Roadtrip Tag 58 - Cape Le Grand NP & Cape Arid NP

Before heading to South Australia, we had two more national parks ahead of us. These are more popular among locals and not so much among tourists, as they are somewhat remote/inconveniently located on the way.

First, we stopped at Cape Le Grand NP, where you can find the famous 'Lucky Bay'. This bay was chosen as the whitest beach in Australia, with plenty of kangaroos relaxing there in photos. Upon arrival, we were disappointed, the beach is white, but no kangaroos in sight. We even walked the entire bay. Afterwards, we continued to Hellfire Bay. It looks simply stunning, and we spent more than 3 hours there. First, we observed the sea until we decided to go swimming. With the tide coming in, we had a lot of fun 'jumping into the waves'. After we were dry again, we went to Cape Le Grand. A great fishing spot, but not for us, as we didn't have fishing equipment with us.

We then drove another 150km on a gravel road to Cape Arid NP. Due to the winter (rainfall), not all roads were open yet, according to the signage, but enough to make it worthwhile. First, we wanted to go to Israelite Bay, which was another 100km on an off-road road. Unfortunately, after about 500m, we had to reverse and exit the single-lane road, not because the ground was too difficult. No, the ranger hadn't cut the bushes yet, so we couldn't pass through. So we drove the other routes and had to realize that the ranger is pretty lazy and only allowed two points for driving. We visited those and wanted to continue further towards A1, but the ranger was 'not sure' about the road conditions. So we had to drive 150km back to be able to take another 'shortcut'. Otherwise, we would have to go back to the city for another 80km and then drive 700km around on the highway until we reach the roadhouse. But we wanted to go straight up, as it is only 190km to the highway/roadhouse.

Since it was already afternoon, we decided to postpone the drive and found a camping spot. At 'Duke of Orlans Bay', we found the only campsite just 40km off the road. After setting up the tent and having dinner (delicious gluten-free schnitzel), we took a walk on the beach. There, we spotted a stingray swimming very close to the shore. And shortly afterwards, very close to the beach, a shark, so we had our first encounter with a shark, luckily we were not in the water.