Perth

We dropped the caravan off at a park Lidia found, then headed into Perth city. This is the first time we have been there, and it is a strange town.  Doesn't feel large or busy like a capital city should.

We headed straight for Kings Park and spent a few hours just looking around.  They claim the best views of Perth city, and have some well narated native forrests and boardwalks.

 

 

 

 

We went to see the bell tower, where they allow tourists to ring the bell ever 15 minutes on Sundays.  The price to go up was steeper than the stairs, so we admired it from the ground.
 

 

After then, we took a walk through the CBD.  A couple of things worth mentioning were a kids water playground,  the London Court shopping walkway and very clean streets.  There were only a handful of restaurants and coffee shops, and had no real atmosphere. Really quite disappointing.

One thing they have are some fantastic cycling facilities, walking tracks and parks right in the city.  There is one that Lidia and I took, that takes you along the river and makes a big loop (probably 8-10kms).  Very scenic, but a touch long for our lazy legs, so we walked half and caught the $1.90 ferry back.

The next day (today), we drove to Freemantle.  First think we found was that they have free parking, a touch outside the centre, but have a free bus service to bring you back in.  This place seems to have all of the atmosphere that should have been in Perth.

Anyway, first on the cards was the Little Creatures Brewery, which is my 3rd favorite at the moment, so I was happy that we stumbled on it.  We had lunch at the brewery (which was overpriced and crap), but, they made up for it with the beers.  The Pale Ale is still my favorite, but it tastes much better from the tap than the bottle.

 

We did a brewery tour, which was free and excellent, and finished with a tasting session.  They only gave away half mouthfulls, which was disappointing, but I cant complain any more that cause it was free.

One thing I found interesting was that they serve their beer directly from their main storage tanks, and dont keg it. For bottling and kegging, it is loaded into road tankers, and taken elsewere. Would be nice to hyjack one of those :)

 

  Also, had a photo wall we made use of.

 

Took a walk down the main dining street just to soak up some more good atmosthere, and stopped at another brewery - The Mad Monk.  These guys had a 8 glass tasting pallet, of good sizes. The beers were all good, but a stand out one was the "Ranch" which had the most awsome smoky flavor rounded out with maltiness and mild hop taste.  This will need some investigating when I get home.

Rockingham

Not much today other than driving.  We travelled up the coast to Bunbury where Lidia got a chance to "swim" with her dolphins a they came right up on the beach.

 

 

 

We stopped at Mandurah lake to see the living rocks.  Some micro-thingy takes stuff out of the water and makes the rocks grow.  Its the largest in the southern hemisphere.

We set up camp, I washed the car and van so they are now sparkly, and opened one of Lidias' Moo Town wines.

 

We have been surprised that there is really nothing to see or do up the coastline from Margret river, other than soaking up the beutiful beaches. Trouble was that it was raining on and off, and cold,so it didn't look so good.  Anyway, I think we made up some time?

Busselton

We stopped at the Edwards estate yesterday, but they were closed, and again this morning they were closed. So, we dont get to try Edwards wine  :(

 Drove past a deer farm, and there were so many just standing there in the middle of the field.  Me and my old mate 243 could have cleaned up.

We went to one of the oldest vineyard in the area- the Cullen Wines, and although they were claiming their Chardonay and cab sav was top class, we found the cab sav very ordinary.  The chardy was pretty amazing though, and at $39 a bottle, we enjoyed a sample and politely left.  That was the first wine tasting we have left from without shelling out some hard earned.

Next stop was the Cheeky Monkey brewery, where we ordered the tasting pallet.  All of these beers were pretty amazing, although I didnt really like the brewers "guest beer" that had a strong base of Apricot.  Their Belgin IPA was my beer of choice and didnt have any takaways, but, after some negotiation, that were very happy to refil on of my growers for $20. I was very happy with that, and even the head brewer came out for a chat - he was as awsome as his beers, and his favorite was the IPA also.  I will keep my eye out for these.

Stopped of at Canal Rocks, where the waves have carved canals through.  The waves pool, then push through.. Pretty cool.

Then we went on a walk around the Cape Naturalist Lighthouse to see where the southern and indian oceans meet, only to find out that it was back in Augusta when we got back to the car.  I got a photo of it, but as it turned out, was just more just waves in the ocean.

Next off to the Jetty at Busselton to see the Underwater Observatory, to find out that there were no more tours avaliable because of school holidays and was all booked out.  The Observatory is descend eight meter to the ocean floor via a staircase to view some of the 300 species of amazing tropical and sub-tropical corals, sponges, fish and invertrabets living beneath the jetty.   Anyway, saved us 60 bucks, and we just walked out on the 1.8km jetty.









Disappointed with that (Lidia was, but, I was happy to have 60 clams in my pocket) we headed to a free camp 20 mins north in a pine forrest.  We cracked out growler of IPA from the cheeku monkey brewer, some turkey legs and whipped up a feast on the webber.

