We have seen for a while that bad weather is upon us. We have uhm’d and ah’d and considered even to detour to Hyden (1,000 km return trip) but it seems there is no escaping the bad weather that is engulfing the South-West.
So we leave the uninspiring camping of Peaceful Bay and pass some nice trees and lots of deer.
Then we’re at Parry Beach, the next bay along the south coast heading east. This is a very bush oriented council owned camping close to the beach, run by a couple in their 80’s who are descendants of the early settlers in this area.
Even while she’s walking with a severe bent back, the caretaker is still active on the quadbike though.
At first the weather is not too bad, with intermezzo’s of sun and warm weather, and Marjo and Nos went for a walk.
Soon clouds take over and Marjo and Nossi need to shelter from the rain.
And it comes down with buckets, even with hail.
So we have down time. Lots of reading, calling family, guitar play, art and watching TV series on the iPad.
And hoping for that break in the clouds.
The weather turns slowly with still some clouds but also sun. With kiting on my mind I start checking out where in this bay I could kitesurf and walk along the beach. With the wind mainly from the West and South-west and the beach facing East and South-east I need to walk a long time to the next bay before the beach turns parallel to the wind. When I stay away for a while Nossi and Marjo start looking where I went.
When Nossi recognizes me, he makes a spurt.
With this wind though, there is no chance on kitesurfing. For safe kitesurfing the wind is preferably cross shore or parallel to the shore and not, as it is here, from shore to open sea. Don’t want to get blown to the Antarctic.
Back at the campsite Marjo saves a bug from a bird.
First afraid that the bug had become legless after the bird toyed with it, it slowly started revealing legs and antennae.
Then she put it safely off the ground on a tree stump.
Only to be eaten by the next kookaburra that happened to be passing by. Poor buggy.
To overcome our loss, we take the dogs for a walk, this time to the more rocky south part of the bay.
Although mainly sunny, there is quite a strong wind.
It makes for some nice pictures.
Then we see some sharks circling where the waves break. This seems to be a popular hangout for sharks.
So time to move on.
Then I witness something disturbing. And I can think of the captions:
We talked it out and as usual I had it totally wrong.
Dotti is not so mobile over the rocky terrain; Nossi doesn’t have any problems.
Then we come to a beautiful little secluded beach with purple! sand.
And a nice rock face.
While I sit and enjoy the view, Marjo strolls around and takes some shells that go quickly in her pocket.
When I ask, what’s that in your hand?
She says, what hand?
Then when she realizes there are not many places to hide, she shares the pretty shells with me.
There are also nice wild flowers here.
That evening Marjo takes Nossi for a run along the beach.
The next day it is nice and sunny, perfect for some rust treatment on the bus.
Marjo takes the dogs for their exercise and they have a great time.
She finds some pretty spots.
That provides plenty of inspiration for when Marjo’s back at the campsite.
The next day it’s more paintwork, to turn the rusty bits with filler to shiny grey bits with self coloured twopack paint. Hey we are towing this trailer filled with half my shed for a reason.
Marjo meanwhile goes for a walk and spots her feathery friends.
When she’s back from her walk, Marjo gets more creative and turns ordinary shells in pieces of art. From this:
To this (don’t you love the old dremel):
That day and the day after we went for a couple more walks and took again some shots of this wonderful place.
And in the evening we would get the pre-dinner stare.
When it got colder in the evening, Nossi made his own hideyhole.
A wonderful week at Parry Beach!
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