Walpole 27/4 to 30/4

Rest Point Holiday Park Pavilion

After completing our Easter break at Parry Beach, we set off for Walpole which is 43 km further down the highway.  In the main we were looking for a caravan park so we could wash and dry our clothes, fill our water tanks and replenish our food supplies.  Thankfully Mark and Lee Keeble who we had met at Parry Beach had recommended that we book into the Rest Point Holiday Village which is about 5km west of Walpole. 

Boat built by Swarbrick's in 1936

What a rare gem this park was to become.  The caravan park is located on the Walpole Nornalup Marine Park inlet and provides access to many water based activities, from swimming and kayaking, to fishing as well as a range of other boating and sailing activities.  It was owned by the Swarbrick family, a pioneering family who not only developed the area but also built boats.  In fact they are still involved in boat building, building “The Pink Lady”, the boat sailed by Jessica Watson.

An albino stingray at Rest Point

One of the local attractions is hand feeding the very large stingrays that frequent the fish cleaning tables adjacent to the boat ramp.  As the fishermen clean their fish, the stingrays and pelicans line up to feast upon the scraps.  Naturally it didn’t take long for the stingrays to start beaching themselves on the timber jetty to be hand fed and stroked. 

A stingray, keen for food & a pat

Everyone we spoke to about Walpole recommended that we book into the WOW Wilderness Eco Boat trip that was to become one of our trip highlights.  This trip lasted about 3 ½ hrs and had been initially set up to introduce visitors to the magnificent waterways and ancient Gondwana relics that are only found in the Walpole Wilderness and Marine Park habitats.  Our commentator on the boat trip was Gary and he set about entertaining everyone with numerous stories and anecdotes about the Walpole – Nornalup region and he provided us with an overview of the many unique and beautiful features of this bio-diverse hotspot; which included an insight into the first inhabitants, the early settlers and numerous other heritage features.

The trip took us along the waterways and finally to a short walk over a small hill and some sand dunes and down to Circus Beach.

Circus Beach

  Gary advised us that Circus beach was so named because the locals used to go there to watch the light horses being trained on the beach...as much fun as a circus.

One of the views from our boat trip...WOW

Mark at Circus Beach

View of Nornalup & Walpole Inlets

View over Circus Beach from lookout

Walpole is encircled by several mountain ranges and the township is marketed as the place where the “Forest meet the Sea”.  The surrounding roads have several viewing platforms that provide visitors with breathtaking views on the waterways and Tingle and Karri forests. 

Donna at Giant Tingle Tree

The Giant Tingle Tree which was in a local tourist drive was at the very least, 400 years old and has a base circumference of 24 metres.  It was unbelievably large, still flowering and quite awe inspiring. 

We then drove to the ‘Circular Pool’ which is a beautiful natural pool in the Frankland River. It was interesting to see the change as the river flowed through the rocks and into the pool where we marvelled at the reflections.

Donna at Circular Pool

Reflections in Circular Pool - Serene!

The Frankland River

Mandalay Beach, named after a Norwegian ship that ran aground on the rocky outcrops along its shores was also within a short drive away from the caravan park.

Mandalay Beach

For such a tiny town of less than 350 people, there is a lot to do in Walpole.  If you were into boating it is a boating paradise.

Walpole Inlet.  Tranquil, quiet and breathtaking.

 We’re unsure how long we’ll be away from internet & telephone contact as we move to a National Park next, so HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mums watching our blog, especially our Mums!  It’s times like this that we feel a long way from home, however we have a lot more of the country to see yet.

Albany to Denmark 14/4 to 26/4

View from bike ride from Cosy Corner

We left Albany and travelled all of 46km to Cosy Corner, a wonderful beachside free stay near West Cape Howe National Park.  Obviously the salmon are everywhere in the water here, as when we went down to the beach we could see a feeding frenzy happening right in front of us.  There were so many fins in the water and it looked as though dolphins and sharks were surrounding the salmon and eating their full.

