Saturday 19 June 2021

Bengello Beach and not a soul to be seen

Well Tony looks like he is enjoying the wind

Wind whipping up the waves even on the sheltered side

Pink Rocks – a local surfing spot

Normally at low tide, you can walk on these rocks

Morning tea and still in their winter woolies

Peter and Ed looking a little windblown

Hmmm Tom thinks … Surf or bushwalk with my wife?

Shark Bay

You would think they would look a bit happier getting their free facial

Broulee bush track

Peter and the Broulee Canoe Dig tree

Photos courtesy of Karen and Gay

Thirteen hardy souls braved the forecast gale force winds and rain predicted for the 9km easy/medium walk today.

Fortunately the rain did not eventuate.  But the wind – well let’s just say the forecaster finally got something right!

With the wind howling and everyone dressed in their winter woollies, even beanies, the Walkers headed up to the headland overlooking Bengello Beach.   It was a very quick photo stop and then a retreat out of the wind heading north and down towards Shark Bay.  With the wind behind us it felt sheltered and crossing over to North Broulee beach with the sun shining and no rain in sight gave us a good feeling of being outdoors. Even some surfers were out taking advantage of some big waves at Pink Rocks.

The huge waves looking east from the island were awesome.  But the further we ventured the sea was looking fierce and threatening.  With regret, I decided it was just too risky to traverse the southern side of Broulee Island as there is no protection from the wind and waves with a lot of rock scrambling. Better to return with all walkers than lose a couple on the way!

On our return we were treated to a rare sighting…. A bushwalking surfer!

Just to give everyone a little taste of what they missed on the southern rocks of Broulee Island, we headed back over to Shark Bay and down along Bengello Beach.  For a low tide, the waves were coming in high on the beach and we had to use the dunes to reach the safe haven of the protected bush.  But everyone seemed happy with their free beauty treatment – A Free Facial from sand blasting!

The meander through the Broulee bush was a nice reprieve from the wind.  A stop at the Broulee Canoe Dig tree and a lesson from Glenn on geocaching had us all looking for a ‘treasure’ but no luck today, unfortunately.

The return walk was back through the bush and local streets to avoid the beach and get my trusty followers back to their cars without any more wild weather to contend with.

Gay