Hopetoun.

We left Starvation Bay Saturday morning and drove into Hopetoun, checked into the house to pick up a fishing rod then went off to catch tea.

Hopetoun is a small coastal town around 7 hours drive from where we live.  Hubby sometimes works in the area and over the years has been down there many times but this was my first proper visit.

We had the opportunity to stay in the house where he stays while working down there and I was expecting a small holiday shack but was pleasantly surprised when we pulled into the driveway of this...
We were only staying there the one night and as luck had it we had the place to ourselves.

Hubby was told about this place when he bought bait.  It is out of town a bit but supposed to have BIG fish.  I don't know about that but we did catch a couple of feeds from here.  It is a lagoon type pool that used to be a part of the ocean but has been separated from the sea for quite a number of years.  There is a beach behind the hill to the left but because of a sandbar the water no longer gets into this pool.

The hill in the background is East Mt Barren but because of work being done in the area the road in is closed so we couldn't get to have a look.  According to the sign it should be open in 18months but as it doesn't say when it started I don't know when that will be.  Hopefully it will be open before Summer as we will be going back down then.

They've had a lot of rain down in the area and while we were there we were going to go fishing in a river that you get to by driving down John Forrest Road.  Unfortunatley the bridge we needed to cross over was flooded out.  Hubby wanted to drive over it anyway but Wanda didn't want to get her seats wet so we turned around and went looking for somewhere else.

I *possibly* saw some sea lions. 
There are some rocks a fair way out from the land but you can see them and Hubby said that the sealions are quite often out there.  *Someone* had left the binoculars at home but with a bit of squinting a couple of maybe moving black dots could be seen. 
I WILL get to see one of these things one day and these ones are closer to the shore than the ones up at GreenHead.

Even though it was wet and windy and there were a few places I didn't get to see because of the wet conditions I think Hopetoun is a pretty little coastal town well worth the long drive.