Located in remote Cape Arid National Park, Yokinup Bay is on the rugged south coast of WA. The wide expanse of this bay is spectacular to behold, especially if the sun is shining.
When I visited here late last year, the weather was fine and sunny, which really highlighted the white sands and clear turquoise waters. Coming back now meant I ran into some nasty weather, including lashing rain and cold winds howling in from the south.
Although rain clouds repeatedly swept in from the ocean, I did manage to get a couple of walks between the showers. And the sun did occasionally break through, which made walking much more pleasant. But the rain did return and at night, the temperatures dropped down to single figures.
The coastline here is wild, with the steep rocky slopes plunging into the Southern Ocean. Waves can sweep the unwary wanderer into the water, so it pays to keep an eye on the incoming surf.
Between the rocky headlands there are very pleasant beaches with startling white sand. Dolphin Cove is a pretty little beach and is worth an energetic ramble over the headland to reach it.
Yokinup draws many birds. The Thomas River reaches the sea here, so this attracts both fresh and salt water birds to the area. There were the usual motley gatherings of seagulls and terns that you get on most beaches, but there was an interesting assortment of other locals around, too:
Many WA place names end in ‘up’’. The ‘up’ comes from the local indigenous Noongar language, and designates a ‘place of’. These place names often reflected a distinctive feature of that place and created a mental map for indigenous people to travel in these areas.
Many of these names still exist today, but I can’t find a meaning for Yokinup, but maybe it means “beautiful but really, really windy bay” – who knows?
