the north we now have exotic greenery, trees everywhere and the coastline has become a much more dramatically stunning with sandstone cliffs and giant granite bolders pertruding out into some very blue water. It has made for some great swagging experiences, plenty of early morning climbing and exploring and disturbing the crabs and snakes.
The windsurfing has become a lot more dramatic although less of it. We spotted a set of waves just off the rocky coastline pretty much in the middle of nowhere on one of our walks. Tom couldn’t resist so after some frantic rigging on the beach and then some rock and rip current dodging he made it out. Once out among the waves it was better than he hoped, over mast high peeling sets all to himself, the woops could be heard from the beach!
The next session came in the form of the infamose Margaret River or ‘Margies’ as the locals call it. Not as big as before but a good sized well formed wave was waiting to be ripped up. Really good but he did have to share it with the 5 or 6 pros training there and a good number of locals.
We had a lovely couple more days in the area, exploring, surfing swimming, relaxing and a bit of caving before moving on around the corner from the cape to Augusta in search of something a little more tame for Erica to get out and settle those itchy windsurf feet. Augusta was a bit like a nice day on the South Coast of UK, it rained a little, it went from windy to super windy, and then we had a good little giggle windsurfing in some very onshore mush.
From there the windsurfing got even more weird. We took a dirt track down to an inlet that we thought might be a good quiet place to camp up for the night. At the end of the track we came across the most erey place we have ever been. The air was so still as we walked between a deserted settlement of wooded shacks, surrounded by a mysterious wood, with the water of a blood red lake lapping the shore line, the perfect setting for a horror film! Despite this we had really nice sail. With crotch deep water and tree lined mountains surrounding us we sailed the 3 mile leg to the other side to explore.
Our route took us through the huge forests of Karri and Tingle trees the variety and size of them is incredible and we found one of the biggest to climb up. The tree was an old look out post for spotting fires and after climbing the156 rods that had been inserted into its trunk, the 68 meter high vatage point gave views over the whole forest canopy, it was stunning. We kept our head above the trees again by exploring Walpole’s premier attraction, a suspended platform through the canopy of the tingle trees, pretty cool too.
Down back at the water we set sail on another lake and after exploring around the edges we find a sandy inlet with dolphins playing around in it. Hang on, this can’t be a lake! We sailed to the bank and running over the ridge it appears it’s connected to the sea and we go and splash around in it, just to check. On our return sail back to the car we were escorted by loads of stingrays.
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