# White Sand and Sea



## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

Recently I went fishing in a remote area of Western Australia (WA), there are a lot of much more remote beaches in WA but this one where I camped was about 150 km (90+) miles from the nearest town Esperance (Pop 10500).

There is more story in the Topic "Snake Bite".

The coastline is White sandy beaches with Granite headlands, points and promontories. There are reefs and granite islands rising out of the sea making an archipelago. The Ocean is the Southern ocean with about 4000 km (2500 miles) to Antarticata. The winds in the Southern Ocean are almost exclusively westerly and powerful. The wind zones are known by their latitudes, The Roaring 40's, Howling 50"s and the Screaming 60's. In fact the winds are so strong scientists discovered rain bearing clouds in these latitudes carry salt. The cloud formation is not just by evaporation but by the formation of aerosols of seawater from the wave tops by the force of the winds, but I digress.

The area I was in is the Cape Arid National Park an area of some 280,000 ha about 700,000 acres of predominantly banksia heathland. Widely diversified fauna and flora. Many reptiles and some amphibians (frogs), marsupials including Kangaroos, wallabies, bandicoots, think Chuddiches and birds including Cape Barren Geese, parrots, wedge tailed` Eagles, Australian Bustards, emus a host of honeyeaters and lots of different seabirds. Cape Barren Geese only breed on offshore islands and are very endangered possibly because of size and no fear of humans. the Australian bustard (bush turkey) is also endangered because it is tasty , large size and limited habitat.









My campsite 25 km 15 miles down the beach from the entry point.

The cable in front of my ute (tray top pickup) is to my solar panels.









Looking North from my campsite with Arid Bay on the left.









Next beach North of Arid Bay, looking South, Arid Bay is over the sandhills. There is a fisherman's cottage at the foot of the granite dome on the right which forms a point.









Another beach view









Track through banksia woodland. Banksia shrubs are on the right with large flowers that are overture and form a cone with seeds embedded in the sides.









Track through low hearthland









Shelly Beach, a tiny bach comprised of small coarse shells rather than the very fine white sand found elsewhere.









A Cape Barren Goose, quietly walking toward the sandhills but no attempt to fly away.









More CPG

View attachment 67210


Even more CPG


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## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

Sorry forgot to hold my camera upside down for some pics so the folks in the US can see our view au-naturale


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## bool (Mar 14, 2016)

Marvelous beaches around Esperance! I have been to Cape LeGrand and walked up Frenchman's Peak, but have not been as far as Cape Arid.

Roger


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Excellent Kevin.....beautiful country. How long did you stay "secluded"... Looks like it was a fun trip and great weather. I'd wanna stay away from the screaming 60's latitude....not much of anything I like to do in the wind, 'cept fly kites


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## paoutdoorsman (Apr 23, 2016)

Great pics and intel Coondle! Beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Nice you could get away for a little relaxation. I can't help but notice there are no fish pics...    What did you catch?


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Very beautiful country Kevin. Pic #5 must be a example of some of the beautiful flora and fauna that you mentioned. I love wild places....we hardly have them here anymore and certainly not along the coastal regions.

Regards, Mike


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## NewBerlinBaler (May 30, 2011)

Dug out my Atlas and found Esperance & Cape Arid.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

NewBerlinBaler said:


> Dug out my Atlas and found Esperance & Cape Arid.


Man you've got to try google earth.....you'll forget about that Atlas....btw, wasn't that the guy that would make you get big muscles so the big guy wouldn't kick sand in your face, even worse, while your girlfriend looked on?


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Probably no one else on here that remembers those ads in the back of mags....right there with the pocket knife and the X-ray glasses (which didn't work btw...)


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Gorgeous scenery! Thanks for sharing...  OL J R


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## Coondle (Aug 28, 2013)

paoutdoorsman said:


> Great pics and intel Coondle! Beautiful. Thanks for sharing. Nice you could get away for a little relaxation. I can't help but notice there are no fish pics...    What did you catch?


Went with the aim of catching 2 out of the 3 beach sport fishing local holy grails.

I have not done a lot of sport fishing button entering retirement decided to give it a go. The 2, I was after are the Australian Salmon and a Mulloway.

Australian Salmon are not supposed to be great eating but can put up a great show especially on light gear wth displays of jumping and tailwalking.This fish migrates around our southern coast and up the South-Western coast as far as Perth then turns out to sea to spawn. At one time they formed schools of tons of fish swimming in gutters and the like along the beach within casting distance of shore. Unfortunately greed has caused a decline in numbers with fishermen in the past putting out nets from the shore and pulling in literally tons of fish that then got put into low value fertiliser, fish meal, crayfish (lobster) bait and some canning.

