Today we did what we have been avoiding this whole trip and that is trying to see and do too much in one day 😩. We are at Ravensthorpe and I should have booked a two night stay (like we usually do) instead of one. Silly me thought that there would not be much to see in this little town that is on the edge of the wheatbelt. How wrong I was...
We left Bremer Bay around 9am and arrived into Ravensthorpe right on the dot of 12pm. The caravan park is easy to find on the outskirts of town and is a real treasure of a place. They don't take bookings. You just arrive and find a place to pull up. The caretaker comes around late in the evening to collect the $35/night. He is a gem of a man. We actually met him as we arrived and in a matter of five minutes he had given us a wealth of information about the area and also a lot of brochures. I think this might be a council run caravan park and we have found them to be of excellent value on this trip. They are cheaper than privately run and always seem to have a great caretaker.
After talking with the caretaker we decided to have a quick bite of lunch (BLT's) and head to Hopetoun and Fitzgerald River National Park. Just before we arrive in Hopetoun we turn to our left and head down Hammersley Drive - undoubtably one of the most scenic drives in the south west of Western Australia. It follows the coastline for most of the way. We have the turquoise ocean on our left and to our right are some of the rugged mountains within the national park. We stopped at every lookout and marvelled at the views. The sun was shining today but it was a hazy day so we didn't get that brilliant colour that we had yesterday but nonetheless it was still wonderful.
The highlight of the Hamersley Drive is Cave Point that has a great lookout right at the edge of a soaring cliff face. You look down into the ocean to watch it pounding away at the rocks below. There is a cave carved out of the rocks but it is a little hard to see from our viewing point. The walk to cave point is just 600 metres and is fully paved so it is a nice easy walk.
We continued along Hammersley Drive until the bitumen ran out and we were once again on a gravel road. Google maps said that there was a lookout not far along the gravel road so we continued for a couple more kilometres until we reached Sepulcralis Hill Lookout. We walked to the information board that said it was an 800metre return walk. It was probably the most uninteresting walk that we have done the whole time we have been in Western Australia, apart from the wildflowers, and to make matters worse there was nothing to see at the lookout. I stood up on the wooden bench at the lookout to see if maybe I could catch a glimpse of the ocean, but nothing 😩..... What we did see a lot of today was snakes! Not what you want to see. The warmer weather is bringing them out and we commented that Fitzgerald River National Park was the last that we would be hiking through so we are kinda glad of that. Snakes terrify me.
Back in the car and returning the way we had come we made a bit of detour into Hopetoun. It is a another sleepy little fishing village but really really pretty. We contemplated staying here rather than Ravensthorpe but a drive by the van park left a lot to be desired so we are pleased with our decision. We fuelled up here because we found that Diesel was almost 10c cheaper here than anywhere else. Go figure!
We made a couple more stops along the way for photographs. We came across a field of wheat that, without a word of a lie, would have been 10,000 acres. It was massive. I also asked Philip to stop so that I could take some photos of the "farm gate" art sculptures that are scattered along the road. There are certainly some pretty artistic people out there!
It's only 35km's back to Ravensthorpe but we decided to make one more stop at the Archer Lookout that is around 10kms outside Ravensthorpe. We pass very close to the Galaxy Lithium mine, so close that some of the huge mining machines use the same road that we are on! Pretty scary really.....
We arrive at the lookout around 5pm and it leaves us a little underwhelmed. I think on a brilliant sunshine day we would see as far as the ocean but it is hazy as all hell by the time we reach the lookout so the views are not great. Ah well. We tried.
It has been a huge day and it should really have been spread out over two days but that's the way it is sometimes. Esperance is our next stop tomorrow and we won't leave Ravensthorpe until the last minute as it is only a 200km drive to Esperance. We have three nights at Esperance so plenty of time to relax.
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