After our adventurous hike on the Mamang Trail, we moved on to Waychinicup National Park not too far from the township of Bremer Bay, where we saw orca whales earlier this year. Just over 400 km from Perth, the park isn’t very big but it features a variety of landscapes from the rugged coast to rocky hilltops. It’s also home to many rare animals in Australia, such as the quenda, ring tailed possum and one of the few mainland populations of quokkas.
There are only few campsites in this national park, payable at 11 AUD (6 GBP / 7 EUR) per night and per person. A ranger comes around daily to collect the fee. The place is not suitable for caravans as the camping spots just aren’t large enough to accommodate, but many of the sites are sufficiently large to fit a car as well as a tent. However, the spots with the best view over the Waychinicup Inlet are tent sites only. We were quickly convinced to drag all our stuff down the small path leading to site number 7. From our location, we could see the entire inlet, from its mouth where waves crash over the narrow gap from the ocean to the inlet and all around the boulder-strewn hilltops.
I was a bit concerned at first because it seemed quite windy where we camped, but on the two days we stayed, the wind seemed to pick up in the afternoon and then it dropped off again by dinner time. One evening, we noticed a little fluffy creature hopping along the path towards where our car was parked. It looked like a quokka, which at the time we thought was impossible because I didn’t know that there are indeed still some populations of this cute little animal on mainland Australia. Usually, quokkas can mainly be found on Rottnest Island just off Perth and Bald Island near Albany. Not much later – we sat on our camping chairs with a wine in hand, enjoying the starry night and sky reflecting in the waters of the inlet – a possum mum and joey came climbing up from the rocks in front of us, so close that they almost scurried over my feet, before they carefully navigated their way into the trees behind us. It was magical.
Whereas we usually have quite a packed schedule on our trips, we spent almost the entire day just chilling on the campsite. Liam went fishing for a few hours on the rocks and promptly got his bait stolen by a few hungry sea gulls, while I was glued to my camping chair with a book. A little path led from our campsite to a little beach, so I went for a dip in the morning when the sun was out, then back to my camp chair to rest up a little more.
Later in the day, we went to explore some four-wheel drive (4WD) tracks near Cheyne Beach. From high on a hill, we could see a car at the bottom parked on a beautiful beach, so we headed there – and almost got stuck on the way back out because the sand was so soft and boggy. This is a very relaxing spot, and it was perfect for us to have some downtime after the tedious hike the day before.
