Fitzgerald River National Park

Step by step by gathering information from our discussions and cross-checking, we begin to better understand the Australian school system. We learnt for example that "Year 1" corresponds to the first year of primary school in Belgium and "Year 12" to the last one of secondary school. We can now guess how old are the children of the people we meet: "My daughter is in year 10"; let me think, oh yes, she should be 15-16 years old. :)

Well, it's summer holidays over here: schools are closed, students work in the supermarket (or in avocado orchards, see previous article) and children go to the beach on weekdays too. Backpacker misfortune, the high season also means crowded campsites and higher prices.

We leave Albany to go east. Perth is now far away, the main holidaymakers are farmers. Once the harvest finished, they tow a fully equipped giant caravan behind their large four wheel drive (strong clichés) and go camping at the beach with their family for a few weeks. The remote seaside towns, usually so peaceful, are packed (understand you're no longer completely alone on "your" beach) With 50 000 km of coastline and 10 000 beaches, doesn't matter how fussy you are, you should find the perfect spot in Australia. The 70 km of Belgian coast sounds a bit insignificant.

In addition to these little details which are good to know as organised travelers, our journey goes on smooth as.

First stop, Bremer Bay.

Fine white sand, crunching under your feet (because it is mainly composed of silica), turquoise water, a 4wd of fishermen standing out in the distance, we start a 20km walk at Point Ann. We leave the hustle and bustle (Australia scale) of Bremer Bay to explore Fitzgerald River National Park.

![Fitzgerald River National Park East side, Point Ann] (https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Q-zKNyDByH1RCQwC9SDxIFZM6WQFs_yzDgwTm7lVTtT2Gjp4YuMows-KxNLIb1KQwMWwCKoOyD2lZGspp7oyOCQJU75OWmu6XMXQHJVPIprh-Rm-NV-wvPrlNWi5w14kuYG55ev-HW4)

We must also discover the other half of the park (no direct access between the two parts). We resume the road along the northern boundary of the park. On the way, Ravensthorpe, a small cereal village in the middle of nowhere (another one!), welcomes us with its huge decorated silos. Hopetoun is not very far away, we can once again see the ocean, its pristine beaches and the turquoise water behind the relaxed seaside town.

![A gigantic fresco on the silos at Ravensthorpe. Fitzgerald River National Park West side, Hopetoun] (https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/8PHy7AaXYKef3sR591xczLS2uyaiKRWNNqff-ke9KRjzhSew9ISSYVmwAvwJrd26CA4EKdzxSchtWexySQQ0gxmQk9ASUakcH_xA0L12bleo-82miUIZ_FesTW9YdkK5xOR_icl8FdA)

We have a close look at all the plants, the park is world renowned for its incredible biodiversity. The emblem of the park is the royal hakea, a slender plant 2m high with degraded foliage ranging from green to red and yellow. Who says beach, also says swimming, splashing in the waves, reading and sun bathing ...

Thanks to Jodie and Darryl, we visit their friend Lisa in Hopetoun. Epic moment: we are invited to have tea at Lisa's house, who we do not yet know and, at the same time, we have an appointment with our future Workaway host, Jurg, passing through town. We finally end up all four of us, sitting on Lisa's terrace, sipping tea and enjoying a delicious homemade cake.

After chatting for hours, Lisa suggest we go to a "secret" beach. We will see each other in the evening to continue the cheerful discussion. The next day, to thank Lisa for her hospitality, Olivier tries to solve a "thorny" problem of photos transfer from iPhone to PC. An upgrade from windows 7 to 10, two hours of reading at the beach and more efforts, the problem remains ... Jurg and Georgina, our future hosts, are waiting for us, we have to go. "Game over", the computer won.