For those unfamiliar with local geography (most of you I presume!) the Albany region has many granite outcrops, patches of tall forest, incredibly fine white sand on the beaches and tall black cliffs where the beaches aren't. We went off to a granite outcrop surrounded by tall trees near Youngsiding. It's a beautiful area, preserved from farming by the presence of those nasty unclearable outcrops (grin) and so used as a rubbish tip instead up until a year or so ago. (sigh). To get there you wander up the old tip road, mostly fine gravel, turning into sand eventually, past many young trees that have been planted by the local grove in an attempt to return the place back to normal. It's very peaceful, not hard walking, except for one patch where a marri tree grew right over the road and covered it with a thick layer of gumnuts. Marri gumnuts are large, and walking on them is kinda like going rollerskating by standing on the rollers. But it's fun. A couple of people began asking me about going barefoot, and some even said "You know, I don't like wearing shoes either" and took them off.
I had a very interesting conversation with one lady during this walk, who sends her children to a local school that I also attended one year many years ago. It's an alternative school, and she said one of the reasons she likes it is because her kids can go without shoes there. We talked about going barefoot as kids and alternative education philsophies and other such things, and I told her about Mike's site and she has said she'll keep an eye out for appropriate pictures, though I don't know if she'll remember.
The outcrop itself is very large. I couldn't get onto several sections of it, though some did and then managed to get onto the rocks balancing on those (this means a real head for heights!). I'm not fond of heights, but I found the scrambling I did far easier on the granite barefoot. It's a very supportive surface, but the lichen can be hazardous if you can't feel what it's doing. Shoes also damage the lichen more and it takes a very long time to grow back. We all admired the view for a while and tried climbing different outcrops, then went home.
When the camp finished, my love and I went shopping for supplies briefly in Albany, and found a camping spot near Two Peoples Bay. This was a very lucky choice - it was very peaceful and stunningly pretty. Two Peoples Bay is a national park, protecting several rare animals and birds, some of which have only recently been rediscovered after being thought extinct for decades. There are some steep headlands and peaks, acres of banksia and peppermint coastal woodlands, and that night was just fantastic. We camped on the far side of the bay from the park, looking across to the peaks. The water here is very clear and blue, but shading into so many shades of turquoise, green and grey as the clouds passed the sun. The sand was so soft it was squeaking, finer than salt. My love hadn't encountered this before and complained a little that I was "walking too loud". Of course, both barefoot. We walked a little on the beach, finding shells of all kinds, then returned to camp and explored the other direction along the rocks of the headland. Again, the same granite-type stuff mostly, very easy to find your way on, which is good as we ended up sitting there until well after dark watching the colour in the sea and sky fade, and had to come back mostly eye-blind, nothing but starlight and earthlight to hint at the way, and the continuous sound of the calm waves below.
The next morning, after having seen no-one but a couple of fishermen, we picked up camp. As we were doing this a young guy came by (after fishing) and stopped to chat for a bit. Turned out he'd been to that alternative school too, and remembered it for the sense of freedom, for being able to play outside close to nature, for not being so bound by silly strictures. We had a short chat before he moved on for another spot. My love opted to get cleaned up in the ocean, and I volunteered to watch. I grew up in this ocean, and I know how cold it is at this time of year! We had a last scramble among the rocks and sand and then finished with an emu walk. This is named after the bobbing motion of emus, and it gets done by school-age kids at the end of every camp - going around and picking up every bit of rubbish, even if it isn't yours. By the amount we picked up, some adults shouldn't have lost the habit. We also explored a trail leading up the headland, discovering the ruins of an old house that must have been perched there not too many years ago, facing the incoming weather. And speaking of weather, it was about this point that the fine spell of weather we'd been enjoying broke, and we got in the car and went off to find some more hiking.