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| At the highest point in the tree tops! |
About 80kms west of Denmark, we arrived in Walpole on the 1st of March. This whole area is set in the Walpole-Nornalup National Park, a lush, green forrest of the Giant Red Tingle Tree (a type of eucalypt only found in this 6000ha area) and Karri trees - just stunning scenery. We drove straight to the Valley of the Giants Tree Top Walk. Here we walked through the forrest on a suspension bridge that reaches 40m at its highest point. Some of the trees here are 400 years old. We then walked the path on the forrest floor, which was beautiful. This area gets an annual average of 1200mm of rain, double that of towns only 100km north of here. It is like we are in another world.
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| The suspension bridge swayed in the breeze |
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| Ollie, OHS officer |
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| The kids dwarfed by these trees! |
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| Strike a pose boys |
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| Our one and only family shot so far! |
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The kids at the discovery centre at The Valley of the Giants.
There was a tree that people used to park a car in the
trunk, but it eventually destroyed the roots, killing the tree. |
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Us riding around the knoll near our caravan park at Coalmine
Beach, Walpole. There are awesome bike/walking trails and
picnic spots. A lot of them here are part of the Bibbulmun track,
a 1000km walking track that starts near Albany and
ends just east of Perth |
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| The kids exploring the waters edge at the Nornalup inlet. |
The caravan park of Coalmine Beach at Walpole, is in part of the National Park, but with all of the normal facilities of a caravan park. It's such a nice bush setting, and everyone seems very happy and relaxed here! Below are some photos of another bush walk through Giant Tingle forrest, and the circular pool at the Frankland River. In winter the water flows with white rapids here, but was only a small flowing waterfall when we were there. Amongst the forrest in these rivers, there are huge Marron (like a fresh water crayfish) to be caught. But due to dwindling numbers the season is restricted to only 3 weeks over new years. On the way home this day we stopped at a jetty over the shallow inlet and caught 4 blue swimmer crabs that were keepers. The kids named them "Phil", "Mums", "Tummy", and "Up" - they know me too well!
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The kids were very excited to spot this rare Red Tingle Spider,
only native to this area and dating back to dinosaur times. |
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| This giant had a base girth of 24m and is believed to be almost 400yo! |
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| Freedom baby - yeah! |
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| Exploring Circular Pools |
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| Frankland River |
Another short drive took us up to the Swarbrick Discovery Centre. This centre is based on the conservation of the 'old growth' forrests, where artists' works are displayed throughout the bush along the 500m loop-walk. Obviously logging has always been a hot topic in this area. I found this walk really interesting.
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| Our 3 little angels |
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Ballroom dancing in the middle of the forrest,
that's an artform in itself for these two! |
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Very poignant caption, with the kids in the background
pulling faces at themselves! |
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| Ollie posing against the 'Wall of Deception' (we weren't really deceived) |
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| Three cheesy grins! |
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| Getting crafty in Shannon National Park |
We headed NW 70km to Shannon National Park (a bit apprehensive about getting in anywhere as it is Labour Day long weekend here in WA). We found one of the best campgrounds we have been to yet, with flushing loos (Nat was very impressed) and hot showers via stoking a boiler. It is set amongst Karri, Marri and Jarrah forrest, which attract the most stunning 'twenty-eight' parrots, robins, honey-eaters, and wrens. The camp host here, Peter, is a fantastic character who had Tys chopping wood to cart over to our site in his wheelbarrow, and got Nat on the rake to clear our site.
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| Our campsite at Shannon |
There used to be a huge settlement here in the 50s with a mill that employed 170 people. We walked through the trail where there are signs that indicate where the main street was, and you can still clearly distinguish the footy oval and the cricket pitch in the middle. But there is not a stump of a house or a brick left to show that there were hundreds of homes here, it's quite eery. We continued our walk along the Shannon River (mainly dry) to the Quokka lookout (no luck in seeing any). The walk went further up to a dam and huge rocky outcrops to a lookout, but we turned and headed for home with the kids getting tired. It actually got to 30 degrees today - a heat wave in these parts! Natalie lost her top front tooth this day, so there was a lot of talk and excitement about the tooth fairy!
We had some lazy time around the campfire while here, reading and eating lots! It was lovely to celebrate Trav's birthday on the 7th, with the kids making lots of crafty things and cooking Travs birthday cake in our weber. I think he had a nice day, even though we were out of phone service for family to contact him.
