Western Australia - Part 2

 Letter No. 250

Dear all,

Day 8 – Margaret River to Pemberton – The Forests

We drove south from Margaret River to the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, which is the most south-westerly point of Australia. The 53m-high lighthouse had great views of the surrounding cliffs and we read the history about various shipwrecks around the point. While we were there we had a call from the doctor in Margaret River who said that Jessie’s blood tests had shown she definitely had Glandular Fever. She was quite upset, as it would take her longer to recover and the antibiotics wouldn’t help. Poor little thing. She is putting on a brave face though.

We then drove another 1.5 hours on to Pemberton for lunch and then found our beautiful little B&B called The Log Cabin. They only had two rooms so we had them both and it was a very luxurious and comfortable stay. We spent the afternoon exploring the famous Karri forests.  First stop was the Bicentennial Karri Tree which is about 2m in diameter and 65m high. It had iron bars hammered into the outside of the tree in a spiral going right to the top. You could climb right to the top of the tree where there was a lookout. There were originally several karri trees which were used as lookouts for forest fires. We were astounded that you could climb up 65m with no safety briefing, no harness or helmet and minimal restraints. If you slipped you could fall through the iron stakes and plummet to certain death! There was a platform half way up and by that time the tree was moving alarmingly in the wind. I chickened out at that level but Matthew went on to the top where there were five lookout levels connected by a ladder.

When Matt made it back down we went on to Beedelup Falls and then The Cascades for short walks in the forest and to look at the rivers while Jessie snoozed in the car. We got a little lost on the way back to Pemberton when we lost phone signal for Google maps but luckily Katie can still manage a paper map so we found our way back. There was another Karri tree close to the village. I was a little disappointed in myself chickening out at the last one and was determined to make it to the top. It was a 53m near-vertical climb which I found easier, as you were looking straight out rather than straight down. Matt and I both made it to the top for a spectacular view out over the tops of all the other trees.

We went back to our B&B for our complementary afternoon tea. Soon after we arrived our host produced a delightful afternoon tea tray with freshly baked bread, cheeses, olives and nuts. It was an absolute feast. We had a bit of down time before going into town to a rather cool Tapas Wine Bar for local wine and great food.

Day 9 – Pemberton to Denmark

Our hosts had prepared a delicious breakfast with toast, homemade jams, cereals, yogurt, freshly squeezed juices and fruit. The best B&B we have stayed in for a very long time. After breakfast we drove 1.5 hours from Pemberton to The Valley of the Giants near Walpole. This area is famous for the ancient tingle trees and there is also a treetop walk which rises 40m above the group up into the treetops. The walk was 650m long and moved alarmingly both horizontally and vertically. You could see straight through the open mesh floor. It did wonders for Katie’s vertigo and she had to grip on to the rails. Even I felt a bit queasy from the movement but it didn't bother the kids at all! There was also an Ancient Empires Walk which was a boardwalk past huge hollowed out tree trunks which were pretty cool.

We drove in towards Denmark and stopped for a picnic lunch at Elephant Rocks. We then walked to the adjacent Green Pool which was a lovely beach and a huge rock pool in front of it about 300m x 100m and up to 5m deep. It was totally protected from the sea by huge boulders with only small channels to let in water and keep out large Great Whites. It was so beautiful. Jess promptly fell asleep on the sand with Katie, while Matt and I spent the afternoon swimming and rock climbing. We went into Denmark to find our hotel and spent the evening eating wood-fired pizza and playing cards at the local Italian restaurant. 

Day 10 – Denmark

We had a day around Denmark today. First up was a quick stop at the Denmark Maze. There was one maze and two labyrinths; it was quite twee but fun. It was owned by a local farmer who had just decided to do it in one of his fields. Next we drove to an Alpaca Farm. We thought it might be a bit lame but it was actually fantastic with a huge range of friendly animals and especially lots of cute baby animals - dogs, sheep & tiny lambs, goats & kids, baby kangaroos, Shetland ponies, horses, heaps of alpacas with babies, guinea pigs, ferrets, camels, ducks, rabbits, geese, chickens and foxes. It was just like going over to my sister Lisa’s house! We particularly liked watching the ferrets playing in their enclosure and stroking the baby guinea pigs and rabbits. It really perked Jess up, who constantly exclaimed “OMG they are so fluuurrrfy I could die”! We spent much longer there than we intended.

