Monday February 13: to Augusta

 We’ve discovered that retired people travelling around Australia in campervans are known as Grey Nomads here! I’d prefer Silver Nomads at least! We’re on the road soon after 8.30am and head south along the Caves Road towards the most southwesterly point of Australia. We enter Leeuwin National Park and admire the tree lined avenue: enormously tall Karri and Jarrah trees towering on either side. Sadly some blackened by recent forest fires. We start along the unsurfaced Boranup Road through the inner forest but the surface is so uneven and bumpy and we rattle along so much that we decide to turn around. Luckily Simon manages a U-turn and we are reassuringly back on tarmac. The scenery feels just as good. At Hamelin Bay we are amazed to find numerous black stingray feeding in shallow waters at our feet and a pod of dolphins in the bay. We spend a couple of hours reading, swimming and viewing the majestic sea creatures before continuing onwards towards Cape Leeuwin. Here the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean and next stop south is Antarctica over 5000 km away! The lighthouse is a bit more impressive here. Our campsite in Augusta is on the shores of the Blackwood River and home to a flock of Pelicans. Augusta itself feels like we’ve stepped back in time. The alleged best in the World Fish and Chip shop is closed due to an apparent National shortage of chips!! Instead we buy lamb kofta and Simon cooks them on our outside grill. Another first.