Thursday 15th of May

Today we thought that we should give our skin time to iron out any wrinkles, and spend some time on dry land. With that in mind, we were up at dawn, let me repeat that, we were up at dawn, for a quick stroll to the head of Mandu Mandu gorge, a nearby hike through a cut in the red hills of the Cape Range. It was fantastic, with birds, rocks, and, um, other rocks. It was very pretty, though.

After a breakfast of pancakes and eggs, we upped stakes (some with real difficulty) and bounced our way out of the campsite and down to Yardie Creek. We stopped to admire the plaque which informed us that this road to an historic crossing in old sheep farming country had been opened in 2000. History is overrated.

Yardie creek is the only gorge in the national park that has water year-round, which is good for the ecosystem, but bad for the people trying to drive south of the creek. There is an official crossing place for people in pre-rusted 4WD vehicles, if you're daring enough or if you really, really need to get to the other side. We waded across to appreciate the peril (significant) and the likelihood of us trying this in the Rav4 (vanishingly small). Nevertheless, we hung out for a while in hopes that somebody would come hooning through, but no luck. Instead, we took a very sedate boat trip up the river, admiring the bird life (ospreys, cormorants, welcome swallows) and the rare black-footed rock wallaby. It was really very pleasant.

A short drive away was a sweeping sandy bay called, let's check the notes, Sandy Bay, which was so unbelievably idyllic that it tempted us back in the water for a leisurely snorkel. Afterwards, we dried out on the beach and speculated as to what could be responsible for the variety of animal tracks in the sand. Unresolved, we jumped in the car and headed back out to Exmouth, stopping to admire a shipwreck just off shore. That night, relaxing pizza and beer at the apostrophe-deficeint Graces Tavern.

Ah... this is the rest and relaxation that we always hope for, but rarely get on vacation. And a good thing that we saved up some energy for tomorrow's boat dives. But for this night, a quiet, early night. After beating Kris at cribbage, that is.