To escape the Melbourne heat once again I drove to Cape Bridgewater on the Great South West Walk to do a loop that included a beach stretch along Discovery Bay I hadn't done as part of my through hike ( https://juliathorn1.blogspot.com/2019/04/great-south-west-walk.html ) and a return on the inland alternative (which I had previously done in the opposite direction).
24 January I parked at the blowholes parking area and went out to a blowhole platform but there was no activity. I did the short walk on the cliffs alongside the petrified forest to the Springs campsite, it had cooled down a lot and wasn't windy there. Other people. Warm night. No stars. Blowflies. 2.8 kms
25 January I continued on the open cliff tops for a while, the water quite rough, and went into low bush on dunes. Then it was time for a very long walk on the sand as the clouds disappeared and the sky turned blue. It was a beautiful beach backed by low dunes and low sandstone formations in a few places, misty in the distance, some fishing debris and absolutely nothing to sit on. I had a light tailwind and it wasn't baking hot but was still energy sapping. I stopped several times, too windy to make coffee. The tide was high and it was hard to find firm sand, and a few times I got wet feet when the water took me by surprise. When I left the beach to cross the dunes I was on dune buggy tracks and then passed a very busy dune buggy club campsite near mine (Swan Lake). Really windy at the campsite, luckily it had a protected shelter. I checked out the little lake sandwiched between the dunes and farmland. Some kangaroos bounded through the campsite in a great flurry. Cold starry night. 23 kms
26 January The kangaroos made a quick visit again. I set off on a roller coaster up onto a ridge with views of the dunes and coast beyond. Some paddocks and then into light forest for the rest of the day. It soon became hot and there was little shade on the trail as the trees were stunted and sparse. Lots of ferns and grass trees. A snake slithered off the path. I found a scrap of shade to stop for a coffee. I went up Mt Richmond (no view at the summit, just a hot picnic ground) and rested for a while. Then predominately descending in forest on a grassy trail, very still and hot, to Tarragal campsite, surrounded by grass trees. There was a koala high in a tree. 23 kms
27 January The koala was gone. There were lots of birds around. A bit more forest with banksias and ferns (kangaroos thumping away but hidden from view) then I went along the edge of paddocks to a high point above the Bridgewater lakes with good views of the lakes and the beach I had walked. I passed the ridge with the Tarragal caves and walked up to the largest, cavernous, one. I stopped by one of the lakes for coffee. It was hot already. After a bit of dune bush I was back on the cliff tops (from where I had gone down to the beach two days ago) among the curious low sandstone caves and formations with the tide high over the rock platforms below. I went up and down in the hot sun (after an initial cool sea breeze); the cliff scenery was great: jagged headlands, eroded cliffs, but I was overheating and needed to finish. 15 kms
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