Coxes Bight

 Much of the crew got a good night’s rest at New Harbour, so it was no surprise that 21 of us hit the beach at Cox Bight this morning with renewed enthusiasm. We did a 7km return walk, from our drop-off point to Point Eric and back. 

It wasn’t an easy landing, but we hopped, skipped and slipped over jagged rocks and Neptune’s necklace, and began the long beach stroll west. This was our first chance to hit the South Coast Track, which generally creates different conditions for the clean-up crew – the campsites offered up plenty of big rubbish pieces, such as buoys and big ropes. There were also a few balloons caught in the coastal scrub, seemingly celebrating a 4^th birthday, as well as some waders, a long-handed shovel and a broken hiking pole. Inevitably, though, the tide-line still offered up lots of plastic fragments.

Other highlights included a group photo (beautifully framed by team photographer Albert Wyatt), as well as sightings of Bassian thrush, sea eagles, red-capped plovers and a stack of hooded plovers. There was also an abundance of handsome spiders amongst the rubbish piled up at one South Coast Track campsite.

We returned east along the beach to find some pretty challenging surf at our pick-up point. Almost everyone involved got a bit wet, but we also got to witness some impressive dinghy driving skills and the whole crew was returned to designated boats safely, in order to make a rather high-spirited count of the rubbish. Today’s tally was 5273 pieces of rubbish – an impressive result given the amount of large items we lugged along the beach.

It’s now our eighth night on the south-west coast, and hard to imagine the trip’s finishing up soon. There’s still one full day left to enjoy our time out here – and it’s probably a fair bet to say we’ll enjoy it to the fullest.