We’d walked around Bunbury, but we hadn’t dinghied around inside the Leschenault Inlet and decided this might be a fine foray on a sunny afternoon. A low bridge and a narrow gate, as well as shallow depths preclude Nine of Cups from entering the inner lagoon, but the dinghy was perfect for this exercise.An estuarine lagoon, i.e. rivers flow into it, French explorer/navigator Nicolas Baudin named the inlet in 1801 after his naturalist aboard, Jean-Claude Leschenault de la Tour. Rocks line the outer walls of the channel which cuts from Koombana Bay to the calm waters of the inlet. Cormorants lined the rocks and seemed non-plussed as we puttered by.The inlet is separated from the Indian Ocean by a thin peninsula of sand dunes. The channel was cut through in 1950. The water was reasonably calm in Koombana Bay, but the change in the tides was very noticeable when passing through the cut. The water roils and eddies as water rushes in or escapes.Once inside and away from the channel, the water was peaceful as silver gulls floated by in flotillas, undisturbed by our approach. We’d seen a couple of bottlenose dolphins here yesterday, but they were playing in someone else’s yard today.
