Not too early a start this morning as I had a ridiculous amount of photos to go through last night after our full day yesterday. Thanks to Bob for filling in the words or I would have been up even later.

The Scott’s did what they do best and were out at like 5am walking and running locally.

We drove our car today and left at 830 for a full day out at the Cape Arid National Park. There were a number of roads closed due to previous flood damage but still more than enough to keep us all interested for the day.

To start our 300km of driving we headed to a number of beaches within the Cape Arid National Park. First stop was Yokinup Bay where we took the car onto the pristine sand and enjoyed being almost the only people on it for miles (there were a couple of fishermen on the rocks).

Then to Dolphin Cove (via the local campgrounds to suss them out for the future 😉 ). Once again stunning scenery that I couldn’t have imagined prior to being in this part of the country.

We headed back to Condingup and had a lovely lunch at the tavern that was recommended to us by fellow travellers on our Island cruise back in Esperance. As we finish up here tomorrow night, this will be our last meal out with the Scott’s before we all head our own ways on Wednesday.

We rounded out the tour with a diversion to Orleans Bay. A lovely spot with a number of bays and a sand spit and of course the standard aqua waters.

We then moved to Wharton Beach where Karen and Kieran enjoyed a FaceTime catch up with the family for the 2nd birthday of their gorgeous little twin granddaughters. Bob and I went for a walk along the beach and came across the most amazing display of ancient tree stumps exposed at the sand level. Research has show us that these are over 7000 years old, and were initially partially exposed in 2021 where scientific dating was used to determine the age of the original tree stump that was excavated metres below the sand level. Since then, unfortunately the shore line has been massively eroded and with wild weather systems this year the entire peat floor with tree stumps embedded has been exposed. We literally had no idea we would stumble upon this, but it is so special to see and research the backstory.

Then we headed back to camp via an accidental long path (Kerri fat fingers to blame when setting the gps path on the phone), where we all headed out to the beach next to the camp and played finska with nibbles and music while watching the sun set. The Scott’s excelled themselves getting this one organised.

Tomorrow we have planned a morning hike along the coast via some amazing scenery and then a relax at the beach for the rest of the day before we start our serious trek back toward the east.