HORROCKS BEACH 2 - THE TOWN AND BEACHES (16 - 23 MAY 2014)

Horrocks is not a big place, perhaps best described as a small coastal holiday town with a limited permanent population, most of whom would appear to be retirees. 

It lies on a narrow flat between the coast to the west and a high limestone escarpment to the east, from which some limited views over the southern end of the town are available. It does not take long to walk from one end of Horrocks to the other. From a 'let's take a visit' perspective, I have divided the town into three sections...south of the caravan park, north of the park and the seafront.

Like many such seaside towns, there is a real mixture of housing here. We begin our ramble at the southern end of the Esplanade. Here the beach gives way to coastal cliffs, where the curve of the hillside effectively forms a natural end to the town. 

On the slopes of the southern side of Horrocks many have built to take advantage of the views on offer over the narrow beach channel out to the protective reef line beyond. Here we find houses of substance rubbing shoulders with cottage neighbours,

streets of homes of a modest size and appearance

and a few houses which demand attention by virtue of their decor if nothing else.

And then there are the originals. One wonders just how many fish have been cleaned in the back yard of this local holiday hut over the years and what marvellous memories occupation of this simple abode has produced.

A select few (we suspect they are farming families) hold prime position on the top of the escarpment from where they can lord it over the entire town.

And on the beach front is this 'village within a village'.....several streets of remarkably similar small cottages. I was never able to get to the bottom of the origins of this clutch of huts, but it does look very much like a planned holiday camp for the employees of a large company. Interestingly all the roadways have 'Private Road' signs on them. How much notice anyone takes of this is a moot point.

North of the caravan park, the limestone buttress of the escarpment runs much closer to the coast. A single roadway divides the holes of the golf course from the row of houses built at the base of the cliff.

Our outlook along the golf course was wonderful, and again we were glad that the recent rain had brought all the dormant grass seeds to life before our arrival. A dry brown barren strip would have presented a far less agreeable vista.

I wandered off past the sports complex at the northern end of the park

and along the half a kilometre of so of this roadway.

Looking out over one of the golf course fairways, there is clear evidence of the fact that this coast can be pretty breezy. Luckily for us, the weather gods remained reasonably benign during our stay, until the last night that is...more of that later.

Most of the homes along this road are obviously the abodes of Horrocks' permanent residents. My walk past was punctuated frequently by much waving and "good mornings" as the locals breakfasted on their front balconies.

And it as here I found another of my favourite things....a public notice with a sense of humour. How could one not do the right thing when walking Fido here at Horrocks?

The main feature of Horrocks is, of course, the seafront. People come here to fish. As did we....totally unsuccessfully for a number of reasons, not the least of which was in invasion of that scourge of this part of the WA coast, bloody blowfish. 'Blowies', as they are universally know in this part of the world, have the completely frustrating habit of descending in swarms on any bait cast in the hope of hooking more acceptable species. These piscatorial terrorists, which are very similar to our SA 'puffers', have sharp teeth, voracious appetites, and no regard for the competition for the bait....they out-muscle all other comers by dint of their sheer weight of numbers. They are utter menaces, and put paid to any hope we had of adding fish to our Horrocks diet during our stay, unless, of course we were prepared to shiver though a night time session off the jetty or shore when the blowies retire. That was not on the agenda.

Our caravan park was but a hop, step and a jump from the beach, separated only by this roadway which runs south from the front northern corner of the park past a row of seafront holiday homes

to the Esplanade proper and the Horrocks general store, about which I have previously commented less than favourably.

Opposite the store, the local authorities have built a small linear park, (complete with this somewhat incongruous rotunda)

which takes beach front ramblers

past the local boat ramp

and the kiddies playground

to the small (and unproductive...as explained) town jetty.

Looking back north along the shoreline from the end of the jetty it is clear that the protective reef, which lies about 200 metres off shore, does not always do the job of harbouring Horrocks from assaults by the Indian Ocean.

Oddly enough, the view to the south makes it apparent that there is no need for such protection....the vagaries of the sea!

Beach access from the caravan park is easy.....out through the north-western gate and across the road to the path

which leads directly to the sand below through the line of well vegetated sandhills.

The 'north' beach as I'll call it was supposed to be the spot from which to haul in great catches of tailor. A fellow camper did manage to hook one during our stay, but only after hours of trying. I was given the tip by a local that the surf immediately in front of the artificial bird nesting pole presented the best likelihood.....not for me it didn't.  I am still to catch my first tailor although I did feed the blowies for an hour or so.

As can be seen from the previous shot, The north beach in the immediate vicinity of the park was somewhat under challenge from an invasion of seaweed which only became worse during our stay. We had to walk quite some distance north along the shoreline to find clean sweeps of sand like this.

The situation continued to deteriorate during our week at Horrocks, culminating in a westerly blow which dislodged tonnes and tonnes of seagrass from the reef. The waters in front of the park resembled the Sargasso Sea....unwelcome but impressive in itself.

Each successive wave threw more and more weed onto the ever burgeoning banks

and the beach was transformed into one long dumping ground of smelly decaying seagrass.

In defence of Horrocks I can report that this phenomenon was an unusual aberration....the park owners were very quick to point out that they had not seen things this bad for years. Hmmmmm! Could it be that the MobileMarshies have waved their 'Jonah wand' again? Given what as to come, we suspect this may have been the case.