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Elephant Cove, Denmark, Western Australia.

Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Weekend Down South

A couple of weeks ago the husband suggested that we go down to Hamlin Bay for a couple of days. Well, yeah, I wanna do that, thankyou very much, when?   
We went last weekend.   
I love Hamlin Bay, the beach, the rocks, the rays that come up real close to shore...We have been a few times now and I always wonder why we don't go down there more often.

Son has been down that way recently and he told us about Prevelly Caravan Park where they have stayed so we looked it up online.  It looked like a nice park, lots of trees, close to beaches and not too far from all the places we wanted to see.   Some reviews on-line weren't the greatest but we decided to take a chance and stay there anyway and see for ourselves.  For what we wanted, clean, basic, cheapish, it ticked the boxes. 

Contacting Prevally Caravan Park took awhile, I tried ringing them at various times over 2 days but only had someone answer the phone when I rang at 7:30am, their opening time, the day before we wanted to leave home.   The desk for the caravan park is in a shop next door to the park  and as we saw when we were there this shop gets busy.
We weren't real camping but wanted a cabin, onsite van, unit of some sort, and ended up with Cedar Cabin 4, $80 a night, no bathroom.   I thought this was dear but husband was happy to pay that and it was a lot cheaper than anywhere else he looked at on-line.  

We left home around 9 on the Friday morning with the intention of going to Hamlin Bay first as check-in to Prevelly is 2pm. Or 2.30, I can't remember!   It was cool when we left here but had the promise of being a lovely day.  The car was packed with our stuff, some food if we got hungry, coffee making supplies and a small camp stove.


We had a stop here on the way down, does anyone know where this is?  We have been before but today was just a quick stop.  Another quirky town and one we will go to again.

We turned off the main road here so as to miss the very over-rated, to us, town of Margaret River and travelled the rest of the way down along Caves Road.


The sun was shining when we got to Hamlin Bay around 12.30, a slight breeze but lovely day.  We walked down towards the beach and there weren't many people but we could see the rays from the top of the boat ramp.  Back to the car to put shorts on as I knew I would get wet then back to the water.  It was cold but never too cold to stand in close to shore where the rays come.


The rays were there as usual, they seem to patrol the beach, up one way then back the other, over and over.   They come right up to people, swim over your feet, brush up against you, get touched by various people...  I love being there. 



After an hour or so we left to go into Augusta to buy food for the weekend and to have lunch.   We had a picnic down by the river/estuary, another lovely spot to be.  The seagulls wanted some of our food but we told them no. 

We left Augusta around 3 and made our way back to Prevelly to where we were going to be staying. 


After a couple of mix-ups with checking in we found our cabin and went in and started to unload the car.  I usually take so much stuff for a weekend away I was pleased with myself this time that I took less.  But still too much!




This shower/toilet block was close to us, down these steps.  The facilities themselves were as clean as a busy caravan park ablution block could be but of course, not everyone cleans up after themselves so sometimes it was wet and messy but a phone number was listed to be called if needed.
There was another ablution block up the other end of the park but we didn't go into that one.


Saturday morning was a bit cooler, more wind but still sunny.  Our plan was to explore a bit of Prevelly then go back to see the stingrays again.   There are some nice places in Prevelly and one I liked was the dog park.  There is an area for exercising dogs, a cycle path, swings and barbecues, toilets.  We went up to Surfers

Point but there was a surfing completion on so didn't stay.  

Went out to Rivermouth for a look and a paddle.  Umm no, that water was cold!


There are some pretty cool statues in the area but we didn't find them all. Maybe next time.
 Did see this and wondered why.



It must mean something but I just wondered, why is she breastfeeding a fish?  Weird






After driving around Prevelly and calling in to look at different parts we went back to the cabin for breakfast then back onto Caves Road and back to Hamlin Bay.

It was a lot busier this time, the car park was nearly full but also this beach is right next to Hamlin Bay Holiday Park and there were a lot of people coming and going from there.  The wind was up this morning and there was a bit of swell so the water was murky with sand and small waves.  And so many people!   I was glad that we had come the day before but we still got to see the rays and today we also went for a walk up to the rocks and cliffs at the end of the beach.  I didn't go through the hole in the rocks that I like as the wind was pushing waves and spray through and that water was cold.




 

After leaving Hamlin Bay we saw a sign for a sculpture park so went to have a look, but it was closed.








So we decided on a self guided tour of a cave instead.  I sooked out of doing the Giants Cave, really disappointed myself, but instead we did this one.  Turn the torch off and it was dark!









Sunday was our last day and with only 2 things on my list we had a leisurely breakfast and were checking out by 9.  Indijup Natural Spa was the first and on our way home, if we went that way.  It was  early and not very warm so I figured I wouldn't be getting wet, just having a look.  Go left from the car park, down a rocky track, climb/scramble over more rocks...See how beautiful and inviting it looked so scramble over rocks and back to the car to get changed.  Pass dozens of people heading down to my water!  Get changed then back down the track, over the rocks and into the water.  It was cold!!  But so worth it.



 
 I did get dunked and that was a timely reminder that the ocean is very powerful and should be respected.  Be careful if you ever get to go here.  The water crashes over the top of rocks and the first 1/2 a dozen times it's lovely but then...wham! monster waves crashing onto you.