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| Strolling through the Shannon |
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| Gappy! |
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| Put your back into it Tys! |
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| The post office was in the main street of Shannon - not a trace is left. |
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| Happy Birthday Dad/Trav! |
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| the 'Twenty -eight' Parrot |
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| Beedulup Falls |
On the 8th March, we headed NW into Pemberton, a nice little town. This is a beautiful hilly, green area with lots of cattle and hundreds of Emus in the paddocks too! We made our way out of town to Big Brook Camp area amongst Karri forrest. This was a beautiful shady, quiet spot. We jumped on our bikes and rode through the bush trail until we got to the dam, where the track around the dam is asphalt. We all stopped for a swim at a sandy part of the dam and had a ball mucking around. Natalie had a go at riding Olivers bike on this treck - the longest she has ridden for - very proud of you Nat!
We took a drive one afternoon through the nearby Warren National Park, where we stopped at Beedulup Falls (not running) that had great viewing platforms, and would be very impressive when running in winter. We drove into Warren River where there are other camp areas (for tents only). The river was beautiful, and the day areas had timber steps down to the water. We stopped to look at the Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree, a 75m high climbing tree with platforms at the top used as a fire lookout tree. There are steel spikes driven into the side of the tree that spiral to the top, no safety net underneath! We all only had thongs on, so we didn't give it a go, much to the kids disgust! However, the morning we were leaving, Trav and Tys got game and climbed the 61m high Gloucester Tree in Pemberton. They did a great job. I felt a bit giddy just watching them! Well done boys! Before we left Shannon we exchanged details with the loveliest couple, Gary and Marie from near Coffs Harbour, who have offerred for us to stay with them when we get over to the East Coast - some people are so generous!
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| Natalie at Beedulup Falls |
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| Yahoo! Holidays! |
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| Warren River |
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| Piggy backs at the base of the bicentennial tree |
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| Tyson at the top of the Gloucester Tree, 61m up! |
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| Trav at the top of the Gloucester Tree |
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| View from the top of the Gloucester tree |
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Tys was shaking when he came down.
Well done boys! |
We took a very scenic, round about route to get to Alexandras Bridge Campground on the Blackwood River, only 40km south of Margaret River. We arrived here on the 10th March. We had intended to stay in Manjimup, but we were not keen on staying in a town, so drove further north to Bridgetown, then NE to Boyup Brook for a look, but it was a very dry one-horse town - we could not get over the contrast of only 30km further south, to this dry area. So we decided to double back through Bridgetown and Nannup (looks like a nice town) and found our beautiful, but very popular campspot. During our time here we swam and fished, with the kids making some great friends from Australind. We also did a day trip into Augusta, 20km SW and out to Cape Leeuwin, the most SW point of WA where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. Natalie is always pointing out to sea to ask what is in that direction, and I can finally say South Africa instead of Antartica! The Cape Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park covers the length of the Cape, with Cape Naturaliste at the Northern point. As we were leaving the kids spotted 5 dolphins in the bay, so we stopped and watched them for ages - awesome.
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| Our camp at Alexandras Bridge |
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| Ollie in the Blackwood River |
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| Always keen to wet a line! |
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| I love holidays! |
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| At Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse |
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The most SW point of WA, where the Southern
and Indian Oceans meet. |
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| "See the dolphins over there?!" |
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| Feeding time at Taunton Farm |
On Sunday 13th March we drove NORTH into Margaret River.
MR was quite a touristy, yuppie town, but a nice place. We had lunch at a park on the Margaret River, that is barely a creek, and fairly polluted looking at the moment. MR is about 10km inland, and is surrounded by bushland, farms, and the most ellaborate wineries you have ever seen, dotted about every 300m! We found a great caravan park, Taunton Farm, at Cowaramup, just north of MR. The kids had a ball feeding cows, sheep, horses, goats and donkeys. While here we did some day trips to Gracetown for a swim (beautiful spot), and up to Dunsborough. This place I would highly recommend. It was a neat little town, nestled on Geographe Bay. This must be the most sheltered bay we have some across yet. It was very flat and shallow, and we spent hours in the water chasing schools of fish and crabs, with a few dolphins prancing not far out in the bay - heaven on Earth.
