Saturday 4th & Sunday 5th October 2014 – Cleaverville Beach – fine sunny clear skies

Saturday - Early in the morning and late in the evening if there isn’t a breeze we have noticed that there are sandflies.  Not to worry, we expected that with large tidal flat area down the southern end of the camping area.  We came prepared and brought out the arsenal.

This morning we went snorkelling down the southern end of the bay.  We were surprised by the lack of coral down this end.  We saw an amazing amount of reef fish in less than a metre of water, yet when you are standing, or swimming, you don’t notice them.  We had a lot of fish come up and check us out and swim with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are not a lot of shells on the beach, but the stones make up for it.  There are some great colour combinations and layers.  Above are some that I have collected. 

I found the shell (top right) on the beach.  It is from a Cone Snail, and has enough venom to kill 15 adults. It is listed as 11/30 of our most deadly in Australia. 

Our camp security system is working, although the tracks in, are just for one campsite, and they can see that it is taken, you know people are stickybeaking when they insist on coming into your camp.  Our soft sandy road up stopped a couple of cars today.  One lot, tried several times but were still beaten. They would be wondering how we got the camper up there.  When we came back in the car from our day trip, we only just made it to the top, so the car did very well with towing the camper on the first day. 

This afternoon, the wind was up, but we decided to try our hand at fishing, it was so windy the bait was coming back at us, so we decided that it wasn’t such a good idea after all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

While down at the beach we came across a Beach Stone-Curlew.  It is the first time that we have ever seen one of these birds.  We have seen the Bush Stone-Curlew at the beach on Hook Island in the Whitsunday’s and at Burleigh Heads but this bird is different.  So our only catch of the day was the photo of the Beach Stone-Curlew.  They are really big birds up to half a metre tall.

Sunday 5th October – Cleaverville – Warm Clear Skies but very windy!

We haven’t been up to much today, just doing the chores, did our washing and it dried in super quick time.  It has been very windy which cancelled out any beach activities.

After lunch the wind eased slightly, so we headed down the beach to low tide firstly to retrieve Glen’s lure and just for a walk.  We found a Octopus! – only one, but at least there was one.  It was in very shallow water and insisted on squirting me with water (very accurately too) several times.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yes, that’s me out there trying to un-snag my line, every cast it was snagged.  The wind whipped up the sandy bottom making the water very cloudy.  A total waste of time. I don’t think I like rock fishing.

I headed back to shore, but it was very difficult to see into the rock pools with the wind blowing fiercely on top.  I managed a couple of photos.

The clams have an amazing array of colours.  This is a close up of one that was a turquoise blue/green.  It also squirted me with water.

Seriously if that is it’s best defence in a water world…..

 

 

 

I first thought that these “ferns” would be a live creature and pop back down, but they were plant life.  A very soft pink. 

 

 

 

 

I think that this possibly a soft coral, but was a victim of the wind.  It had been ripped from it’s base.

If you spend time in the rock pools there are heaps of things to see, even on a very windy day.

 

 

 

We pack up tomorrow and head back into Karratha.  We need to go to Dampier (Red Dog)  and also visit the Aboriginal Rock Carvings, plus stock up with supplies to get us to Exmouth.  We need to buy some serious sand tent pegs to deal with the WA wind.  We have enjoyed our stay at Cleaverville and have been fortunate to have been dealt some very perfect days.  We are heading to 40 Mile Beach which is about 80 kms from Karratha. We are not sure how long we will be there, it will depend on whether the wind continues and if we have any wind protection at the camp site.