This is our view from our campsite. We are so lucky to be tucked up in a cosy corner. The caravan park is huge and is packed out down the other end with lots of campers and tents. We are up in the holiday permanent area where it is more spacious. I will get a photo of the main camp site today to put in the blog.
It is blustery, but tomorrow the wind will drop for the best day of this week. It is as we expected for this part of the world especially the next stop south being the South Pole. The plants and rocks are very much like Tasmania and so is the weather :)
We couldn’t be happier with our site, close to amenities. There is a walkway along the inlet front to town. It is about 1km. We walked to town today to the Sunday markets. The walkway is level walking but the town is set up high, so you get a workout walking up the hill to the town level.
I didn’t expect the sandy beach or the bay like inlet at the Caravan Park, I thought it would be the dark tea tree water of the Blackwood River. The inlet is very popular for kite surfing, and smooth water swimming. It is quite shallow and will be ideal for kayaking – that’s another story unless the wind stops.
We drove down to Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse which is still operating and you can climb the lighthouse tower.
A view on the way to the lighthouse Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse
The lighthouse was built in 1895 and was finished in under 12 months. Each stone cut and shaped by hand. The lighthouse actually moves in high winds and has recorded winds of nearly 200 km per hour.
No beach driving around here. The lighthouse is in the distance. It’s a dangerous place for wild surf and rogue waves. It’s not safe to walk on the rocks near the water edge, as the waves are so unpredictable.
At forty kilometres an hour this is considered a calm day, so if we have to have wind, it would be great to see it in all it’s glory while we are here. You can see why so many ships came to grief in this area. There are numerous rock outcrops everywhere.
We visited this brand new marina which just opened in November. It provides safe anchorage. The wall had been quarried out of rock on the site. It is state of the art. The whale watching boats will have a modern marina to leave from. This is a photo board which was at the lighthouse precinct.
Don’t let that sky fool you, it was very very windy and very cool.
This was a good chance to see how where our fitness levels are. I asked the guide how many times a day that she walked up and down the lighthouse and it was 6. We followed her up and kept pace and realized that she stopped at the middle section to catch breath and wait for the strugglers, no I mean stragglers. So our track walking with the hills have increased our fitness levels considerably since we started the trip. 176 steps to the top.
The window sills at the base of the tower are 2 metres deep and gradually reduce as the tower gets higher to 1 metre
The crystal lens are original and very fragile, they have to continually move and have airflow or they would shatter. Replacement today would be around 1-2 million dollars. If they need to stop, they have to cover the outside glass to protect them.
The view from the top back to the lighthouse keeper cottages.
There were three lighthouse keepers until 1982. They had to wind up the mechanism to rotate the lights. It is a weighted pendulum with a winding crank. To keep the light burning, they carried 32 litres (32kg) of kerosene to the top. Hard work is a understatement. There was a single light keeper in the early 90's before becoming fully automated.
It is at these rocks out from the lighthouse which demonstrates the meeting of two oceans, the Indian and Southern You can see the waves coming from opposite directions and crashing on to these rocks.
This is only a generalisation for tourism, in reality you could not possibly see the actual point of or be able to identify it.
Tricky photo to take, trying to time the waves and keep the camera still in the strong wind – managed it, but missed on keeping the horizon straight :( the Southern ocean is draining into the Indian ocean. I don’t know how I am going to manage when it isn’t calm!
Lovely large smooth rocks at the base of the lighthouse, very tempting to walk on to have a closer look at the ocean. Quite a few tourists have been swept away and drowned in the last couple of years. Apparently they have no way of saving them as they are dragged under the rocks which are actually overhangs below the water line.
This is my favourite view of the Cape Leeuwin.
When you see the power and the treachery of this coastline, I don’t think we realize the bravery and achievement of the early explorers like Matthew Flinders sailing around Australia in the Tom Thumb without technology or light houses to guide him.
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