Day 12

After assessing what there was to see and do around Orleans Bay it was decided in the morning that we would break the trend for this holiday and stay put for the day.  No packing up tents and sleeping bags!

Of course I had thoroughly researched this holiday and I already knew roughly when high and low tide would be for the Esperance area around the dates we would be here, and I knew that the tides were not in favour for our holiday activities.  High tide is around 10-12am and low tide around 6am or 5-7pm; pretty much the exact opposite to what you'd need if you want to drive on the beaches in the morning and relax/go fishing in the afternoon.

In the morning we basically explored the beaches that were around - Wharton Beach, Little Wharton, Nare's Bay - which was surrounded by rocks, and the Duke of Orleans Bay - which was carpeted in seaweed. 

Given it was still mid-morning we thought we'd kill a few hours by doing some fishing.  Little Wharton was our chosen bay.  We found a nice spot next to some rocks and tried avoiding the seaweed.  Morgs had one cast and her hook and sinker snapped off the line.  I hadn't even gotten my surf rod tied up when she came back to report her loss, but thankfully she didn't ask for it to be rigged up again.  She had two more casts from the surf rod and was finished fishing, so she read her kindle next to a seagull on some rocks.

I had no luck, but thought there were a few nibbles/bites.

We checked back with the caravan park owner to pay for the next night of accommodation and ask him about fishing in the area.  He recommended Nare's, but we weren't so thrilled about fishing off the rocks.

The caravan park owner kept recommending the Condi (Condingup) pub for meals, so we thought we'd give it a go for lunch.  Other than being the only ones there (it was 2pm) they served very large burgers and we really shouldn't have ordered the extra side of wedges.  Still, it was nice to gorge ourselves on food we didn't have to prepare ourselves.

Talking to the waitress at the Condi pub, we mentioned that the previous day we were hoping to get into Cape Arid, only to be greeted by the flooded track at the end of Fisheries Road and that we had considered going to the campsite at Mt Ragged.  "Oh, no" was her response. "The SES had to rescue someone from Mt Ragged the other week.  I wouldn't go there for a while."

Morgs had a smug look on her face.  I explained to Morgs that that really pisses me off, the fact that someone has gone in there, probably not heard how bad the track conditions were, gotten themselves stuck and then required emergency assistance to get themselves out when the tracks should have been closed to start with.  "How ironic" was Morgan's reaction, not helping validate my belief.
After rolling ourselves out the pub door we headed back to camp to relax for the afternoon.  There were the two caravans on the other side of the park, and another caravan arrived in the evening.  It was a nice quiet time of the year to be visiting the area.  Weather was fine, although a couple of showers came through but lasted no more than 10 minutes.