D’Entrecasteaux National Park is a long and stunning coastal park. Point D’Entrecasteaux is it’s rough midpoint, and was named after French navigator Antoine de Bruni D’Entrecasteaux who discovered it in 1792.
Looping via the Summertime Track, we were soon down on Warren Beach and heading on our northwest course.
Blasting alongside the Southern Ocean with not another soul in sight, it was almost impossible to believe that earlier that day we’d been in Perth. Easy access to places like this is certainly one of the perks of living in one of the world’s most isolated cities.
Arriving at the Meerup River mouth, we were inundated by intermittent large set waves. We took our time and watched it for awhile to get a feel for the lulls, before blasting through it quickly with an anxious eye on the lookout.
Some of the trickiest driving along this coastline seems to be getting up off the beach through the incredibly soft sand and up the steep dune tracks.
Callcup Hill is one of Western Australia’s iconic driving challenges – it’s long, soft and steep. If the tyres are too hard or the vehicle is too heavy, then there’s a high chance there’ll be significant difficulties making it up this hill!
After a night tucked up off the beach, we descended back down Callcup and continued our journey. It wasn’t long until we stumbled across the remains of a four wheel drive rapidly rusting back into the beach. Coastlines like this stretch beside the Southern Ocean can be deceiving. When travel is going well it’s effortless, but when things shift sideways it’s a different story. Incoming tides and rising swells can transform conditions quickly and wrecks like this are always sobering reminders.
Our next crossing was the Warren River. The waters here are dark brown, stained by the tannins of the nearby forests. Just back from the mouth was a line that wasn’t too deep and had easy access points. For us this was an easy crossing. However, it is likely to be a different story if there has been heavy rain.
To navigate around the Donnelly River, we headed inland through the stunning Yaegarup Dunes and into the canopy beyond.
We diverted into the neighbouring Warren River National Park and spent the night in the bush beside the river we had crossed earlier in the day.
After a few unavoidable kilometres on the blacktop, we weaved via Lake Jasper and back along a series of stunning tracks.
Black Point’s southern lookout seems almost designed to survey the section of coast that we had just travelled. This stunning place is the perfect end to a cracking trip!
