Little Beach, Two Peoples nature reserve
We drove about 40 km east of here today to the Two Peoples nature reserve, and stopped at Little Beach. The beach has beautiful clear turquoise blue water and white sand. We first snorkelled in a bay to the far south of the beach, after we’d talked to a man who was spear fishing towards the north point off the rocks, as he suggested this would be the best place. We found a reef with a number of fish there. Though there was some surge from the ocean it was not too hard to swim, though there was a bit of turbulence tossing up some grit into the water. However, when we went to quit, Enid tried to climb out on the rocks where we got in, and was thrown into the rock by the surging waves. She scraped her right wrist and elbow. After that we got out on the small sandy beach and walked over the rocks to get back to where we’d left our clothes.
When we got there I opened up the backpack and pulled out our towels. The small padded bag that I keep my underwater camera in fell out, and the battery that was in it fell into the crack between two rocks. Though both Enid and I looked for it, we couldn’t see it, so it is gone.
Snorkelling at Little Beach
After lunch we went to the north side of the point where there is a shallow lagoon. It is connected to the main ocean by a very shallow and narrow rocky opening, so it is very protected. The rocks were slippery, but that also made it easy to slide over them and snorkel. We saw many different kinds of fish, probably about 10 different species. The most common was a black and white striped fish. The most interesting was a flatfish that Enid spotted. It was very hard to see as it was the colour of the sand, and it was flat against the rocks. When I dived down to see if I could get closer it darted away under the rocks. We stayed in the lagoon about an hour. It wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t very warm either, so by the end of the hour we were both cold and shivering.
After that we drove to the larger Two Peoples Bay where there is an information centre with interpretive panels about two endangered species, one the noisy scrub bird, and the other the Gilbert’s Potoroo, one of the rarest mammals in the world.
We drove to some of the other bays and beaches on the east side of Albany, including Nanarup Beach, Ledge point overlooking Gull Island, and Middleton Beach. The latter was very windy, and there was one person there parasailing on a board. At one point I saw him lifted at least ten metres out of the water. It was too rough for us to attempt bodyboarding, and anyway we were both too tired from the snorkelling today.