Next we went on to the cellar door at Rickety Gate Winery, which ended up being Katie’s favourite winery of the trip, then lunch, a cheese factory and then one more winery before heading back to the beach for the afternoon. We went to Green Pool and Elephant Rocks again as they had been so fantastic the day before. We felt we had really “done” Denmark and headed home for dinner at our hotel.

Day 11- Denmark to Albany

It was a short 40-minute drive on to Albany which is the oldest town in Western Australia. Our first stop was the National Anzac Centre, a great museum dedicated to Australia’s participation in the First World War. A fleet of 36 Australian and New Zealand ships, 30,000 soldiers and nurses and thousands of horses had gathered in that harbour in December 1914 and sailed in convoy to Egypt to fight at Gallipoli. They were protected from German warships in the Indian Ocean by only three warships but made it safely. A second convoy set sail a few months later. Thirty per cent of all the men and women who left in those convoys never returned and only one Australian horse made it back to Australia.

The museum was brilliant and there were photographs of the ships at anchor next to a window looking out on the same vista. It was very interactive. At the entrance you were assigned a solider and at various spots through the museum you could follow their progress through the war. My soldier survived Gallipoli but was badly wounded at the Somme in 1917 and sent back to Australia. Katie's soldier was killed in Gallipoli but Matt and Jessie’s soldiers both survived. Afterwards we walked all around the Albany Heritage Park at the top of the mountain overlooking the bay. It had gun emplacements and historic military barracks that had protected Australia since the mid-1800s until after the end of the Second World War.

We drove on to Middleton Beach for a picnic lunch then went to look at the Brig Amity. It is a replica of the first sailing ship to arrive, bringing settlers to Albany in 1829. There had been 61 people on board including 30 convicts on what was a very small ship! Once again we all commented what easy lives we have in comparison. There was an entertaining audio commentary as we made our way around the ship.

We went back to our room for some down time and later we had Chinese takeaway for dinner and then walked to the Albany Hotel for a drink and to play cards. The Albany Hotel is the oldest pub in the oldest town in WA and has been operating continuously since 1835. There were lots of interesting photos on the walls showing the pub through the years. It looked a bit rough but we had a nice evening.

Day 12 – Albany

We drove to the Torndirrup Peninsula on the other side of King George Sound to the Historic Whaling Station. This was the last operating whaling station in the world and closed in 1978. In that year they killed 726 whales. It was surprising to hear that whaling had continued until so relatively recently! The tour explained the whaling process which was pretty gruesome and we were all a little shocked how awful it was. We had only intended to stay a little while but it was so horribly fascinating that we ended up being there for three hours.

We had lunch in the cafe before a short drive to The Gap and the Natural Stone Bridge. The Gap is a vertigo-inducing cantilever walkway out over the cliffs looking down 35m to the raging sea below. The Natural Stone Bridge is a short walk away and also very impressive.

In the afternoon Katie and Jessica went to see the new Mary Poppins movie while Matt and I had some downtime. We picked up the girls at 6pm and then went on to a very hip wine bar and restaurant Liberté at the London, which served amazing Vietnamese-inspired dishes. We ordered some delicious dishes to share and I taught everyone how to play the card game 500.

Day 13 – Albany to Bremer Bay – The Beaches

Today we packed up and drove on about 40 minutes to The Granite Skywalk in the Porongurup National Park. It was a 2.2km hike through the bush to get to the top of the mountain, uphill all the way. It was too much for poor Jess, who was starting to feel a bit better but still getting tired easily. She made about 1km before deciding to turn back to read in the car. Poor girl.

The trail got progressively steeper and steeper and was quite tough at the top. We finally made it to a spectacular viewing platform about 10m from the top of the mountain with 270 degree views. Katie stopped at this point but Matt and I continued on to a higher viewing platform which was accessed by a scramble over huge granite boulders with stainless steel handholds drilled into them, then a scramble through a chasm and finally a 7-metre vertical climb up a ladder to the top. There was a walkway cantilevered off the top boulder and it was very scary looking through the platform to the bottom of the cliff which was more than 100m below in places!

The hike down which was much quicker and we then drove on to the tiny town of Bremer Bay which was another 1.5 hours. There was absolutely nowhere to stop and a lot of nothingness between towns, so we had to eat our picnic lunch on the side of the road! We arrived about 2pm and went straight down to Bremer Bay Beach. It was a truly beautiful beach with fine white sand, warm turquoise water, sunshine, 10km of beach around a bay with almost no one on it! The weather had also improved after a few grey days in Albany and it was a perfect sunny beach afternoon. There was a platform we swam out to and jumped off. We had about two hours on the beach before heading back to our resort.