Feeding Frenzy

  I decided right then, that although the weather is once again in the 30’s I am definitely not swimming here. We enjoyed getting on our bikes again and touring the local area.  Very hilly and hard work at times, but enjoyable. 

Our next stop was Denmark, a town which reminded us very much of Maleny, with a lot of interesting arts and crafts shops.  We tried our luck for a spot at Parry’s Beach and the Gods were with us.  We arrived here about 10:00 and were fortunate to secure a lovely treed camp site.

Our campsite at Parry

By 10:30 there were three caravans in the overflow area and many campers were being turned away.  At $7 per night with a very clean toilet block and hot “solar showers” showers, you can fully understand why we had our fingers (and toes) crossed on the road into Parry Beach. 

View of beach from Campsite

Afternoon Drinks

One of the features of Parry Beach that we enjoyed was that we were able to have a campfire and we’ve  enjoyed meals cooked in the camp oven (thanks Phil and Cheryl) and happy hour/s every night by the fire with lovely people we’ve met here at Parry Beach (Mark and Lee from B’Ridge in Brisbane, Clarrie and Florence from Fremantle and Dennis and Deanne from Melbourne) and together they have made this stay a wonderful experience. 

The campsites at Parry Beach are large and most of them are located under a dense canopy of trees.  During the day we were visited by various birds including blue wrens, the emblem of Denmark. There isn’t any electricity at Parry Beach and the tap water has a brown tinge and isn’t suited for drinking, unless it is boiled first.  Given the tree cover over our van we only managed to receive a small amount of sunlight onto the solar panels, however this was enough to power our 12 volt lighting and the water pump, so because we had 180 litres of good water on board, we were self sufficient.   Most of the campers had generators available and several had satellite TV, so we were able to keep up with the footy scores and cheer on the Broncos to victory. 

It is interesting to note that during our travels everyone we met told us to make sure we stopped at Denmark, in particular Parry Beach.  Why is  Denmark and Parry Beach so popular?  According to the blurb this part of W.A. has made Lonely Planet’s Top Ten Regions of the World in 2010.  We found this easy to believe when we drove to Greens Pool, and had a wonderful swim.  We’ve seen some great beaches lately but this was really idyllic. 

Greens Pool

Elephant Rock

 It has a sheltered natural lagoon with glittering emerald water edged by white sand and is a wonderful spot for swimming and snorkelling.  Mark saw a large King George Whiting when snorkelling near the rocks at Greens Pool.  We also walked to Elephant Rocks, well named, because these rocks truly resemble a herd of elephants walking into the sea.  Another feature of Denmark is Wilson Inlet, which is fed by the Denmark River and at times flows to the sea.  This inlet is a fisherman’s paradise.  The minimum size of Pink Schnapper is 42 cm, so not sure exactly how many you’d have to throw back, or how big they actually grow here.  Apparently in salmon season, the giant salmon have heads as large as a large dog which would make the fish we’ve caught so far seem like juniors or throwbacks. Parry's Beach is a salmon fishing beach Jan to Apr.  This involves a spotter looking out for the salmon.  When spotted, boats put out nets behind the salmon, these are then pulled into shore by tractors.  The biggest  haul this season was 17tonne at $1000 a tonne.

Donna at 50m on the treetop walk

We also enjoyed a day trip to the Valley of the Giants, where we marvelled at the size of the Tingle Trees.  Some of these giant trees are at least 400 years old.  They grow to a height of 80 metres and can have a base up to 20metres in circumference.  Luckily for them they were not good for use in either the Construction or Furniture sectors, primarily because this timber is known to attract insects.  The Tingle trees are very hardy and they will survive fires which often burn out the core of the tree, but the hard bark will allow the tree to keep flourishing.

