Yachties Beach
It was a very nice morning, some scattered cloud, but mostly sunny and a pleasant temperature. We walked south to Yachties Beach, and beyond, a total round trip of 13.6 km, stopping for lunch at the end of a very long beach to eat on the rocks. I was a complete gentleman, and let Enid walk ahead of me with her trekking poles, so that she could break the hundreds of spider webs which we had to walk through. The spiders have built large webs all across the path.
The hike is one of the nicest oceanside hikes we have been on. The trail winds over the tops of the shoreline hills, never far from the ocean. The water close to shore was a beautiful turquoise blue, especially so where there is a sandy beach as the white sand below the water contrasts with the deep blue water over the submerged rocks. We saw a large pod of dolphins swimming off a rocky point. Two large boats came by, and when they did the dolphins disappeared for a while. Then they reappeared as we walked further along the trail. They stopped and circled in the water right off the shore, we assume fishing. We were about 100 metres away and we watched them for several minutes, able to hear them breathing as they blew water below us.
White-bellied Sea Eagle
We walked along a sandy beach across from Carcase Rock for almost two kilometres. Only one tiny headland jutted out to break the beach, and we climbed over the top of the rocks to continue on. When we reached the end of this sand we stopped on the rocks to eat lunch. The two fishing boats were anchored just offshore around the point from where we ate. A white-bellied sea eagle flew overhead while we were eating. Later it flew over us again, very low, as we walked back along the beach after lunch. The tide was a little lower so I was able to walk around the headland on the beach by timing it judiciously to avoid the waves. Enid walked back over the top.
Yachties Beach is a beautiful sandy cove about 400 metres long. There was no one else there and on our walk back we stopped and swam in the bay. It felt really good to cool off. It became very windy this afternoon, and the south east wind was raising whitecaps on the water in the gulf. It was sheltered in the bay, but the wind caused us to drift northward quite quickly as we floated on our backs relaxing in the cool water.
It became quite cloudy and windy by late afternoon. We swam here at the campsite and washed our hair in the ocean water. I was surprised that the shampoo worked as well as it did in the salt water. Just before supper it began to sprinkle rain, but it hasn’t rained much yet.