This morning could not have been more different than yesterday. It wasn’t a great deal later that we arose, but the sun was well and truly up, shining through a cloudless blue sky. There was none of the early morning moisture clinging to the cold ground, caravan or anywhere else for that matter.

So, despite the chill in the air, we wrested the caravan into a state of travel readiness. While I performed my usual outside duties, Bec went about hers inside, adding to her list today a phone call to the Denham Visitor Information Centre. Our plan for today is to make our way barely out of the town limits of Denham, to stay at a beachside camping ground. The sites can only be booked on the day of arrival, you can only stay for a single night and there is a $10.00 administration charge.

Since there are only 16 available sites, spread out across 4 camp grounds, we wanted to get in early so as to get a site at our preferred location at Fowlers Camp. It was barely 5 minutes past 9:00AM when Bec got through to the visitors centre and was able to secure us our evenings accommodation.

Right on the peal of 10 bells, we rolled out of the caravan park, only to stop about 3 minutes later to fuel up ‘The Beast’. Of the two petrol outlets in town, there is only one that we could gain access to with the extra length of the van in tow. Naturally, this was also the one at which the bowsers were playing up at. It was third time lucky that we finally managed to elicit any diesel from the pump, but eventually managed to fill our tanks and get on the way.

With no particular hurry to get anywhere, we cruised down the road out of Denham, stopping about 20Km down the road at Eagle Bluff. After a short bouncy ride along a relatively good bit of clay pan dirt road, we reached the lookout. There is a short boardwalk that echoes the line of the cliff, looking out over the shallow aqua green and blue waters below. The view was amazing, as in the distance you could just make out the landform of Useless Loop. Signage along the length of the boardwalk indicated that marine life could quite possibly be sighted, with turtles, rays, sharks and even dugongs often sighted.

The Eagle Bluff Lookout.

As such, we spent many minutes peering closely through our binoculars at a bit of floating weed that looked for all the world like a turtle. We had about given up on catching a glimpse of anything swimming through the briny, and I had only just mentioned how exciting it would be to see the sleek, stealthy body of a shark swimming by, when sure enough, Bec exclaimed that there was indeed a shark gliding along through the water.

I can see it. Just down there.

We quickly brought our binoculars back up to our eyes, and watched in amazement as the lithe figure of the lone shark sidled aimlessly across our vision. My thoughts of possibly going for a dip or maybe even getting the fins and snorkel out again were quickly eliminated at the sight of the silent hunter, as we decided to just enjoy the view from up above.

Honestly, there’s a shark down there somewhere.

Leaving Eagle Bluff, it was only a further 15 minutes down the road to Fowlers Camp, hardly 25Km from Denham, and that was our long day on the road all over. We were the only rig at the campground so had the choice of sites in which to prop. We carefully negotiated the van into the prime spot, only metres from and overlooking the crystal like water. It actually took us longer to set up the van than it took us to get here. It wouldn’t have taken us so long if I wasn’t so fastidious about getting the van perfectly level, but that is just my thing.

With the van pretty much set up, Bec took the dogs inside, opening all of the windows to get the fresh sea air flowing through the van. I stayed outside, fiddling about with a few bits and pieces.

As I did, Bec called out for me to watch out for the windows. I have gotten into the habit of walking into the blade like windows whenever we have them open. Guaranteed, if the bedroom windows are open, I will walk into them. I have marks across the front of my hat as evidence of where I have whacked my head previously, so I was thankful for Becs reminder. Not that it helped, as I walked back towards ‘The Beast’ nearly knocking my hat off again as I glanced off of the window frame. With no one around other than Bec to hear, I let loose a string of curse words about the windows and continued on my way.

It was only a few minutes later that I rounded the back of the van and yet again, smacked into an open window. This one got me a beauty, the corner of the frame slamming into the lens of my glasses, sliding down into my nose and cheek. I was floored, literally. Bec came running round the van to find me rolling around on the ground, bitching about the windows again and the great scratch across the lens of my sunnies. To her credit, she was more worried about whether I had knocked myself out or broken my nose, than the sorry state of my glasses. Although once she had ascertained that I seemed to be generally still in one piece, she began laughing hysterically at my predicament, as I continued to lay face up on the ground, ironically, looking back up at the sky through the smoked glass of the open window.

Thankfully, other than a quickly swelling cheek, it was nothing that a beer and a couple of Panadol wouldn’t take care of, although I sure as hell gave the open windows a very wide berth for the remainder of the day.

With little else to do, we tethered the dogs and took them for a walk in the cool waters of the inlet. As beautiful as it all looks, the actual trek to the water was past a stand of mangroves and across a boggy fen. A mat of sea grass hid a deep quagmire of stinking, oozing mud that saw us sinking almost knee deep in places. Once past the mangroves, the white sand and colourless shallow water all the more made up for the effort it took to get out here. The dogs bounded about in the calm water, while we excitedly snapped photo after photo of them, us and our serene surroundings.

The dogs paddling.

We found a slightly easier to traverse route back to the van, but we all still required a good hose down to wash the worst of the sticky black goo from our legs. We then sat outside in the warm sunshine to dry off, before retiring to the van. It was only a little after 2:00PM, but we were exhausted. Bec had decided to take an afternoon nap, and while I wasn’t going to slumber, the next thing I remember was waking up a few hours later, with just enough time to take the camera outside to pictorially document another fantastic sunset.

I know, another sunset, but “WOW!”

There wasn’t really anything that could have made today more perfect. We had beautiful weather, fantastic views and a top spot to camp. What more could one want? What a knockout.

Until next time, stay safe, have fun and don’t forget to write.