Day 309 75 Mile Beach

Saturday 5 November


Another early start, picnic packed and into the car to head up the beach.  The beach is a highway and rather more pleasant to drive along than the forest tracks.  It is however limited by the tide and we'd been advised to keep within three hours either side of low water. That meant setting off at 7.30 when we drove right up to the northern limit at Indian Head thinking it would be easier to judge the remaining time if we did all the stops on the way back.  The beach is beautiful, sand dunes and scrub to one side, blue seas and heavy surf to the other and yellow sand stretching off into the far distance.

We were amazed to see this biker on the beach!
Beach riding is easy but the roads to get here are appalling 

  At intervals there are sandstone cliffs of different shades of red and yellow and plenty of birdlife.  We saw our first dingo shortly after setting off.  

Dingo

Several light aircraft were landed on the beach, you can take rides over the island in them.  Scattered campsites were in the dunes but there was rarely more than one tent or van in each.  The driving was much faster than yesterday, bumpy only over the creeks and patches of soft sand.

Stuck!

  At Indian Head we initially tried to take the inland road but got stuck.  A bit of digging and reversing got us free  so we parked on the beach and climbed up to the headland. 

Climbing Indian Head

75 Mile Beach

 The view from there was splendid with beaches on either side backed by sand dunes.  Out to sea the rough water precluded us spotting any of the commonly seen whales, sharks and turtles but Gaz  spied a stingray in the shallows of the further beach which we watched as it made its way out to deeper water.  This is not a place to swim!







To the car again and we turned back the way we had come.  Gaz wanted to visit Lake Allom which is full of freshwater turtles so we set off along the beach again.  We found the small road that we needed and were immediately in very soft sand.  The driving was very difficult and I was very impressed with Gaz for getting us there without getting stuck on the way.  It took us longer than expected but eventually we arrived at the carpark and walked down to the lake.  We couldn't see much of it but some wide wooden steps took us to the waters edge.  There we could see the turtles as they came up to breathe. 2 or 3 had their heads out of the water at a time.  They were about the size of domestic tortoises and quite cute!

Big Foot!

He's watching me!

At least it was mostly downhill as we slithered our way back to the beach. Next stop was the Maheno, a former luxury liner which was shipwrecked on the beach in 1935 and is quietly rotting away.  I could have spent all day taking photos of it, it is full of interesting shapes and textures.

The Maheno

Final stop of the day was Eli Creek.  This was fun!  It was another incredibly clear stream coming out onto the beach, with a boardwalk alongside it up to a small bridge.  There were lots of people there including a stag party of guys dressed as beach patrol (apart from the one in the mankini!) and wearing big wigs.  They had a volleyball net strung across the opening of the creek.  We chose to wade upstream to the bridge and then I floated back down on my back.  It was fun & refreshing!  Its sup rising how powerful the flow is particularly as the water is quite shallow in places.  Gaz and Vicky briefly joined in the volleyball game and then we raced up the beach, back to the hotel before the tide came in.

Go Gaz!

Not a pretty sight!

We were back by 1.30 so had the picnic on our balcony before spending a relaxing afternoon by the pool, food in the hotel buffet and another early night!

An evening stroll on the beach together