We are on holiday!

Tuesday 13th September 2022

We got up early to walk the reef at low tide. We saw some great starfish, but otherwise were battling a strong wind! We headed back to attempt to make coffee in the strong wind, rigging up various wind protection devices around the stove!

After breakfast we rang dad for a weather report – we hadn’t been expecting strong wind today and were worried the bad weather might be blowing in earlier. Unfortunately a strong northerly had come in for the day, so we were stuck with it. Tomorrows forecast remained the same – windy and rainy. We discussed going for a drive to find a more sheltered spot, but preferred the idea of staying put and relaxing. The kids disappeared into the dunes to play and Richie and I sat and did nothing for a while, which was really nice! We chatted to the neighbouring campers a bit – a young family from Perth with an enormous caravan, Richard in a combie – very exciting for the kids – “just like our Richard”, and this one used to live in a lighthouse! And a couple from Tasmania with a very large dog! Everyone was just trying to find shelter from the wind! Fortunately we had a little bit of protection from the dunes – the caravan on the cliff edge was getting sandblasted!

Once the tide had come in a bit Richie and Bonnie went for a fish at the far end of the beach, which was a little bit sheltered from the wind. Otis and I played in the dunes together – it turns out the kids have found the most sheltered spot in the whole area, surrounded by shrubs in the dunes! Richie and Bonnie came back empty handed and Richie went back out to the point while the kids and I did activities in the tent.

Richie returned with a salmon and 11 tommies and grabbed Bonnie to continue fishing off the point. I cleaned and filleted the salmon for dinner, left the tommies in the fridge for Richie to deal with and walked to the point with Otis to see how the fishing was – I had also sent the young family over there to fish, their two boys were very keen to catch something! Unfortunately the school had passed and there was nothing else caught – except Bonnie caught a banded morwong and perhaps a blue groper. The kids and I explored the point while Richie went back to clean the fish. The ocean is wild on one side, the vegetation is all very low and wind swept, and there are huge piles of snail operculums towards the end! Maybe birds pick up the snails and feast on the point? We headed back and the kids watched Richie fillet the fish on the rocks while I went to find some firewood – the wind had died down completely by now, finally!

The kids played with the neighbours’ kids in the sand dunes – they have a 7, 5 and 3 year old, and are on their way home to Perth doing the reverse loop that we’ve done. Richie started to pack up and I cooked dinner. We are expecting it might start to rain during the night so we want to be prepared to leave quickly in case the weather is really feral.

We sat around the fire with our dinner, then roasted the remainder of our marshmallows that have done the whole trip with us! It’s most likely our last night camping so we talked about our favourite places, and my memories of camping at speeds point years ago! Bonnie said for the first time that she’s missing home – Otis has been talking increasingly about home for the last couple of weeks, missing his cars, his car mat and his friends.