We have learned the real meaning of bush camping... We spent the night last night, literally in the bush; a very cool area just 60k's west of Esperance. A fellow camper man we met at the visitor center in Esperance said Quagi Beach was cool to camp at, save the snakes, though. And, there were even the oh, so luxurious decomposing toilets. We thought cool, got along our way... turned off the main road onto one of those dirt, washboard roads, like the ones we'd let out some air in our Jeep tires to drive down in Baja when we'd camp out in cow fields to surf non-crowed waves. So we drove, and drove, and drove, wondering if we'd actually get to the beach, and if our lame little tires would really hold up. We finally rock up to the sign for Quagi Beach, and there were the bush camp sites, literally all tucked away in the bush. Very basic, but there was the sea, and the bush, and areas to pull your car right up into your own private bush site. Ok, so it's not really the extreme bush camping, because there was a toilet, but the concept was there and we were loving being so remote. There were several other campers there, all very friendly, tucked away, though, in their bushy sites. And for $4, who could beat this? We really should have caught some fish and made the whole experience truly authentic, but we had bought some fixin's for stir-fry, so we dined on fine Asian cuisine in the bush. No sight of snakes, although we forced ourselves to suffer, and not venture out to use the toilet in the dark during the middle of the night. All was well, we left our cool bush camping site behind for the long drive ahead - 6 hours back to Albany and Denmark en route to Margaret River. Luckily this time passing through, there were very few locusts. The most we saw were at the gas station where we initially stopped for gas on the way out to Esperance - they were in the same pile we had left them by the unleaded pump, all over the ground.
That night we stayed in quite the choice caravan park... It wasn't in the book or any of the brochures, so caveat emptor... And right that saying was. It reminded me of a trip I took with the girls one summer down to San Quintin, Mexico, and when we woke up, we realized we had been camping on a garbage site. This site, instead of garbage, had used animal feces to fertilize the lawn. It was the off season, and probably not expecting guests, there we were, camping among fields of feces- and we paid $22 to do so! Any of you heading to Denmark, be forewarned about the Ocean Beach Caravan Park. This place takes the prize. Yuck!
