We stayed at the caravan site in Denham again last night; the free camps just outside town are requires a permit which can’t be issued for consecutive nights. So we are alternating between a paid for pitch in town and the free one’s down the coast. It’s not clear whether there is a commercial motive behind this restriction or simply a shortage of sites; in fact tonight Eagles Bluff is full and we are allocated at site at Fowlers Camp a little further down the coast. The weather seems to have recovered from the cold snap and the temperature hovers around 25 degrees when the sun is out but it becomes quite cool at night. Dark rain clouds are dropping rain further up the coast, but fortunately they are not heading this way.
We did some laundry this morning but didn’t have time to dry it before having to leave our pitch. So we spend the morning on the edge of little lagoon just outside town. To onlookers we must look like gypsies with our washing strung out across the sandy parking area! Little Lagoon is an ancient barrida – a long-dried lake which has become flooded by the sea. The undulating shrubland of Shark Bay is dotted with these dry, circular depressions from a long-ago age. The lagoon is a pale blue fringed by a white sand beach. In the afternoon we walk along the mangrove-lined creek that links the lagoon to the sea. The tide is coming in creating the odd sight of its fast moving, crystal clear flowing away from the sea. There is a narrow, deserted beach at the mouth of the creek and we sit a while enjoying the gentle lapping of the waves and the sun on our skin.
Fowlers Camp turns out to be a picturesque campground on the edge of a very shallow and sheltered bay. Mangroves grow in the shallows and a long sandbar is revealed at low tide. In the late afternoon the fish are jumping and the quiet is broken by the occasional plop as they break the surface of the water. Andy manages to catch one, but too small to keep. This too, turns out to be a popular spot tonight, with several other vans parked up for the night.