Jurien Bay

A bright and sunny day to take me up to Jurien Bay this morning, only about 25km to the North, just along the west coast. Mind you, not that I see any of the ocean while I am driving, its about a kilometre to my left, all white sand covered with a low kind of scrub, beginning to bloom in yellow. At Jurien Bay I pick up a few bits from the local IGA store and also enquire about the stranded whale I heard about in the news. "..No, they have not seen it themselves but it’s about 5km to the south and I should be able to get access to the beach about 2km back towards Cervantes, where a new housing development is in progress."

I have seen the sign posts with the usual "FOR SALE" signs on my way up, so I drive back a little way, through the new streets with many vacant lots, heading towards the visible sand dunes that separate the flat land from the ocean. A dirt track leads into that area and I follow it as far as I dare, getting stuck in loose sand is not my idea of fun, so I leave my van in a free space by the side of the track. I walk down to the beach, sure enough, right around the bay, a good kilometre away, I can see several vehicles standing together near the water. I walk along the beach, using the tyre tracks left there by the big 4-wheel drives.

When I finally get there, I see a Ranger who has put up an exclusion zone with plastic tape on some poles in the sand. The whale is in the shallow waters where he beached himself. There are a few white scratches on his back, but those seem rather superficial, don't look life threatening at all. The Ranger tells me that no-one knows exactly what might be wrong with the whale at this time. We are at high tide while I am there and I can see that the whale's head is coming up every so often, exhaling and inhaling before putting his head back under water. The top 20cm of his back are always out of the water but I can't see him using his tail to help propell him into deeper water and back out to sea.

Just about 30 metres from the shore, a stranded whale.


A few more rubbernecks have arrived and I decide its time to walk back to my van.

I check into the trailer park and get a nice private spot along the fence with green grass beneath my van and my feet. Because the sun is good and strong, I start a load of washing, have some lunch and sit under my awning, enjoying a nice cold beer, reading "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". Life IS Good!

After stowing all my freshly washed stuff, the wind is becoming gusty once again. I stow my awning again before the wind will tear it off and I have already decided to drive on to "New Norcia" a Monastic community, tomorrow morning.