Lucky Bay got its name from Matthew Flinders who sheltered from a storm here on his circumnavigation of Australia. I wonder if he woke to a nice sunny day after his storm, because we did!

We started with pancakes (thanks to the boys for cooking) and then headed around to Hellfire Bay for a paddle.

Hellfire Bay

John had done his early morning reconnaissance by bike as usual and had a plan for a paddle of about 8km back to our camp at Lucky Bay.

Leaving Hellfire Bay

I walked around the point along very scenic track, swamped by more wildflowers in bloom to Little Hellfire Bay, but they had already passed by.

I met them back at Lucky Bay, after a bit more than an hour. John was upper impressed and rates it as one of the best paddles in Australia for its diversity of scenery, spectacular coast and many picture perfect beaches. Here’s a pic of them (they’re just a spec actually) heading around the point to land.

Paddling into Lucky Bay

Back to camp and time for a home brew coffee (10/10).

Next up on our Lucky Day was a hike up Frenchman Peak. This is an outstanding peak on the horizon.

Frenchman Peak

We had a handicapped race to the top. I’d rather not divulge my personal time off scratch, but suffice to say it should have been longer. John bounded up and caught the boys at the top. They say they were there first.

The view was 360 degrees of Wow! Here’s just one snippet of our reward:

That’s Lucky Bay on the left and Thistle Cove to the right

Yet another great wildflower trail getting back to the car. Today’s pick is one of the many varieties of smoke bush.

Next up was a surf at the far end of Lucky Bay.

Lucky Bay. Pretty cool beach.

Our camp is just to the right of the photo, and we drove along the beach to the far end. I even had a bake in the sun. Can you believe it was a bathers day right after yesterday’s storm? The boys persevered in a fickle shore break.

Ferg on a wave

After that, we jammed in a quick trip to Thistle Cove for another “wow” beach where we saw this beautiful Oyster Catcher – a threatened species – and a few lizards. The fauna quota needed a boost.

And then we had run out of daytime.