The core of this tree was burnt out but the tree survived

Mark has also enjoyed visiting the wineries in the Denmark area.  He was most impressed with the Shiraz from Old Kent River Winery.  Jeff, perhaps a future wine competition winner?  However we also spent a day touring the wineries located on the Scotsdale Tourist Drive – Howard Park, Matildas, Singlefile Wines and Harewood Estate.  According to the cellar door people, the Denmark region has specialised in Pinot Noir, Shiraz and Chardonnay since the beginning, so Mark was in his element.

Mazoletti Beach

Hilliers Bay

On other days we decided to complete some of the local walking tracks that were available.  On some of these occasions we walked across to Mazzoletti and Hilliers Beach which were both really beautiful. 

We also decided to walk a section of the Bibbulum Track, which is a 1000 km walk between Albany and Perth.  The walk has overnight huts that are basically three sided shelters, with the other open side exposed to the elements.  We travelled less than  2 hours in a round trip on a section of this track, but it was enough for us to travel to the ranges overlooking Parry Beach so we could obtain some great views of this area.

Mark on Bibbulum Track

View from walk on Bibbulum Track

Madfish Bay

Towards the end of our stay we visited Madfish Bay and Waterfall Beach.  Once again, very beautiful beaches, even if the surf was unbelievable on the day we visited.

Waterfall - Waterfall Beach

Altogether we stayed at Parry’s Beach  for 11 days.  A most enjoyable time.  Tomorrow more adventures await as we head towards Walpole, Shannon and then on to the West Coast of WA.

Swimming at Greens Pool

Esperance to Albany 3/4 to 13/4

Reluctantly, we left the wonderful Cape Le Grand  for Esperance.  Unfortunately for us, we’d booked ahead as everyone had told us that Esperance is often booked out.  Our caravan park was small and had great amenities but was extremely noisy.  Our site was right next to the road leading to the port; so road trains were constantly driving past.  Not only that, but when they saw a fellow driver they knew, they sounded their air horns, and because it was a T ’junction they also used their air brakes.  Esperance is a busy port with two large ships being loaded with grain and lead respectively, so the freight trains which also passed our caravan park, were extremely busy as well – day and night.  Sleep? What sleep?

Twilight Beach

Twilight Beach

Pink Lake at Esperance

After visiting the local Sunday market we set off on Esperance’s Great Ocean Drive, past the local beaches.  Our favourite was Twilight Beach, no wonder it has often been voted WA’s favourite beach.  We also passed a wind farm which generates electricity for the Esperance region.  Pink Lake was the last stop on our tour.  The pink shade is caused by the algae in the salt lake.

We also enjoyed using our bikes in Esperance, and for once - no punctures!  Unfortunately we didn't have any food for Sammi the Seal who was waiting for us at the wooden jetty.

 

We left Esperance heading towards Albany.  Our first stop was 80km west of Esperance at Stokes National Park. Luckily we’d only planned on travelling a short distance as we ran into our first full-on headwind, and we were using diesel at a much higher rate than normal.  Mark felt that the wind was so strong that he even thought he glimpsed ‘white caps’ in the middle of the road.  (Note -for those interested in fuel economy stats; we’ve now travelled over 8000 klms since leaving Brisbane in the cruiser and we’re averaging 17.2 litres per hundred klms.)

As we’ve found in most National Parks in S.A & W.A, the amenities at Stokes Inlet were excellent.  We learnt that this free camp was quite new as the old camping ground was razed by a bushfire last year and it has only been upgraded in the last three months. The new amenities include new eco toilets and wonderful stainless steel campers kitchens.

Camp Kitchen  1 of 4 at Stokes Inlet NP

Stokes Inlet

Stokes Inlet is a very shallow expanse of water which links to the ocean only after the surrounding rivers flood.  On Thursday, which was overcast and showery, Mark and I set off for a 1.7km walk.  We eventually walked about 8km and reached the so called ‘inlet’.  Everywhere along the shoreline there were dead coral outcrops, some more than a metre high; evidence that the water level in this inlet used to be much higher than it is at present.  When we reached the inlet we were surprised to see that there is only a 50m stretch of sandbar between the waters contained within Stokes Inlet and the ocean itself.  It’s difficult to believe that the sea, which was roaring into the Bay, doesn’t cut into the inlet.

