025 - Lucky Bay (Frenchmans Peak)

Not to be disheartened or discouraged by the events of the day before last, we decided to get straight back on the horse and get back bushwalking.

For those who have visited Cape Le Grande NP, they will be familiar with Frenchman’s Peak, a sharp conical shaped mountain that greets those who enter the park. Described as a “Hard walk”, and with the path up the “flat” side of the mountain easily to see, we knew it was going to be slow and hard going.

But, true to their style our mountain goats just took it in their stride. I tried to keep pace with Sam and Evie whilst it was B’s turn to trundle up with the Little Caboose (James). Given my knees I find it easy going up these walks but find going down much harder going so I tend to escort James going down. Having said this, we’re yet to find anything that stops the Little Fella, and this was easily the steepest challenge yet.

There’s no doubt it was hard walking. At times I was picking lines and scrambling up the rock face using my hands as well as I saw Sam and Evie just float up as if riding that cloud that Monkey used to ride in Monkey Magic.

In the end though we made it without issue or concern. And the top rewarded us with a view of epic proportions.

We stayed there probably around 15min having a drink and snack break and admiring the multitude of skinks running around on the warm rocks.

So the descent started and we took off in the aforementioned order, but with caution as going down the rock was often much harder than going up.

A high altitude family portrait...

A 360deg from Frenchmans Peak

Why on earth do we bother trying to keep up??!?

Even on the way down, they simply 'float' across the rocks. Slow down there Ninjago Boy

Nothing stops our caboose. He's simply a trooper.

One from B's phone. It's a ripper I reckon.

On the way up. Yep... all the way up...

This is a good shot from Lucky Bay, across Thistle Cover through to Hellfire Bay, left to right. I mean... really, who'd walk that??!?

As we got near the bottom we were met by a gentlemen who was quite obviously climbing up to talk to us. Apparently an elderly gentleman at the bottom of the rock path where the board walk starts had got into trouble and was “not in a good way”. He suggested that we hang up there on the mountain as to not expose the young ones to anything. I appreciated his concerns, but I also had no intention of trying to keep our excitable three up on the mountain whilst we waited for emergency services to arrive from quite some way away.

So we pushed on and decided to make a call at the bottom of the hill where it was far safer. It was there that we learnt that the situation had developed to “passed away”. We were assured by others nearby that it wasn’t messy or dramatic and that a few blankets had been strategically placed.

So B and I sat the kids on a rock and had a quiet word with the kids as to what had happened. We often find that the truth in this instances is much better and in most instances the kids understand the situation.

We walked past respectfully and got back to the carpark where we were met by the ambo’s and soon after the police. As we drove to Hellfire Beach for lunch to banish any further demons from the night before last we had a little chat about what had just happened. For all intents and purposes they seemed OK with it.

But it was a stark reminder that to stay within your means, respect the environment and to not take anything for granted.

How is a place so beautiful named "Hellfire Beach"???

After a nice lunch we trundled back to camp where we found Joe and Teresa (remember them from Port Lincoln) had set up camp opposite from us. We’d been keeping them in the loop of our movements whilst we could and suggested that they head to LB early if they were keen to find a spot.

The rest of the day consisted of a walk down on to the main beach for a bit of a fish and play in the sand before the evening routine. From there B and I headed over to Joe and Teresa’s van once the kids were settled for what become our nightly night-cap routine for the rest of our stay.

On this occasion as well, we even had a game of Rummykub.

It was very nice to have a friendly face to share our adventure with again.

Just a quick shot I managed to take whilst James and Evie were playing with lego in the sun. They had until the sun had 'set' over their board. Quite the unique measurement of time I thought...