Prevelly - Margaret River

Perry Beach 22/04/13

 

We decided to stay one more day at Perry's Beach and see some of the natural attractions. The weather wasn't the best for swimming in the Green Pools (supposed to be Denmark's best beach) but it was good enough for us to have a little walk on it.  In the same place there are Elephant's Rocks. Large elephant -shaped boulders rest in the shallow waters of this small cove.  There are quite impressive.

 

Where is Lidia?

Just a short drive from those rocks its Madfish Bay - named for the crazy fish that jump out of the water as the waves converge around the offshore island....

....and Waterfall beach - named for the waterfall located at the far end of the beach. The waterfall wasn't that good but Graham found something better to look at:)

Shannon National Park 23/04/13

Valley of the Giants, Tree Top Walk the home of famous gigantic tingle trees. The Tree Top Walk is a lightweight suspension bridge that soar 40 meters above the tingle foliage, before descending to the Ancient Empire Walk at the base of the trees. The walk wasn't that impressive and we were quite disappointed.

 

We had much more fun walking around the Hilltop Giant Tingle Tree. At 24 meters this is the largest girthed living eucalypt known in the world.                                                                                                                                                                    

We finished our day with 8km Great Forest Trees Walk. Well...maybe just 6km....there were just trees there.....

 

Big Brook Arboretum 24/04/13

Okay, some more tree stories. The Pemberton area is famous for three fire lookout trees open to the public. We climbed 2 of those three: The Diamond Tree and Bicentennial Tree. The first one is 52-m high tower is a fire lookout cabin perched at the top of massive karri tree. The second one is the  tallest of the three fire lookout trees. At 68-m, climbing to the top of the tree is not for the faint-hearted. However once you do climb the 130 pegs you will be rewarded with 360-degree views of the karri forest.

 

Where is Lidia?

 

 

We went for the scenic Karri Forest Explorer 86 kilometre drive and even found a fruit and veggie stall with an old space invader machines. Graham had a good laugh.

 

 

Prevelly - Margaret River  25/04/13

 

Today we arrived at the Margaret River Region. We don't think we are able to visit 150 wineries but we will try our best. There are some breweries as well so Graham is very happy.  Beside wines and beers they have cheese and chocolate factories, nougats, silks, nuts and cereals. We got lots of goodies and had a lot of fun.  

 

 We even squizzed walk on the beach and sunset:). But seriously, have you ever seen such strong waves?

Parry Beach (Denmark)

Cosy Corner 20/04/2013

 In the morning we went for a drive around the Torndirrup National Park to see The Gap and Natural Bridge. Two natural features carved from ancient granite by the force of nature. The Gap feature a 25 metre sheer drop to the ocean, and the bridge is a supported rock formation waiting to fall down. Both pretty good, but the color of the ocean and the ferocity of the big swell is truly amazing.

Everybody was telling Graham that the best spot to catch salmon is on the Salmon Holes beach. (check the guys fishing on the rocks - Graham felt it to dangerous to go there due to the masive swell).  There were some reports of great whites taking the salmon on the way in too...

What they forgot to mention is that everyone goes there.  For a second we thought it was a fishing competition going on. We never seen so many fisherman in one place (or so many fish heads on the beach).   Graham grabbed his rod and headed down to the beach, and as we were walking along, there were people fighting these monsters, and a couple of big salmon just left flapping on the beach (pretty well guarded, so sneeky Salmon was not on the cards).  The hour or so we were there, we never saw another salmon caught on the beach... so needless to say, we didnt catch any  :(

We went for a walk to see the blowholes, which were not blowing, then headed back to the caravan for lunch and a sneeky car and van wash before setting off, headed for Cosy corner.

When we arrived, the caravan park had a sign 4wd only, and we ended up skull dragging the van through some sand before finally finding a park. While Graham set up the van, Lidia went for a walk and found that we were not actually in the camping area. So, we found a better spot in the park, and whilst Lidia guarded the spot, Graham went and hooked up the van again and moved to the right place.

Graham wanted to go to the most southern point in WA, so we set off on the 4wd track that was really a 4wd track.  It was lo range all the way, and although the Pathfinder was loving it, it was very slow going and would take the rest of the day to get there and back so we found somewhere to turn around and headed back.

We then went to Shelly beach, which was another favorite Salmon hole and it was also packed with people, although not as many as before.  This time, there were only a few salmon on the beach and only 1 was flapping around.  Apparently, they range in size from 4 to 6kg, so im told, cause I cant catch any grrrrrr

Parry Beach

Next day we got an early start, and drove to Denmark.  There were no cheap caravan parks in town so we headed 20kms out of town to a $10/night camp site.  Most of the features we wanted to do were out this way anyway, and it worked out well.  Because it was raining, cold and windy, we decided to spend the day doing a wine and beer tasting tour.  We visited a toffee place that also made cider, and walked out with a mixed case of cider, bag full of toffee stuff, and 2 hand made icecreams..  Continuing along, the win area is known for its whites, and as we dont really like the whites we skipped through pretty quickly.  But, one of them made an amazing Pinot that happened to be selling out the 2010 vintage at half price..  Exo, another case in the Pathy.  Cheese factory visit, cost another few bottles, some cheeses then finally the Boston Brewery.  The beer there were nice, but more commercial oriented pallets, which although marginally better then my slab of emu export, it is nothing to rave about.  WHat they did have though, is the most beutiflul growlers you have ever seen.  We just so happened to acquire a couple of these too.