The sea biting into Stokes sandbank

Our next stop was Munglinup Beach.  We found this beach very wild and desolate.  The beach drops away suddenly and doesn’t look very safe for swimming, however people who have been here before tell us that it is quite safe as there is a reef further out ensuring that the beach is quite protected. 

Campsite Munglinup

Munglinup Beach

 After a wild, wet and windy night we moved on to Stirling Range National Park.  Many great climbs of the ranges from this campsite, most notably Bluff Knoll, however we decided to give it a miss for this time at least.  (There are signs in the campsite about a missing person.  A 79 year old man who went for a walk in October and has yet to be found.)  The other interesting feature about Stirling Range NP is the black cockatoos who return every morning and at dusk.  They wheel around, screeching and whistling, as they take turns to swoop down to the creek for a drink of water.  They could have been a bit quieter at 5:30a.m. with the temperature about 5 degrees.

We then moved on to Albany.  For those who haven’t been here before it  is pronounced Al, not All bany.  It’s a very scenic and historic town.  I was really impressed with the neatness and the different architecture in the town.

Convention Centre

Uni of Albany

We drove to the Lookout driving past an avenue of trees planted in remembrance of fallen Anzacs. 

At the lookout we came across the large Desert Soldiers Memorial which was the scene of the first Anzac Day Ceremony held in Australia.  The Anzac Memorial on Mt Clarence, gives views right around Albany – from Princess Royal Harbour to the south; Middleton Bay in the east and inland to the ranges.  

We also drove to Torndirrup National Park and went to Whaleworld, a museum located on the existing site of a former whaling station.  It was a very interesting tour and the only reason this site closed in 1978 was because of the huge costs needed to refurbish the fleet of tender boats and other facilities..  Neither Mark nor I could believe the size of the blue whale’s jaws (the entrance into the space now housing skeletons of various whales; including the sperm whale behind it in the photo.) 

  We wondered how Mr and Mrs McBride managed to raise their 8 children in a two room cottage on display.  We also find it hard to believe that they managed to have 8 children in this one bedroom and kitchen cottage.  

Misery Beach

 The pretty little beach in the photo is called "Misery Beach."  This is because it used to be scarlet  during the whaling era.  Not only was the water blood red, but also full of sharks who were very keen to eat as much as the whale as possible before they were butchered. The men who did this work were paid three times as much as other workers in the area, not only because of the dangers involved but also because they could not wash the smell off their bodies.

We then drove to the natural features in this area, Cable Beach, the Gap and the Natural Bridge.

Cable Beach

The Gap

The 'small' boulder in the middle of Cable Beach is as big as an elephant and weighs 10 tonne.  It was tossed onto the shore by the waves.  The cliffs at The Gap are 20 metres high and eventually the land bridge will fall and become yet another gap in the coastline.

The land bridge

Mark wanted me to pose on top of the land bridge!!!

On our last day in Albany we visited the Princess Royal Fortress.  We were impressed by the engineering feats for such an early time in Australian history.  In the 19^th century the loss of Albany to an enemy naval squadron was recognised as a potential threat to the security of Australia.  Consequently, even before the official federation of the separate states, all Australian states agreed to pay for the construction of this fort in Albany.  It was opened in 1893, the first federal defence in Australia.  The gun batteries maintained their role as a deterrent until 1956 when missiles were developed.  The guns were connected to the underground magazine by a series of slit trenches.  Imagine the work involved with creating these trenches, through the rock. It was an inspiring and informative morning.

Next we are travelling towards Shannon National Park, on the way we'll pass Denmark and Walpole.  We'll be in touch after Easter, so have a wonderful Easter everyone!