Torndirrup NP is home to many
beautiful natural features, beaches and coastline. Two of the key
features are the Natural Bridge and The Gap. The Natural Bridge is
exactly what it sounds like. We have seen a few of these now
throughout Australia. I think the one near Kalbarri was much more
impressive, but as it is right near the gap you can check it out
easily enough, and there is an interesting story about the rescue of
a guy who tried to climb it and got swept off by a big wave. Having
said the Gap is a bit ho hum, I have to say the coastline to the west
of it is magnificent. The seas were long, rolling swells the day we
were there, the water a beautiful blue (actually all of the water in
WA seems to be a beautiful blue) and all of that coupled with the
coastline was just stunning.
The Gap was something else. It is
simply a slight tunnel within the rock coastline but what makes it so
interesting is that they've built a cantilevered platform over the
gap, and so you can stand on the platform over the mass of churning,
pounding, surging white water. You get a very real sense of just how
powerful and terrifying the sea can be. Having seen, and read about,
so many shipwrecks of the WA coast, and then standing over this
maelstrom of water, it brought home to me just how terrifying being
on those shipwrecks would have been.
We also checked out some of the
beaches that you can visit in the NP. My favourite, which is the only
one we actually played at, was Misery Beach. I have no idea why it
was called that, although there is a small island in the Harbour
called Misery Island and I am guessing the beach is the closest to
the island. It had a big granite face towards one end of the beach
that would have been great to climb, without the kids. It was
probably just that bit too risky with kids. I'm sure other people do
climb it but I just wasn't interested with Rory in tow. We didn't
play in the water because it was cold and we didn't have swimmers,
and there was a bit of a churned up/rip area that wasn't worth the
risk.
No comments:
Post a Comment