Woody Island WA
What would our blog be without a boat cruise somewhere? By chance we came upon the Esperance Island Cruise, which takes you on a half day cruise out from the Esperance jetty, around the little bit of a bay, past some of the beaches, a few of the 160+ islands and out to Woody Island.
 |
| Rocks. Esperance WA |
On the way out we stopped to look at fur seals, sea lions and swooping white breasted sea eagles. What I like is is the eco, ergo, enviro romanists that tell us all about how to protect the environment and the animals, and then proceed to get the once wild eagles to come swooping in and pick-up dead fish that they throw out to attract them. No worries, I had fun taking snaps.
 |
White breasted sea eagle. Esperance WA
|
 |
| White breasted Sea eagle and dead fish. Esperance WA |
They pulled in a few times to check out the seals and sea lions, a scant few, but then we were spoiled by Kangaroo Island last year
 |
| Fur Seal and Cormorants. Esperance WA |
 |
| Fur Seal. Esperance WA |
They were also trying to show us the feral goats on one island. They had been left there in the early days to provide a reliable source of food, but are of course only useful today as a tourist attraction, but they must have missed their wake-up call this morning. The captain had us in nice and close and the waves crashing over the semi-submerged rocks
 |
| Crashing wave. Esperance WA |
Woody Island was first settled by one of the Dempsters, who were brothers and the first settlers into the area and grabbed the whole lot for themselves. Needless to say, there was no point in trying to grow anything on what is basically a big lump of rock.
Others have taken over and established a visitor info / cafe / shop place and some 'eco' camping facilities. First stop was the shop / cafe and they served up a pretty reasonable morning tea, which was more than welcome after a fairly rough crossing. We then elected to take the guided walk which took about 20 minutes and the guide spent all that time telling us about some damn dog that swam ashore here after being swept of a boat and about Black Jack the pirate who lived out on Middle Island way out in the distance.
On the boat there were brochures telling us all about the birds and animals, but we saw precious few. Well, we saw a skink and a bush parrot to be exact.
 |
| Brian looking 'interested' at the lookout. Woody Island Esperance WA |
 |
| Bush Parrot. Woody Island Esperance WA |
 |
| Southern Niche at the dock. Woody Island Esperance WA |
Overall, we were not that impressed by the whole tour, it just left you feeling as if you'd missed something, especially for the amount of dollars required to get a ticket.
No comments:
Post a Comment