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Wednesday 27th September - Day 8.
Netarts Bay to Beverly Beach. Three Capes scenic route.
Woke to blue skies and sunshine after ten hours of peaceful sleep. We set off to explore Netart - the name bring taken from the first world name Ne-te-art meaning’ close to the water’. The camp site overlooked the water filled estuary and out to the huge sand bar that protects the bay from the full force of the Pacific Ocean and creates a habitat for all sorts of marine species including clams, crabs and many birds. At low tide the area is full of people digging for clams - sometimes up to 1200 people at a time!
Today, however the tide was in and the whole area was virtually deserted. We ran north alongside the water to marina. Here there were various sign boards warning of the risk of Tsunami. They also explained about the tides and the salinity of the Estuary. We saw locals fishing for Dungeness Crabs on the beach. We ran on run past the river and on along the beach. The sensation of open space was amazing and the noise of the surf drowned all other sound. We ran onwards and to the little town of Oceanside, before turning back. We stopped for a swim whilst out on the remote part of the beach - the sea was icy cold and crystal clear with large crashing breakers to body-surf in on.
Retracing our steps we returned to the campsite for great hot showers and a picnic breakfast before leaving the site at midday.
Next stop was Cape Lookout State Park. This was a huge area of forest opening on to a beautiful beach with surf and white sands. And just enough weather beaten white tree trunks to make ideal benches to sit on with a mug of tea, whilst watching the birds go by and a local fisherman hauling several large fish and crabs out of the sea. By this time it was very hot and sunny and we needed to find some shade!
We drove on to the Cape Lookout trailhead and set off to walk the cape path to the top of Cape Lookout. This trail was perfect - 2.5 miles there and the same back again. It was cool, shady and wooded with a slight breeze. There were spectacular views of cliffs and beaches to the south and out to the sand spit at Netart. The sound of surf was everywhere, except deep amongst the trees, where it was replaced by birdsong. We observed curious patterns in water below us - sea birds and jelly fish. The curious patterns turned out to be pigeon guillemots, who swim and then dive underwater to chase fish, who often swim round in circles - thus creating the strange whirlpool patterns that we saw. We also saw Blue jays and dark-eyed Juncos and Marbled Murrelets snd an assortment of other small woodland birds.
It became hotter and hotter as we approached the top of the cape but the views were magnificent and well worth the walk. Back at the RV we brewed tea and set off to find s beach to swim and cool off.
On the way south to Cape Kiwanda we drove along the back of the beach, pulled over and walked down through the grassy dune to the sand to swim. So refreshing! We did note the complete absence of other swimmers, but in the absence of any obvious tidal or other hazards we assumed that they were simply not raised to swim in British temperature waters as we have been!
We showered and then drove on, the sun starting to fall lower in the sky.
It would have been lovely to be able to find a beautiful beach with spectacular scenery to watch the sunset, and even better to find a local brewery / seafood restaurant right on the beach. And that’s exactly what we found at the Pelican brewery on Cape Kiwanda beach, where we arrived at 6pm, one hour before sunset!
We started with a ‘flight’ of seven locally brewed ales, which we savoured as the sun went slowly down between the Haystack ( or Teacup) rock and the amazing giant sand dune that forms Cape Kiwanda.
As the dusk sky lit up red and gold, we enjoyed clam chowder, hot smoked salmon dip with nachos, fish and chips and salmon with sweet potatoes.
Finally we wandered back to the RV, drove on south for about 30 miles to the State Park at Beverly Beach to camp for the night. We arrived at 10 to 10 to register and camp (10 pm marks the start of ‘quiet time’). The whole place was in darkness. According to the information board there were still a couple of free RV camping spots - G33 seemed to look the best so we paid the fee, put the envelope in the late registration check in box, and drove as quietly as we could through the forest and it’s maze of camping spots to G33... already occupied!
Eek! We crept quietly forward looking for somewhere else and finally found a quiet empty amongst the trees, where we settled down for the night.
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