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| Oliver got game enough to feed the drooling cows! |
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| Nat loved 'Donkey' from Shrek! |
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| Trav at Gracetown |
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Oliver has become a fully qualified
sandcastle engineer! |
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| Cheers Tys! |
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| Exploring the bay at Dunsborough |
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| Nats first paddle with the kayak! |
We met another fantastic couple, Trish and Russell, and their kids Lochlan and Stephanie, from Albury. They are doing 13months on the road, with their children also doing School of the Air though the Hay campus. It was great to compare notes on the schooling aspect, as well as where we have been. They are also heading clockwise around Oz, so will be great to keep in touch as we go, and scout the best spots for each other too!
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| Busselton Jetty |
We left Margaret River on the 15th March and had a look at Busselton and their newly refurbished jetty, with a fish viewing centre at the end of the 1.8km train ride out there. Busselton was bigger and rougher than Margaret River, so we motored on to a road side stop 20km east of Busselton, called Iron Gully Falls. The next morning we headed into Donnybrook and spent the entire day at the Apple Fun Park, the Southern hemisphere's largest free playground. Natalie had picked it out in a booklet a few weeks ago, and we had promised to go there. They had a fantastic day and were very worn out.
Late afternoon we drove into Bunbury and found a great Big 4 caravan park at Koombana Bay. This is WA's 3rd biggest city, and has a great relaxed feel to it. The park is set in-between an inlet with the bay on the other side. There are great facilities all along the beaches, with fantastic walking/bike tracks. On our first night here we walked into town to Viva Bunbury - a Latin music festival, with performers, dancing and DJ's. It was a beautiful balmy evening and we felt like we were really on holidays here!
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| Donnybrook's Apple Fun Park |
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One of the two photos I took while
in bunbury - got a bit slack. |
While in Bunbury we spent days swimming at the jetty pools, fishing and visited the Dolphin Discovery Centre.
http://www.dolphindiscovery.com.au/
On our second visit to the centre (you can go three times on the one ticket) we saw three dolphins who swam into the 'interaction zone'. We were not allowed to touch them, but they swam within a metre of us. One was 'Tangles', who has had half of her dorsal fin cut off when she became entangled in fishing line, and her calf 'Shadow'. Interestingly, Tangles was babysitting another dolphin calf, a common occurence in dolphin pods. It was a breath taking experience. I just wanted to stay there all day! In all of our excitement I didn't take the camera in with us, so have a look at the link if you are interested.
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| Heartbreaker |
We left Bunbury on the 19th and headed north through Australind, and found Belvedere Campsite in the Leschenault Peninsula Cons Park (apparently a lot of French explorers founded these places - gets a bit tricky!). This was a nice spot, but attracted some hoons from nearby towns. We spent time fishing in the inlet, and down at the nearby beach, without much success as the surf here was pretty wild the day we went. The kids enjoyed bush walks through an old abandoned hippy commune that was active here until the 1980's, spotting lots of birds and roos along the way. Trav scored his first haircut from me too!
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| At the beach near Belvedere Campsite, North of Bunbury |
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| Fishing in the Leschenault Inlet |
On the 21st March we only did 45km north into Yalgorup National Park, to Martin's Tank Lake camping ground. This was a picturesque sheltered spot, surrounded by native 'Black Boy' plants and salt-water paper barks. There were some great walking trails, but the stagnant lake was quite stinky. We drove 5 mins to Preston Beach for some swimming, but was very wild, so we spent the afternoon playing British Bulldog and on the playground. The kids should be making a guide to the best playgrounds in Australia - I think they have tried out everyone we have seen so far! We also had some great family cricket matches in the cleared camping spots. That was great fun! That night we had big brush-tail possums come into the camp, and another animal that we are still not sure of despite lots of google searches. He looked a bit like a Bandicoot, but with no stripes (see below). We have also had Yahtzee marathons - Nat and Ollie have learnt to play too. It was a beautiful full moon, lighting up the camp - the moon and stars here seem so much bigger!
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| Tys overlooking stinky salt-lake Martin's Tank Lake |
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The kids ready for their big cricket match!
This area was full of the native 'blackboys' - very impressive. |
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| Does anyone know what this is? A type of bandicoot? |
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| Thrombolites of Yalgorup National Park |
We left Yalgorup on the morning of the 23rd of March, going via the Thrombolites. These are living organisms that look like rocks and are not only pre-historic, but are thought to be amongst the first living organisms on earth. The Thrombolites make oxygen and, therefore, were responsible for enabling life to evolve on Earth. Pretty amazing rock looking things really!