The migration run begins in about December in the area I was in and makes its way by about may june to Perth area. The area I was in and further East (which is even more remote) has a permanent population of salmon in the 3 to 6 Kg (7 to 11 lbs) size hence my interest.

Mulloway are a fairly large powerful fish that at night come into the shoreline particularly on "surf beaches", that exist in Cape Arid and feed in the shallows amongst the foaming rollers. By a surf beach I do not mean the sort that surf riders necessarily seek but the sort where waves roll in to a shallow beach. On the day I left for example the surf was rolling in from about 400 metres (450 yards) out, just rolling and rolling. Connect this link

https://parks.dpaw.wa.gov.au/park/cape-arid


 
 

Click on the small map in the inset box on the right and then click on the satellite box on the bottom left. Go to the botton left block of the Cape Arid National Park and you will see a long crescent white beach, zoom in with the + sign on the bottom left. You can navigate the map by click-hold -drop

Zoom right in and you can see the waves breaking but this photo map was taken on a VERY calm day with only 2 or 3 foaming rollers, with big swells this can be a dozen or more broken waves rolling in. You can even identify the width of the beach before the sandhills along the beach which mostly have sparse vegetation and at the southern end of the beach have a vertical face of about 1.2 metres (4 feet). Access is gained by driving along the sand below the sand hills. The only entry/exit is at the North-West corner of the beach, other routes have been closed. The night before I left there was no access along the beach, the waves were breaking and washing right up to the sand hills with huge rolling swells as the Southern Ocean can brew up.

I failed in catching either of the targeted fish though camped there for about 5 days plus a full day of driving - 13 hours with only the briefest of stops for fuel.

Caught: Herring, silver trevally (skipjack) and a tailer. Herring for small fish (about a foot long) can be sporting on light gear (4lb line). Skipjack are a small dinner plate sized fish and because of their shape are fighters on light gear. The tailer gets its name because it apparently bites the tails of its prey and the chops it up. A powerfully built long torpedo of up to 18 inches that pull hard for their size.

No target fish, so no fishy photographs.



somedevildawg said:


> Probably no one else on here that remembers those ads in the back of mags....right there with the pocket knife and the X-ray glasses (which didn't work btw...)


Todd, sadly I remember them from my youth, or perhaps at my age I should be glad I can still remember them.



bool said:


> Marvelous beaches around Esperance! I have been to Cape LeGrand and walked up Frenchman's Peak, but have not been as far as Cape Arid.
> 
> Roger


 Identical country and coast as Frenchman's peak/Cape Le Grande. Just near where I was is Mt Arid (350m or 800 feet) but it meant 3 to 5 hours hiking over difficult terrain, rated at about 4 out of 5 in difficulty and not recommended for solo excursions.

Although part of mt stay there was over a holiday weekend during school holiday time here were max 30 or so people there but on my last night only 3 people on the entire run of beach and one of those was bogged attempting to avoid the high seas rolling in and had to wait until low tide before getting mobile again.

For my next excursion to the area I pan on going to Poison Creek and or Thomas Fihery which are on the Eastern part of the cape.

Have to acquire an EPIRB and a satellite phone before doing that, as even more remote and possibility of anyone else there is problematic. Not recommended to do it solo but that is most likely the way I will go, do not have to please or accommodate anyone else. Probably no shortage of volunteers to go with me if I asked, been a few groans that i had not asked for this one.

For those that wondered but were too ashamed to ask, the names in the area are French based.

The area was explored first by the French, hence Cape LeGrande, Cape Arid was originally Cape L'Aride but later anglicised. Esperance was named after the ship Le Esperance, and the Recherche Archipeligo.



Vol said:


> Very beautiful country Kevin. Pic #5 must be a example of some of the beautiful flora and fauna that you mentioned. I love wild places....we hardly have them here anymore and certainly not along the coastal regions.
> 
> Regards, Mike


Mike the Banksia group of trees/shrubs have a large number of types but most are threatened because they grow/grew mostly where people want to live or farm.

The heathland where they grow is very volatile and subject to wildfires of incredible intensity, such intensity at times even the larger varieties with trunk thickness approaching 300mm (1 foot) are entirely consumed leaving only bare sand and some very short stumps.If the area is not invaded by non-native weeds then the bush will recover quite quickly, some plants, seemingly damaged beyond repair put out greenery within days allowing fauna like kangaroos to get some sustenance.

So far as wild places, I mentioned the Cape Arid National Park at about 750,000 acres, adjoining and to the East is the Nuytsland Nature Reserve of over 6000 sq Km, about 2400 sq miles, running along the coast for 500 km (300 mi). It too is remote with the nearest town to any part of the reserve still Esperance.

Thanks everyone for reading and enjoying a little taste of this corner of the world.


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## somedevildawg (Jun 20, 2011)

Always a treasure trove of info Kevin, thanks for sharing....it's on the bucket list


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