Two epic rockets flying over Toolina Cove/ Baxter Cliffs…

We drove back to the Cocklebiddy Roadhouse to ask for the track conditions from here down to Twilight Cove, but as expected they told us you could drive that track only with a big 4-wheel truck with lots of clearance. And even those ones get stuck occasionally…

Greg called the Eyre bird observatory, to find out that access to Twilight Cove at the end of the cliffs would be possible via Eyre bird on a track along the beach and on a reasonable bush track! So I could catch up with my support van after the cliff section without having to carry camping gear! Good.

At Cocklebiddy, I could quickly jump on an expensive public satellite internet line to check my e-mails, and get another version of weather forecast from the government site and bouyweather but there was no chance to update any blog stuff.

We the drove back west again to the Caiguna roadhouse, to find out the way to Toolina Cova via the Baxter memorial. They told us access is via the backyard campsite, along an airstrip and totally unmarked. But they gave us a scribbled map. We were wondering, why there are no signs? They obviously don’t like “normal” people trying to drive along tracks better used only by experienced and fully equipped 4-wheel drive cars, we reckoned. Way down in the bush many slow klometers later, at several turnoffs, we found perfect new signs, obviously just recently put up by some government agency!

We had some trouble getting on the right way, but eventually drove on towards Toolina Cove on a reasonable track.

And, believe it or not, in the middle of the bush in nowhere, two other cars came up the track! Four guys in their best ages, travelling together 4-wheel drive on a men’s holiday from Perth via Israelite Bay to Mandurah…they haven’t seen anyone since two days. We pulled aside, and chatted for a while!

It was one of the first warmer days in the sun, and quite some Blue Tongue Lizards obviously thought the same! They were sunning themselves on the track to warm up their cold blood, and Greg had a hard time to avoid running over them. He picked one up for a picture, and told me the Aboriginals used to eat them – yuck!

We were arriving at Toolina Cove in late afternoon, after a snail’s pace ride over rough rocky sections, low hanging branches and some sandy bits. But it was still a reasonable track with no major incidents. We saw lots of kangaroos that day!

We were both very keen to have a look down the Cove from the Baxter Cliffs, and were delighted to see landing would be possible through a more or less fat dumper into a very shallow sandy beach. The sand was not always exposed in the turn of the waves, but it was possible to land all the time in maximum knee deep water. But what to do then?

There was definitively NO WAY to climb up the cliffs. All former rusty iron ladders or rotten pieces of ropes were removed, including a flying fox for hauling gear up and down from ancient times fishermen. No chance to get down or up without solid mountaineering gear and skills.

 Note our van on the cliff top

It may be possible to spend a day or a night camping down there on a more or less leveled spot on the rocks, or even in a cave half way up the cliffs via a pile of rocks. But for completing the remaining 110 km it would require either launching or landing at night, at least for me and my speed, so I’d rather stay out and do the whole cliffs in one rush. But it was good to know there would be a spot to land, just in case!

We were walking towards both sides of the Cove, taking pictures and watching the surf. The forecast was for a westerly change on Thursday night 2am, with easy low 5-10, maximum 15 kn after lunch headwinds on Friday. Then it would be stronger easterlies again! This would be the only weather window all next week, and I would take the chance. But there won’t be any reason to land here at Toolina Cove and to spend a night or even a full day down there.

We parked the van in a bit of a bush shelter and enjoyed a nice evening with cooking and talking.