We rolled into Mandurah, which is an amazing place. About 15 years ago the government spent billions on making it the numero uno holiday spot for Perthites. Dozens of canals and inlets were made, with multi-million dollar houses (and boats) lining them, along with the marina, shops, restaurants, etc. Despite all of this, the place still has a really nice vibe to it. There is heaps to see and do. We stayed three nights, doing a lot of fishing and swimming, and saw dolphins at 'the cut'. The kids have all been loving the fishing, but we have not had much luck, only catching Blowfish, a couple of small whiting, herring and garfish. Good fun! The caravan park we stayed in at Miami (a lot of the places here have American names) was pretty average, but was on the inlet, with a boardwalk running along it. We were a bit cautious swimming, as the extraordinary hot weather this area has been having, has brought jelly fish into the bays and inlets.
I think we have all really settled into this lifestyle, and we are enjoying having precious time together!
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Catching little flathead in their nets at the main
swimming beach in Mandurah |
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Overlooking the centre of Mandurah - everything here is
built on and over the water. Beautiful spot! |
On March 26th we left Mandurah heading for Perth. On the way there we called into Rockingham - a beautiful spot, quieter than Mandurah, with beautiful beaches surrounded by small islands within kayaking distance from shore. We then navigated our way to the Karrinyup Caravan Park in the northern Perth suberb of Gwelup (with assistance from our TomTom - thanks Mum and Dad!). The kids were very happy as the park had a huge jumping pillow and pool.
Our first day in Perth we met Wayne, Kathryn and 3yo Teagan - a lovely couple who basically have lived on the road for the last two years. Nice to socialise after being secluded for a while!
Natalie was wrapt to spend her 7th birthday in Perth. We spent the afternoon and evening with Trav's cousin Craig and Rosie and their two boys Daniel and Aaron. It was lovely to see family! It was so nice to catch up with them, and the kids hit it off immediately!
We caught the bus and train into the city, then the ferry across Swan River to South Perth, and general site seeing. We also bumped into Russell and Trish and the kids from Albury - they were climbing on the same bus we were getting off - small world!
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| Ollies massive starfish at Rockingham |
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| Nat our water babe at Rockingham |
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| The boys throw a line in at any opportunity - loving it! |
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| Nat the Master Chef on her birthday! |
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Daniel, Aaron, Nat, Tys and Ollie celebrating at
Craig and Rosies! |
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| Ollie after riding the ferry seen in the background |
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| Visiting the historical port of Fremantle |
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| The boys posing at the Freo Docks |
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| And our Nat Nat |
One morning we had breakfast on the beach at Scarborough, before heading to the historical port of Fremantle. This city had such old world character, with original heritage buildings lining the narrow, one-way streets. We visited the WA Maritime Museum, where we took a tour of the decommissioned naval submarine, the HMAS Ovens. We all thoroughly enjoyed it, and have a new found respect for submariners!
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| Heritage Buildings of Fremantle |
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| Trav checking out the controls aboard the HMAS Ovens |
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| Kings Park, Botanic Gardens |
We loved Kings Park, a 400 hectare park, right in the heart of Perth. We explored the Water Gardens, ANZAC memorial, botanic gardens, the glass bridge, the 700yo Boab tree and many walks around the park.
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| The Glass Walkway |
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| Overlooking the harbour and city of Perth |
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Tyson and Nat loved boogie boarding here! Poor Tys copped
a jellyfish sting! |
While in Perth, Natalie and I had a 'girls day', while the boys went fishing of course. We had a cappucino together before going to the Art Gallery of WA. I loved every second of it - all the studies we had done on these artists in high school, I was now seeing their original artworks! I was in awe! Sydney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, and Frank McCubbins 'Down on his luck'. There was also the 'Year 12 Perspectives' display - the best of WA's year 12 students, as well as their sister city in Japan - now these young people have talent - I was blown away!
Our last weekend in Perth (we stayed 2 weeks here) we surprised the kids by going to see the Edwards family when they arrived on the 8th April. It was so nice to catch up with them! The kids had a ball, especially Ollie with his best mate Cayden. They were great in putting up with us on the Sunday night with the van parked in the drive of their holiday house. We made the most of our catch up, but it was very hard to say goodbye - again!! Oliver was very observant and said he was 'ready to hit the road because I just want to head north'. As we headed off he asked, 'Are we north yet?'!! Next chapter in our journey begins...
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| Best mates! |
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| Bohdi, Nat, Ollie and Cayden!! |
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| We didn't want to say goodbye! Come with us! |
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| What a bunch! Good times! |
