22nd May

We ended up going for a drive as well yesterday afternoon in between rain showers, to Thomas River which is a beautiful little deserted beach. There’s only 3 camp spots there, the reason being that probably not that many people get in there – it was a real 4WD track in, with driving over rocks and sand and varying points, and we wouldn’t have taken our trailer in. It was fun though, and there’s also the ruins of a little homestead you can walk in to on the way. The walk was very overgrown and I think that might be where Daniel picked up a tick, at least we worked it out that night and took it out, although the side of his face had swollen up a bit by this morning. He’s had some antihistamine though and it’s helped it go down a bit so all well now. It was a good thing that my first aid kit includes a couple of emergency chuppa chupps, because there was no way he was letting us take it out otherwise. He’s had them before and knows it’s not so pleasant.

This morning it looked like more of the same weather so we decided to pack up and head for the next stop, Cape Le Grand NP. It’s also stunningly beautiful – the Lucky Bay campground (another place named by Matthew Flinders!) is quite busy now so I can only imagine that it’s packed in warmer weather. It’s quite swish compared to last night – flushing toilets, drinking water on tap, BBQs, rubbish bins and a camp kitchen with hot water. It’s right on the beach so we had a walk along that this afternoon – again it’s such a shame that it’s not swimming weather. The rain has pretty much held off, but it’s still pretty cold and windy. The big attraction here though is some other kids at the campsite! A 5 ½ yr old boy and a 9 year old girl – their family is from southern Qld and they are also going around Australia, but taking 8 months and doing it in a little caravan. They seem very nice anyway, and the kids are all really happy to be with other kids. There are some good walks around here by the looks of it, so hopefully we’ll convince them to do one tomorrow in between playing. We’ll stay 2 nights total, by which time we’ll be out of food and will head into Esperance for some shopping and laundry.