Sandy Cape

We left Geraldton at 8am on the 22nd of October & headed south down the Coast road. We stopped briefly for some bread at Dongara & kept going down to a spot called Sandy Cape just north of Jurien Bay. This a shire run campsite with limited facilities & cost $15 a camp a night, this is one of the only camps like this available down this stretch of Coast, caravan parks are the only other option. So we expected it to be busy & it was, but luck was on our side for once & we managed to score campsite 1 the best site in the whole place. Right on the water & away from the other camps, whereas a lot of the others were right on top of each other. The previous occupants went out that morning & from the comments from other campers that we had scored the prime site there was some jealousy in the air, you have to get lucky occasionally!!

We set up under the trees, positioning ourselves so that if the wind did pick up we would be okay, but luckily it was pretty protected by dunes anyway. In the afternoon we went for a long walk on the beach & Mat went for a fish. We met a lovely bloke from Bundaberg who gave us all the gossip on the area & he said the fishing had gone bad & there were only toadfish around, which we found out to be true!  That night right on dark a rain shower blew in right when we wanted to cook dinner as is always the way. 

The next day the rain had cleared but it was still a little overcast. We decided to go for a drive down towards Jurien Bay. We arrived to find a lovely little coastal town, very touristy but it had everything you needed an IGA, bakery etc. We went down to the foreshore & found a fabulous jetty & playground & picnic area. We decided to have a fish off the jetty. While Mat got the gear ready I went to the nearby jetty cafe to grab a couple of excellent take away coffees. We were soon fishing & Mat got a bite straight away, he reeled in a pretty striped fish, not sure what maybe a rainbow runner? 

We chucked him back. I cast out on a smaller hook with a prawn & the next thing I know I had hooked something & it was taking drag, it got the blood pumping & as I got the fish close to the jetty we saw a big flash of silver, what the hell was it? As I got it in closer we realised it was a huge, huge toadfish/blowfish, we didn't know they grew that big. Great this was going to be fun to get it off the line, as we tried to pull him up to cut it off the line snapped, luckily as these things are very poisonous to touch or eat. 

As we were getting him off his mate came up to see what was going on & my next cast out I had caught his mate as well & this time 2 others followed him in as I reeled him in, not much point fishing here then! We chucked our lines in a couple more times & we could feel the bait getting picked away, if you dragged your bait in really slow there were thousands of little toadfish attacking the bait! One of the other guys fishing caught one of the big ones as well, they didn't seem to believe us that it was a toadfish, it broke off, but god knows how many people could potentially take one home, as the fish species knowledge just doesn't seem to be there for a lot of people. May be it's just us QLDers calling them the wrong name but they were definitely a not to be kept fish. 

After giving up on the fishing we made our way further south to a little town called Cervantes. Famous for its lobster industry. Touristy again but not as nice as Jurien Bay. We did find an awesome place called the Lobster Shack that has a cafe attached to a lobster processing plant so we splurged on lobster & chips for lunch. 

It wasn't cheap but was tasty. We can't believe the cost of seafood over here. They want $70 a kilo for lobster, prawns aren't to bad at $25-35 a kilo but there fish is ridiculous. $70 for red emperor, coral trout, dhufish etc. just crazy they even wanted $60 a kilo for squid in Geraldton. We complain when we have to pay more than $30 for red emperor at home in Rocky. Considering WA has the biggest coastline & less people the prices are ridiculous. Luckily we have managed to catch a decent amount of fish ourselves & still have some in the freezer. In the afternoon we were sitting in camp & Mat was talking to his parents on the phone when a 1.5m snake slithered under the trailer & then through our chairs, we only saw it as it came out & luckily it kept going. Well that was just the  start of our snake sightings, we think it was a Dugite. 

The next day we stayed at camp & did the walk up to the top of the lookout. It was a hard slog up the soft sand but worth it for the amazing views. The sand is extremely white at a Sandy Cape & there is a lime sand quarry on the way in. As usual on the WA Coast the water was beautiful blues & greens, this area is rocky & seaweed rather than coral like the ningaloo Coast. Just beautiful. 

In the afternoon again the snakes came out. One right near our camp that a girl almost stood on & another 2 up near the toilets, the place was teaming with them. Mat had to help move on a couple near campers with dogs & kids that didn't know what to do. Luckily they are not aggressive but are poisonous. Would be a bit of a worry if you had little kids with you camping. 

Sandy Cape was a great find, minus the snakes! We got extremely lucky with the best campsite. We stayed for 3 nights at $15 a night, there are good pit toilets at both ends of the campgrounds. There are about 30-40 camp sites. On our last night there (Friday) it was full & they put a sign out on the road. Guessing it is always busy on weekends. There is a caretaker on site.