May 17th...On home.

Rising with the sun, we had a chance to explore our campsite. And a very strange place it was.

There was a 2km stretch of area open for camping, which included everything from tents like ours, to permanent collections of subdivided trailers with padlocks on them. Small, ice-house sized shanties with tin roofs were nearly indistinguishable from the outhouses dotted around the campground. Busses, campers, and trailers towed by every type of vehicle were parked with their solar panels displayed, and a row of RVs competed for the biggest carbon footprint.

As we strolled down the beach, it was clear that this was a favorite getaway spot, but only 2 others were awake at this time. We watched them fish, talked again about how handy a kayak would be on this coast, and dawdled back to the campsite for a cleanup breakfast which included everything left in the eskie (cooler) -- beans, eggs, toast, pancakes, coffee...enough fuel for a marathon.

On the way out, we stopped to admire a local phenomenon called the blowholes. Onrushing waves hit chimney-shaped flutes of rock, which causes water to fountain up in narrow, geyser-like sprays. This was kind of cool, but we couldn't get too close due the warning signs about King waves, which wash unwary fishermen off the cliffs to their doom. Instead, we watch a young German couple take photos of each other coming out of the outhouse with reading material and toilet paper, which was pretty entertaining. I then tried a few photos of rock parrots screaming across the landscape, but they were just greenish smears on the film.

We debated whether to take a detour to visit Kalbarri National Park, or save that for a time when we had some more energy. Wisely, we decided to head straight home, have a day to unpack and develop film, and do some laundry. Pretty uneventful, save for a sign in Eneabba which should serve as a warning to all who visit us, especially during nesting season.

All in all, we had a great time, and were happy to get home, exhausted but very satisfied that we had seen a new, big chunk of Western Australia, but amazed that, as much as we had seen and as quickly as we had travelled, this trip just skimmed over a scant 25% of the coast of WA, and almost none of the interior. This is truly a huge, huge place.

Come see for yourself.