On the way back we cruised the local beach in Denmark, through in a line again with no luck.  Picked up some bait and I went fishing again.  The beach we are staying at is too shallow, the bait was falling off the hooks, it was cold then it started pouring.  That stuff is minor and I can push through, but the beach is on a river mouth, and I guess at high tide the ocean and river join, and although the Pathy has pulled us through all the tough stuff so far, I figured that might be a bit much to expect from it.  The wet sand was soft and sinky, so I packed up for the night and headed back, crying a little bit on the inside on the way.

 Had a nice (not that nice) cold shower (the smart people already had their hot showers), and cracked open the first growler from Boston brewery...  Arrr, thats better.  Cheers

Albany

Yesterday (19/4) we went to Cape Richie and stayed there overnight.  Not much to do there except to go fishing, and a bit of relaxation.  Lidia went for a walk and looked for shells on the shelly beach, and played with Kangaroos again.

Its claimed to be a salmon fishing point, but there was none there that I could find.  I did catch enough Australian Herrings for a meal, and had a run from a monstor sting ray (I guess beauses there was no landing).

  Lidia and I had a swim in the quiet area of the beach where there were no waves, and we shared our swim with a giant ray.  Didn't bother us, he was just cruising along.



20/4/13 We drove into Albany, and circled the town along the scenic drive.

I got some new boots for the Pathy.  The old tyres didn't have much tread left, but were soft and being punished by the dirt roads.  The tyre I repaired, was slowly leaking, and the spare I could not repair.  So now, we have 4 new Light Truck duty tyres, and a good spare








Lidia found her giant dog head rock.  The legend goes that the dog rescued a 3 year old girl from natives but got speared doing it.  They burried the dog on the hill, and the next day there was an land slide, and this boulder has been there since.

We then headed for the national park. There are no free camps locally, and the caravan parks are expensive, but we did manage to find one on our route for $30 per night. At least it has grass again, not dirt to park on. Once we set the van and Lidia did some washing, we didnt feel like doing anything else, so we didnt make it to the national park.

 

I bought a 30 can slab of WA bare bones beer - EMU export, and enjoyed a quiet few by the water

Fitzgerald River NP

15.04.13 Lucky Bay

If you ever want to see some amazing, white beaches and crystal clear blue water go to Esperance. Cape Le Grand National Park has some beautiful places for swimming, walking and climbing. We went to stay at the Lucky Bay and couldn't believe our luck:) The sand on the beach is really white and so different than any sand we ever seen.  Its claimed to be the whitest sand in Australia, and although Im sure we have heard that claim before, it is probably the finest sand we have ever seen. When is wet is quite sticky and when is dry is finer than salt. When you walk on it the sound reminded Lidia of walking on snow. It makes this squeaky noise like cold, wet snow...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After climbing the Frenchman Peak and driving around the park we went for a swim and just enjoy the rest of the afternoon in this little paradise.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We saw some kangaroos on the beach as promised in the guide. They come to eat some seaweed and Lidia saw couple of them fighting over it even tho the seaweed was surrounding them. Stupid kangaroos.

 

16.04.13 Quagi  Beach

The next day the weather wasn't that nice so we went for some walks around the bay and spotted a lot of different wild flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graham collect a bucket of sand as a souvenir and we went back to Esperance. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found out that Esperance has a unique shop called a "Mermaid shop" were they make skin from fish. You can buy handbags, wallets, belts etc made of fish skin. As the process is quite expensive they make most of this staff using kangaroos skin and just the main parts are made from fish skin (barramundi, shark and sting ray). If you saw it you wouldn't believe that this is fish skin.

 

After driving around the great ocean drive we called a night at the Quagi beach where Graham again couldn't catch any fish

 

17.04.13 Fitzgerald River National Park

 

We think this is the first day of rain after a month of dry, quite hot weather. In the Fitzgerald River NP they have a Edwards Point which we thought it'd be fun to visit but unfortunately the roads are closed due to road works. This whole place is quite confusing. Before we got to this park some ladies at the information centre were telling us that we could camp here with a caravan and some that we couldn't. Even people in the town next to the park were giving us different answers so we ditched our caravan next to the caravan park in Hopetoun and went for a drive.  As we found out the isn't that much to see here because of road work and the campground is big enough for our little caravan. So we went back to pick up our "baby" and stay here for the night. It's next to the beach and Graham went fishing again.  This time he got lucky :)