Tales of the Cape

We have walked several stretches of the Cape To Cape hike. The other day I did the last ten miles from Yallingup to the northern Cape. Barely saw a soul. Waves were endless. Vast ocean.

I have been thinking about water lately. It has played a big role in the trip. It’s been a surprise and delight to feel a deeper connection to oceans. I didn’t expect it. Surfing was on my mind when we left home, but deep thoughts about oceans and ocean life? Nahhh. And yet from Newfoundland to Wales to Morocco to Kenya to India to Japan and now Western Australia we have been at the water’s edge. I’ve spent more time in oceans since we left home than in all my life prior. The morning swims connected me to the ever changing nature of the ocean. Swell, wind, tides. And the fish. So many fish. So many days I’d swim over a school of fish and just stop to gaze. And to be with them. It’s their home. I’m passing through. It’s a treat and honor to be in their world, if for just a minute. Some days northerly winds would bring down tiny jelly fish and I’d get loads of little stings that would disappear quickly. This is not big scary jellyfish territory, so that’s one less predator to worry about ;)

David Attenborough has just released a documentary called Ocean. Apparently it’s appropriately sobering, with a glimmer of hope? I look forward to seeing it. I’m sure it will balance my rosy experiences in oceans-around-the-world with the harsh realities of the perils they face.

First photo is Yallingup in the distance as I head north. The rest are photos of the wild coast.

At roughly the mid point of the Cape is Surfers Point. Every year in the fall the World Surfing League descends upon Surfers Point for one of the tour stops. I took the kids. It was super cool and low key. So much space, so few people, everyone had their own best seat in the house. It’s neat being around elite athletes. It gave us flashbacks to seeing the World Championships of mountain biking in Andorra. You don’t often bear witness to the best in the world. It was interesting to compare the dynamics of these vastly different sports. Start / finish lines versus point systems. Rigorously prepared courses versus the wild ocean. Mass starts versus heats. Athletes from rich countries with trails (lots) versus rich countries with swell (few). What a treat!!

Just a wee bit north of Surfers Point is the one and only Gracetown. And a few minutes north of Gracetown is Arty’s Shack. The swimmers put it on my radar. For ages this guy Arty lived in the shack but he recently passed. He was beloved by locals and in his passing his shack has become beloved. They dropped a pin on my map so I took the kids. We actually found two surf shacks. They said riots would break out if the Shire tried to dismantle it. BTW Shire is the equivalent of a county in WA (and hobbit country too I think!!). Hard to imagine Western Australians rioting over anything to be honest!! There is decades of history of surfers bumming it in shacks by the ocean around here. There is just so much endless wild coast on this west coast.