Our travels today took us to Whalers Way which is a privately owned property with a lot of historical significance to the whaling days during the 1800’s. There were spectacular cliffs and coastline. One little known fact of this area is that it was where the Australian TV series Survivor was filmed back in 2001.
One of the first stops was the Theakstone Crevasse. What looks to be a man made fissure is formed on a fault line that goes underground around 30 metres but this can only be seen if you venture past the fence – boys will be boys. 🙂
Next stop was the Caves. This had some amazing geology with some large caves formed by wave action and we saw some of that wave action but it wasn’t enough to form new caves but breathtaking all the same. We couldn’t believe our eyes as 2 sea-doos with passengers went past in the pounding surf – not sure where they came from or where they were headed.
Just down the road was the Baleen Rock Pool and blowhole. It was a clear rockhole with signs saying “Don’t swim in it” but I would imagine that would be for when the sea is pumping and today wasn’t that day as the blowhole failed to impress.
Barra & I headed over the rocks to find the ocean where the waves breaking put on an impressive show but when we returned, we were in the bad boys corner as the others were waiting – I guess we lost track of time. 😉
It was then off to Red Banks Beach for lunch and some more rocks to explore. I am glad we did as there was a lone Fur Seal putting a show for us about 30 metres from where we were sitting. The trek back up from the beach was fun as there was a sand bank leading up to the cliff ladder and it seemed for every 2 steps up you slipped back one. I even had to push up Christine’s Mum as she was struggling.
It was time to visit some of the other attractions on offer which included Moonlight Bay and the Osprey Nest (but the Osprey wasn’t home). Seemingly the same Osprey has been nesting here for 32 years.
At the Ski Jump and Cape Wiles, there was supposed to be a Fur Seal colony, but to see it you needed a telephoto lens as they were way down there on the rocks. It wasn’t until we looked at our photos that we realised there was an albino Fur Seal down there. It made our encounter back at Red Banks Beach all that much special.
The sink hole made all too clear how little crust there is on these roads. Back when they were making the road using heavy machinery, the limestone crust gave way to form the sink hole about 10 metres deep. That road doesn’t go through any more.
We were getting weary but made a couple of stops before leaving Whalers Way. The first was Whalechaser Crevasse and again the limestone crust depth was evident. The final stop for the rock climbers was the Swimming Hole. This involved climbing down a cliff face using a bush-rigged ladder. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for a swim but Barra went for a walk through the water.
The group split up with a few of us grabbing some last geocaches at Mary Ellis Wreck Beach before heading back to camp for another spectacular sunset. We covered 162 kilometres today and found 12 geocaches.
