Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Summer is coming and we know we’re about 75 mins from the Busselton beaches and a similar distance from the Bunbury beaches. Busselton would be my preference—the beaches are calmer being in the corner of Geographe Bay, and there are cafes etc. pretty much on the beach. I grew up on Bunbury beaches and the back beaches are notorious for rips, dumping etc. Not pretty.

But there’s another beach within two hours of Bridgetown—on the south coast of Western Australia. So we took a drive to Windy Harbour today to check it out. The drive was a little longer than I’d expected based on the distance (90 mins), but that’s because the road is fairly narrow and winding. Beautiful drive though, through some fantastic forested areas especially between Pemberton and Northcliffe. Of course, a glorious spring day helped!

We checked out the Windy Harbour beach, but that’s not for us. The fishing boats come in and out of there, there’s seasonal seaweed piled up and stinking on the beach, and it’s bloody windy!!! Guess it’s not called Windy Harbour for nothing…

Oh well. We figured we may never be back, so we took a drive to the Point d’Entrecasteaux lighthouse and checked out the stunning views of the Southern Ocean (next stop, Antarctica!) from the cliffs. And then we spotted it! Salmon Beach. Sheltered from the wind, in a bay, clean white sand for miles and miles, no rocks, no seaweed and no fishermen. We didn’t go on to the beach itself though a couple of people were fishing from it, but it’s a definite possibility. The only detraction—that water will be icy cold ALL year round, including at the height of summer.

Here’s my pathetic attempt at a panorama of Salmon Beach. For the full size (and better quality) photos click here and continue on the next couple of pages.