Margaret River - Easter

Easter weekend is in the Margaret River area - staying at a farm/caravan park in Cowaramup about 12kms north of Margaret River. Great location - close to the beaches and wineries. Foodie heaven here - have bought lots of cheese, breads, wine, chocolate and sweets. Breweries galore much to Tony's delight! I love it here - could live here too!
While we are in this area we have climbed the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse - tallest lighthouse on mainland Australia, and explored Jewel cave. This area is thick with caves - about 100 of them - and very impressive. We told the kids we were going to look at a cave and they thought we meant something on the surface - they were blown away when we ventured underground and saw all the staligmites etc and tree roots from the giant Karri trees dangling 20m below into the cave looking for water.


We walked the Bussleton Jetty - a 1.8km long jetty. Great town but too many people -I guess that what you have to expect at Easter.

So heading off to Fremantle tomorrow.

Hope everyone had a great Easter and so long for now.

Southern Forests

From Hyden we went back down the coast to Albany. Got bogged at a free camp - interesting with the camper on the back....but managed to save ourselves!
Albany is a really quaint coastal town. The highlights were the natural bridge and the gap. These are enormous granite formations made when the bit of land that became Antarctica seperated from Australia
(Gondwana)-very impressive.
The beaches around here are of course great-most of the time we are the only ones on them.
From Albany through Denmark ( elephant rocks and greens pool - very beautiful) then headed into the Great Forests of the South West - wow these forests are breathtaking. The karri trees are up to 75m high and the Tingle trees can grow 150m high and 28m in girth and one we saw - 'grandma tingle' was 500yrs old. They are one of the 3 tallest tree species in the world. One feels insignificant when amongst them.In the Valley of the Giants( the forests) there is a tree top walk which we really loved. They have built a 45m high walkway that sits amongst the treetops and swings. It is a great perspective to be looking down at the forest floor and to be a eye level with some of the tree tops rather than looking up.


We spent the next few days exploring this area -Walpole national park and its inlets and river systems amongst the forests. The trees are so beautiful we couldn't stop looking at them.

 

Hyden - Wave Rock

Well, my lifetime dream of seeing Wave Rock has come true -I feel truly fulfilled now....

Great little town and campsite at Wave Rock. Also the surrounding area is very interesting- aboriginal cave paintings and a rock that looks like a hippo yawning.

Cape Le Grand

Arrived in Cape Le Grand National Park at 6pm, hoping that we would get a spot at Lucky Bay campsite. The gods must have been on our side - one spot left. What an absolutely beautiful place. The coast line here has to be seen to be believed. The sand is as white as snow, and the water is turquoise blue. It is sooooo spectacular. Every bend you go around it gets even better. We could have stayed a month - some people were. There are 2 campsites in the NP - Lucky  Bay - which is fairly small and set out more like a caravan park and then there is Le Grand Beach Camp site which has sites that are just clearings off the track through the campsite. Both really nice.
We stayed here 3 nights. We climbed Frenchmans Peak - a mountain about 250m high -information says gentle slope but it just about killed me climbing it (being the elite athlete I am!). A few caves on the way to the summit and then amazing vista at the top. You can see the whole coastline and countryside.

The kids met a few other kids and had a movie night with them, played on the beach , swam in the freezing water. I could hardly put my feet in it but they swam in it for hours. The wildlife is very friendly here- kangaroos sniffing around looking for food.

  Hellfire Bay -Cape Le Grand NP

 Frenchmans peak-the way up

Frenchmans peak -cavern

Frenchmans Peak - at the summit

 Lucky Bay -Cape Le Grand NP

 Le Grand Beach

 After Cape Le Grand we went to Esperance and took a boat tour to the Bay of Isles - and stopped at Woody Island. On the way we saw dolphins very close to the boat, sea lions, white breasted sea eagles( with fish in tallons see below). Once we were on the island we did a glass bottom boat tour. The day was perfect, the ocean calm, sky blue. Our only regret was not staying on the island overnight. Was reasonably priced and would have been fantastic. This was a great cruise - we saw heaps of wildlife and the sea lion antics were fantastic.

Twilight Beach - Esperance

 

 

We have loved this part of WA. Would recommend it to anyone and would come back in a heartbeat.

Till next time.....

From Broken Hill

From Broken Hill to Port Augusta. Not much here -just stayed the night and headed for Ceduna. The caravan park we wanted to stay in on the beach was full so ended up at the Airport one which wasn't that bad.
It was freezing at Ceduna - a cold wind blowing in from  Antarctica. Had fish and chips on the beach despite the cold wind.... walked along the jetty at sunset.

From Ceduna we started the trip accross the Nullabor. Stopped in at the Head of the Great Australian Bight. Really spectacular and dramatic scenery. There are a few stops along the Nullabor where you can look at the bight - some are closed due to crumbling edges. Took lots of photos. The Nullabor Plain is treeless - just low shrubs which was different to what I imagined. I thought it would be a great plain of dirt. One stretch is the longest bit of straight road in Australia- 146.6klms. Just endless straightness - I think if it was any longer it might just do your head in. Never travelled in a straight line for such a long time - all very excited at the first curve in the road.

We camped a couple of nights in the bush along the Nullabour, just inside the WA border. Camp fires at both much to the kids enjoyment. No marshmellows - bit of an oversight there.

We are now in Kalgoolie. Took a drive to the Super pit lookout. It is sooooo big. The trucks that carry the rock/dirt are enormous (see photo) but in the Pit they look like matchbox toys. Each truck is worth $5M and they have 40 of them in this mine, each tyre is worth $36K. Another piece of machinery they have is worth $10M and there are 4 of these. Amazing dollars. The town is full of fancy cars- mostly all new.
We also went to the mining hall of fame. Went down 36 meters to an underground mine and learnt the history of the mine from a colourful ex miner - very entertaining. What a crap job. Dusty, dirty, dark as dog guts. chipping away for gold- those early miners really did suffer from gold fever. I think I would last about 20 seconds down there.

Heading to Esperance tomorrow and will stay at Cape Le Grande National park which according to the Grey nomads (of which we have had a lot of contact) is great.

Talk soon

Day 4

Slight delay to plans..... the fridge in the back of the car playing up. Had it fixed in Broken Hill then noticed that the bracket holding the springs  suspension on one side of the camper was broken. Bummer- so another night in Broken Hill and have it fixed tomorrow.
So spent the day in Broken Hill. The main street is really something. Lots of quaint cottages, impressive buildings of stone esp the court house and police station. We went to the Pro Hart gallery which was good. Saw the biggest painting in the world done on canvas. It is a landscape of the area around Broken Hill - really great. We also visited the Sculptures in the desert at sunset- really spectacular. It is a group of sculptures sitting on top of a hill about 12klms outside of Broken Hill. At sunset the light reflects off the sculptures and is amazing. Can see where Pro Hart got his inspiration. The desert out here is beautiful now with all the recent rain and floods. There are abundant wildflowers and it is so green.

Hopefully tomorrow we can get into South Australia.

Day 1,2,3

Made it to Goondiwindi for the first night, then onto Bourke. Nice town on the Darling River.
Now at Broken Hill after a huge 650 klm drive through everchanging nothingness. Lots of flood water still sitting in the flood plains with lots of birdlife. Seen quite a few snakes on the road and ferel goats.
Heading into South Australia tomorrow. 
All good here .

Rough Map of where we hope to go !