Cape Le Grande ... Frenchman's Peak

Climbed up Frenchman’s Peak … the view was amazing but the descent was a bit nerve racking … extremely steep.




The legs were definitely wobbly on the way down.

Now see that little peak in the distance that is what we climbed.

Peaceful Bay to Esperance

Well it is hard to believe 28 days of rain and finally we have sunshine on our last day on the south-west coast. Now for the long trip home and I’m hoping we are leaving the rain behind!

Peaceful Bay

Lorraine brought a ‘Peaceful Bay’ beanie so we thought we’d better visit the place and I tell you what the beanie has come in handy.


Denmark

Didn’t stay in Denmark but spent a few hours exploring the area and could have easily stayed a couple of weeks.

Green’s Pool
Elephant Cove
Is that a baby elephant?
Waterfall Beach … I think?
Spent a lot of time in the Visitor Centre looking at the barometer displays … fascinating!

Discovered a shop that had some really nice furniture … locally made. Couldn’t manage to fit the wine rack or the mirror in the camper trailer but we were allowed to take photos and we also made sure we didn’t leave without getting the business card.

Albany
King George Sound was the assembly place and departure point for the Australian and New Zealand troops for World War One … and this would have been the troops last glimpse of Australian soil.
Another wind farm.
Drove out to the Sterling Range to check out the alpine area of WA. Well that surprised me as I had no clue that it actually snowed in WA and yep we were lucky enough to be in the vicinity ie. severe weather warning … gail force winds, hail, and snow.
A very cold lunch stop at Bluff Knoll.

Bluff Knoll


Whale World
Spent a few hours exploring Australia’s last whaling station … very interesting but freezing.
Door frame is the bottom jaw of a whale.

On the coast road back from Whale World another double rainbow and some shocking weather followed.
Now should we actually get out of the car to check out the Gap and Natural Bridge … the gale force winds had just arrived.
Jane got soaked and wind battered but at least she made it all the way and was still smiling ... well it was kind of a smile.
And Lorraine got soaked and even more wind battered and only got a fleeting glance of the Natural Bridge before she turned around.
Natural Bridge with rain drops.

After that little adventure we decided to call it a day and headed back to proper shelter. Luckily we had decided to get a cabin instead of putting up the camper.

We had planned to camp at Point Ann but due to weather we just did a day trip and it was worth it … we saw whales having fun in the surf.

See that little black spec just after the wave that’s a whale … in fact there were seven of them.
A whale fin.
The coast line was beautiful.
Esperance

On the way to Esperance … another rainbow.
Canola fields and big dark clouds … is this rain ever going to stop?

We had also planned to camp at Cape Le Grande National Park but due to weather we just did a day trip and it was spectacular.

Oops I forgot to add the photos from the climb up Frenchman's peak ... oh well will just have to do another post.

Bunbury to Walpole

All I can say is wet, wet, and wet!!! The weather is not improving in fact it is getting worse. Currently gail force wind, hail, and even snow warning are in place for the next couple of days … great!!!

Bunbury

Jane and Kristy started the day on the big jumping pillow. Those weird looking yellow cabins in the background is what we stayed in.

Bunbury lighthouse.
View of Bunbury port … check out how big the houses are and how close they are together.
Basaltic rock on the seashore.
Busselton


Walked the 2.8km historic jetty on a very windy day. Wanted to go to the under water observatory but it was closed due to poor visibility.

Sisters doing what sisters do ... walking on the rail way tracks.Cape Naturaliste

Did the lighthouse tour at Cape Naturaliste and checked out lots of the coastal area.
Margaret River

Spent 2 days in Margaret River and did very little wine tasting instead we went caving, cheese tasting, beer tasting, another light house, more coastal lookouts, and drove thru lots of towns with names ending with ‘up’ … Yallingup, Cowaranup … ‘up’ means place of.

Explored the Ngilgi cave.

Prevelly … extremely windy but very pretty.
Hamelin Bay jetty … once a jetty that serviced the export of timber to an international market.
Brewery … all I can say is lucky we had Ross to help us get thru the beer. Maybe Lorraine isn’t cut out to be a real beer drinker.
End of a hard day of patrolling the brewery for the geese.
Cape Leeuwin

On our way to Pemberton we took a slight detour to Cape Leeuwin and Flinders Bay.

Two Ocean meets … Cape Leeuwin marks the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean.

Did another lighthouse tour.

Pemberton

Another suspension bridge at Beedelup falls … and it was horrible to walk on especially with everyone making it sway!
Climbed part way up the Gloucester tree one of the highest fire lookout trees in the world.
Lorraine pretending to climb the Gloucester tree ... way too high for me!
Did a 2 hour tram ride out into the Karri forest.

Lots of huge burnt out tree trunks where the tree is still alive
Big Brook Dam for a cold and damp afternoon tea.
The dining out experiences in Pemberton were definitely an experience … Jane finally got to eat marron.

Kristy climbed even further up the Dave Evans Bicentennial tree, she actually got to the first platform … the rest of us got wobbly legs and chickened out.

What type of shags on the rocks are these?
Just around the corner near Windy Harbour.

A modern day lighthouse.

Walpole

Had a few problems with getting accommodation so we settled for a hotel room. I thought that was great as we had no facilities to cook so the obvious conclusion was we would dine out each night …wrong!!! The first night had to cook dinner in the hotel bathroom (where the exhaust fan would prevent the smoke alarm from going off), the next night went to the town park and had a bar-b-q in a storm … certainly something we will remember.

Spent a day exploring Walpole area in extremely bad weather … rain, rain, and more rain.

Visited the Valley of the giants, the Hilltop Giant Tingle tree, the Karri forest. Wanted to do tree top walk but it was closed due to storm damage. The week before a storm with gale force winds came thru and knocked down some huge trees & branches.

Tree down on the side of the road ... now do you understand why we are not keen to be camping at the moment.
How miserable is the weather?
Lunch stop.
and Sue being a determined tourist ... no rain is going to stop me from seeing the sights!

Jane at the valley of the giants inside a burnt out trunk of a red tingle tree.Circular pool … water is brown due to the decomposition process of the forest litter and that’s froth not snow on top.

Now we say farewell to a soggy Sue, Ross, and Kristy as they are heading home to sunny dry Queensland. They have only experienced 3 sunny days in the 3 weeks they have been with us. Maybe all that bad weather will be going home with them ... somehow I doubt it as it is still raining!!!
Had a great time, enjoyed the company, and loved the luxury in accomodation.