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As the weather has been so up and down, we planned to spend no more than 2 weeks in this corner of Australia (given we see on the news each evening that this is the only place in the country experiencing wet weather!) and looking at the map we are going to have to cram in some places as there is so much to see. This side of the country really is about seeing rather than doing and it is beautiful. Our first stop was Bunbury where we stayed for the night. Camp sites this time of the year are a bit eerie as its still low season so not many holiday makers and often the small seaside resorts are dead (like this one).
From Bunbury, we headed to Busselton, famous for the longest wooden jetty (2km) in the Southern hemisphere but unfortunately it's shut for maintenance and not open until August next year, so without this to explore, we headed further south to Dunsborough which has lovely beaches. We visited Eagle Bay and Bunker Bay before heading to Cape Naturaliste but the famous lighthouse was tiny and unimpressive so we headed further down the coast to Margaret River, famous for its surf and wine. We headed to Surfer's Point to get great views of the ocean before heading to a nice camp site for the night, where we had some nice chats with two older couples from Sydney. They thought we were younger than 25!
The next day Max went shopping and bought a new surfboard and e-bomb wetsuit..now all we need are waves! From Margaret River we headed inland to the southern forests, which is real bush country. We passed through Nannup and Manjimup then Mt Frankland National Park, before finding the Diamond Tree, a 52 metre high tree which acts as a fire lookout but you can also climb to the top! In about 2 minutes Max was up the tree like a little monkey. The top part is pretty much vertical with the foot bars camouflaged by the leaves and branches - I was a little nervous. He had drawn a crowd at the bottom of the tree who thought he was mad!
After the tree adventure, we headed to Denmark, which is a lovely little town and we stayed at a campsite right on the river with its own pelicans and ducks which like to visit! Our first stop was Ocean Beach which was spectacular. The sand is so white and the sea so blue, it's amazing to think it doesn't belong to some tropical island. The beaches on the west/south coast are much more impressive than the east coast.
From Denmark we headed to Albany were we experienced our first whales! It's the season for humpback whales to migrate through the waters of King George Sound and we saw lot of them playing in the water. It was beautiful to see...but very difficult to get good photos! We also visited Natural Bridge and The Gap before heading to Middleton Beach and the campsite which was right on the beach. We went for a lovely walk and spent ages finding shells that had been washed up. There were so many different colours...and then to top off a great day, we saw lots more whales and very close to shore. There was one that must have been 20 metres from the beach and there were two boys body boarding. They decided to swim alongside the whale as it ambled along and then the whale, a naturally curious creature, turned to start following them and how they paddled to get away from it! Their arms where going ten to the dozen!
We then had a nice dinner and chatted to two couples from Adelaide....one man had been to England back in 1957 to celebrate 50 years of the boy scouts. It had taken them 30 days on board a ship to get from Melbourne to London...and we complain about a 24 hour plane ride! :o)
After Albany we headed inland to the Stirling Ranges, a 96 km long mountain range famous for its amazing wildflowers and bushwalking...but things didn't quite go to plan....after going off road for nearly 50 km and enjoying jumping out of the car to take photos of all things flowery, the car decided to give up on us. The alternator was broken. Within 2 minutes of the bonnet going up, Beth and Bridget had stopped and 10 mins later I was in their car en route to the campsite to call the RAC leaving Max with the car as we had no phone signal. It was all a bit bizarre but they were lovely girls from the country who despite keeping rats in their bras and shooting kangaroos for sport really helped us when we needed it and about 2 hours later Max, Ben the mechanic and the car turned up at the campsite. To cut a longish story short, we can't get it fixed until Monday so we stayed here an extra day and spent the time on wildflower walks. It was great fun taking lovely, super sharp photos (Max is better than me) and we got about 9 or so different types of orchids as well as tens of other flowers - check out the photos when we post them. As it was sooooo cold sleeping in the car, we decided to upgrade accommodation before heading back to Albany to get the car fixed. I wish I could honestly say it is a holiday home or park chalet or something like that but I am not a fibber - I cannot actually admit to where we stayed but Polly and David Wright will know exactly what I mean :o) It has a heater and everything...bliss!
The car was fixed on Monday and we have spent the last few days in Esperance where we saw some beautiful beaches - white sand and turquoise water - they looked like they belonged to a tropical island! We then went to Wave rock which is an inland rock formation that really looks like a wave before heading back to Perth, first popping in to the hostel on the way to see the beach! It's a beautiful day today and I think we have left the cold behind us (for the next 7 months anyway!)
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