D’Entrecasteaux NP and Northcliffe WA

Travelled: 117km via Shannon NP Tree drive, D’ Entrecasteaux NP, Windy Harbour to Northcliffe staying at free RV parking (-34.632508,116.125813)

We had such a peaceful night which was especially quiet as there was not even a breath of wind.

Not far from the campsite we took a left turn onto Middleton Road towards Northcliffe. On the way we had a short 10km detour to Snake Gully lookout which luckily talked about birds rather than the snakes in the area.

 After having a look at the Big Tree Grove we returned to the main road.

We passed Northcliffe and entered the free D’Entrecasteaux National Park (named after a french admiral who sighted this land in 1792). We stopped at Mt Chudalup, a huge granite outcrop 187m alt. We couldn’t resist walking 1.5km return Class 3 to the summit which of course rewarded us with some spectacular views. The trail leads us through karri and marri forest opening up to peppermints, grass trees, snottygobbles, banksias and sheoaks. On top of the granite there is an amazing diversity of mosses and lichens.

Another 15mins drive we were on the parks scenic drive. Our first stop was at Pupalong Loop Trail. We were blown away (not by the wind thank goodness) by the shapes of the limestone cliffs.

One particular spot was what they call ‘Natures Window’.

We had lunch next to what I can only say is possibly the ugliest lighthouse we have ever seen….

Next was Tookulup Lookout which offered more views of the cliffs, Salmon Beach and out to the Southern Ocean from where whales and dolphins can be seen…but not today.

We got closer to the sea action at Salmon Beach watching the pounding surf.

We then had a look at the small fishing settlement of Windy Harbour situated on crown reserve.

We took photos of Cathedral Rock nearby.

Doubling back 28km/30mins to Northcliffe, we parked up in the RV parking and went to visit the Pioneer Museum which focuses on the Group Settlers more than 80 years ago. It was to resettle British WWI servicemen offering then land they could farm which failed terribly due to all the decent land already having been settled. They came out in family groups of 20 families and it would take more than 6 months to even clear the land. Then the Great Depression in the 30’s effectively wiped them out financially. We were hoping to go to the pub for dinner but it’s closed Mon,Tue, Wed…so dinner in Traky once again.