Town of 1770

We drove into Agnes Water this morning, as we had planned to walk the red Rock Trail which is a 3.5k trail along the coast . We parked up by the paperbark boardwalk, currently closed due to maintenance issues, and set off through the bush to a beach side carpark. The walk took us through bush land and along three sandy beaches separated by rocky headlands. At the end of the trail there was a red rock.
We had completed this walk on a previous trip, but the sea views are always worth doing it again. A long boardwalk takes you down to Spring Beach, where surfers enjoy the waves unmolested by casual swimmers.
A cooling breeze from the sea was very welcome on a very hot day.
We returned to base for lunch and a refreshing shower then wandered down to the local 1770 Marina, where we were to join an evening sunset cruise.
We filled K's water bottle with ice, tonic and some gin, then sat by the waterfront enjoying the activity on the boats below and sipping our G and Ts. Youngsters were trying their hand at fishing off the marina.
The evening cruise was most enjoyable. The operators laid on a delightful cheese and cold meat platter, which was very tasty. It being a Friday demanded our opening a bottle of fizz.
The cruise chugged along around Bustard Bay, named by Captain Cook in May 1770. CC stopped off in the bay on 23rd May 1770 to have a look at the environment. A small boat went ashore on 24th May. Joseph Banks dug up 33 specimens of the local flora, whilst other members of the crew shot a Great Bustard. This apparently gave them a hearty meal, following which CC named the bay Bustard Bay in its honour. Our captain had been living in the area for 40 years and is yet to see such a bird on the headland.
The boat stopped off at a mid-bay sand bar where we were able to get off and witness the sun down.
Prior to returning to the marina we trundled along the bay in amongst the fine yachts and motor launches as the skies turned yellow and red on the horizon. This trip coincided with an eclipse of the moon, and we were able to see the shadow of the earth passing over the moon surface too, quite unexpected.
We stepped off the boat at 7pm and decided to have a quick refresher in the beach bar. There then followed a brilliant evening. We were soon accosted by a family of three who were eager to engage in conversation. Turns out they were Cambridge educated South Africans, who had travelled the world - their speciality was mining engineering. Trevor and Melody, a married but divorced and separated couple and their son Roark.
We had a quite eccentric conversation over a 2 hour period and walked home along the footpath to our site by the light of the full moon. People stopped to ask if we needed a lift. It is clearly most unusual to see people out and about at this time.
Saturday saw us drive to the Captain Cook memorial car park. From there we walked along the butterfly trail - no butterflies at this time of year. This took us up towards the top of the headland, where we took further short paths to a couple of lookouts, on Bustard Head, and a memorial to a sunken vessel which foundered off the headland after dropping its cargo of migrants into Queensland. The ships anchor was resurrected from the wreck - the memorial recognises the demise of the ship's captain and all five of the crew.
After that we walked back past our car and along the beach to The Rusty Pelican cafe. We had heard great things about the cafe and its fish dishes. We were not disappointed. The cafe sits next to the beach adjacent to a busy camper ground and clearly does a great trade. Our lunch was so tasty - we shared a salt and pepper calamari salad and sweetlip fish and chips.Read more