Delightful Duke of Orleans Bay

Hi there again, slowly but slowly catching up with these entries!!

When we left Ecstatic Esperance, we moved on another 80 odd ks to The Duke of Orleans Bay. We stayed at the one and only caravan park there. The area, as with all of that coastline is incredibly beautiful, as you will see in the photos. The park was OK, and the weather was bloody windy. By now, we had just about had it with the wind. Esperance, as much as we love it, is a windy place. Generally tho, the winds abate around March and the weather between then and winter is usually fantastic. We however, were not so lucky, it blew almost the whole time we were there. Apart from that tho', it was great. The park is right on the bay and even tho' we had no ocean views, it was only a short stumble to the beach. The actual bay itself is really not suitable for swimming, there was too much weed. There is a magnificent bay just around the corner, which is perfect for a little surfing and swimming. You will see the bay in the photos and will understand what I mean.

The people who run the park are a little different, and it took us a few days to become accustomed to their brusque manners. Once you came to know them however, they were pretty good folk. There is absolutely nothing else around for 20 ks so you really do have to stock up before you go. The kiosk there does do very good chips and burgers etc. and they have most of the basics.

The local pub, 20ks away is the 'Condy' or more correctly the Condingup Hotel - great meals at the Condy and a lovely little country pub - well worth the effort.

Duke of Orlean is squished between two national parks, Cape Arid and Cape Le Grande. As we had previously explored the Cape Le Grande park on previous visits, we concentrated this time on the other side and headed up towards Cape Arid.Now, I have to explain something here, about TBBITW and myself, we knew that we were not big brave off-road types, but we thought that with our lovely Cruiser, we could do a little bit of gentle off-road, beach type driving, hmmmmmm, perhaps not!!!

We set off one particular day to visit Alexander Bay and Thomas River. We had visions of staying at Thomas River, where there is an excellent eco park. It involves some 20ks of gravel road and a park with now power or water - huh, we could do that, blind-folded and with one arm tied behind our backs, couldn't we? We thought we would go on a reconnaissance mission and check it all out. Well, it went fairly predictably wrong when we went in to Alexander Bay - we checked with some locals about which beach track to take, and on their good advice, we headed up a very firm looking limestone track. Going up was fine, but as we hit the down-hill slope, we realised we had possibly bitten off more than we could chew. The down-hill side was soft white Esperance type sand. Very pretty, but!!!!! We reached the beach OK, but then we had to traverse this expanse of shifting sand to get back to where we started. Rather than bore you with the story here, I will attach a copy of the poem TBBITW convinced me to pen, describing our ordeal.

Needless to say, we were a little crest-fallen after our experience, and although we did go and have a look at Thomas River (which is exceptionally beautiful) we decided then and there that we would not take the van off road even tho' she is designed to take the tough stuff. We are the problem, we are not designed to take the rough stuff - couple of cream puffs really, but hey, if you don't know your limitations by our stage of life, what chance have you?

On a more logical level, we just felt that neither the van nor the car and their attendant attachments like camera systems etc. need to be bounced and trounced along corrugated gravel roads. We had spoken recently to a woman whose enterprising husband had put her in the en suite of the van and driven it around the Adelaide hills so that they could determine how much stuff in the van moved around - she barely survived the 15 min trip!!! We decided not to do that to our stuff!! I must say, that husband is very lucky she let him live after that episode!

We spent a week at Orleans - I would have been happy to stay longer there, but TBBIW seemed to be keen to leave. He did convince me to take up the pen and write caravan flavoured bush poetry and for around 48 hours, I couldn't even think without rhymes - thank goodness for all concerned, it finally passed and now I cannot even imagine a rhyme!!

We headed back to Esperance for several days - a friendly neighbour at Orleans had noticed that the front tyres were wearing unevenly on Zed (the cruiser) and so we headed back to have them rotated back to front and re-aligned.

Well, enjoy the photos and endure the poetry - love each other - Steph.

THE BITTER TRUTH

In life there come some lessons rough
Ours was that we weren’t quite tough
Not tough enough to take the bumps
Off-road dips and sand hill jumps
That came our way that fateful day,
We went to Alexander Bay

The gravel in had been enough,
We had thought to prove us tough
We hadn’t thought about the sand
That covers this enormous land
We even asked a bloke along the way
How the track was set today

His answer put us both at ease
Avoid the back he said grinning
The sand back there will set you spinning
But take the front along the way
Nothing there will spoil your day
Now he seemed a dinkum bloke,
You could tell he knew by the way he spoke
The gravelly voice the steely chin
His blood-shot eyes, the whiff of gin?

So off we went with smiles alight
To get a bloody awful fright
The track was white and hard as rock
We crested the hill and what a shock
The downhill side was shifting sand
Fate stepped in and took a hand
No backing up could be done
We were in for the down- hill run

We hit the shore with eyes a bug
What the hell now, I said to Doug
We’ll give her some, he said to me
Of the sand we’ll soon be free
So up the mighty hill we roared
And down the sides the sand it poured

The steely beast it came to rest,
Upon that sandy devil crest
I looked across at him and said
In words of thrill and horror dread
I thought you said the tyres were fine
You didn’t need to let them down this time.
You know how to sink the slipper
He said retreating down the dipper

We looked back up that mighty hill
And down my spine I felt a thrill
Off to my left a crevice deep
Enough to plant a dozen sheep
And to his right a deep ravine
With really nothing much between

I think we really need to give her some
He said again now looking glum
So up again the monster roared
And yet again we found her floored
A crackly voice came from behind
Youse ‘avn’t bogged ‘er, are y’ blind
An ancient quaddie rider and his hound
Was wanting now to get around
He clicked his tongue in mute reproof
As Doug admitted that to sand he wasn’t used
He turned and went the other way
He must’ve thought we’d be OK

As we sat and mused our plight
A cheery voice came from the right
Up the hill a couple trudged
They could see we hadn’t budged
You could see we’d made their day
They hadn’t planned to come this way
They had heard our beast in pain
And had said, Oh not again!
Not another silly bugger stuck
Wouldn’t that be just our luck
The last one over the side we think
Was bloody stupid and full of ink!

By this time, Doug’s on his knees
Letting the air out, if you please
Seems to me, I’d said before
He should’ve first performed this chore
But as we know the bloke is always right
Unless you want a flippin’ fight

Now our new found friends
Had seen it all before, these trends
They seemed to think if Doug could arrange
To set the gears in low range
And plant his foot flat to the floor
We’d leap right out of that sand and more
And so we indeed do that,
To the floor his foot was flat
And after another try or three
We were out of the sand with a mighty ‘Whee’
With a cheery wave of the hand ‘good-bye’
Out of that park we did fly.

The trip to camp was rather quiet
As we reviewed our day and recent plight
The bitter truth of the matter was
Off- road hero’s we were not because
Our lives we love a bit too much
Along with the car and bits and such
We’re in no hurry to crash and burn.
This was the lesson we’d had to learn.