Day 14 – Bremer Bay

Another day exploring Bremer Bay, which was starting to feel like a fantastic secret hideaway. We drove to a lookout point after breakfast and were amazed at the endless expanses of perfect white sandy beaches and clear turquoise water. We went on to the Wellcamp Museum. The Wellcamp family settled in Bremer bay in the 1840s and it seemed like everything they had ever owned since had been kept and put on display in the museum ever since! It was fairly quirky. Next it was on to the Gnorbup Winery before lunch. Katie cannot help herself at by this point we had more wine than we could drink before we left and more than we could carry back to Brisbane. J

After a quick lunch in our room we went to Blossoms Beach for the afternoon, another impossibly beautiful beach. That evening we went to the pub for dinner and quite astonishingly we bumped into some old friends Jenny and Neil LeFebvre. They are an Australian couple who we had become friends with when we all lived near Manchester between 2003 and 2006. They had moved back to Perth in 2006 and we had not seen them since then. It really was quite astounding to bump into them in this remote corner of outback Western Australia. Jessie and their eldest son Tom had been friends at playgroup when they were both three but didn’t remember each other at all! We had a lovely catch-up and took photos for Facebook. It was really great to reconnect with them all.

Day 15 – Bremer Bay to Esperance

We left Bremer Bay early for the four-hour drive to our final destination Esperance. When we arrived we took a small detour around the 38km Great Ocean Road, a loop just outside Esperance taking in beautiful lookouts, beaches and the Pink Lake. The Esperance Pink Lake was formally pink and is now actually white, as the salinity in the lake has dropped below the level needed to turn it pink. Still an interesting view though.

We suggested a visit to the nudist beach but the kids used their veto so we went on to Twilight Cove. It was absolutely beautiful - fine white sand, turquoise water and protected by a series of huge granite boulders. Matt, Jess and I swam out to them and spent another sunny beach afternoon jumping off the rocks. When we were suitably cooked we went to our accommodation which was a huge two-storey beach villa on the Esplanade with a lovely verandah and sea views. We had wine and cheese on the verandah enjoying the view and then a night in.

Day 16 – Esperance

A very early start today for a boat trip to Middle Island in the Recherche Archipelago. We were heading to Lake Hillier, an actual pink lake. This is a long trip and the company only runs it once or twice a year so we were lucky with our timing. It was a one-hour drive to the boat ramp and we met there at 6.30am, where there was a small speedboat ferrying little groups of passengers onto the boat. There were 42 guests in total, so this took quite some time and then we were underway by 7:30am.

It was a 2½ hour trip to the Recherche Archipelago which has 144 named islands. Middle Island is a 70 nautical mile trip. The sea was a bit rough and the boat lurched quite a lot, so several guests were seasick (luckily not us). One poor elderly Korean man threw up his false teeth into his sick bag and had to fish them out! We all enjoyed the sailing and it was a fantastic day to be out on the water although a little cool and windy. We saw a huge pod of dolphins on the way.

We stopped in the cove where Australia’s most famous pirate, Black Jack Anderson, made his hideout. The boat anchored off a pure white beach and we caught the speedboat in. We walked about 1km to the far end of the beach, up a small hill and the huge bubble-gum pink lake behind the beach dunes was revealed. It was an amazing sight. From that viewpoint we could see the full length of the beach, strips of blue deep water, turquoise shallows, white sand, green forest vegetation and the astonishingly bright pink lake. The colours were unbelievable.

We walked down through the bush to the lake edge past the ruins of the pirate settlement. The lake was even pinker up close! Definitely the pinkest place we have ever been and completely natural. The colour is created by algae that only grow in very high salinity water (10 times saltier than sea water). There are very few pink lakes in the world so it was pretty special. A walk back down the beach, quick swim and back on the boat for lunch.

It was another 2½ hours return sailing but was much calmer and warmer so we had a lovely time sitting on the front of the boat. Katie appropriated the Captain's chair on the upper deck and drank tea and chatted to everyone who came up to visit her. We made back to our villa just before 6pm and had showers and an early dinner in.

Day 17 – Esperance

We drove to Lucky Bay which is supposedly the only place in the world you can see kangaroos  on the beach and swimming in the sea. We arrived about 9:00am and it was already 38⁰C and I think the kangaroos had decided it was way too hot to be on the beach as there were none around. We knew that our friends Jenny and Neil had gone on to Lucky Bay and joked that we would probably bump into them. Amazingly, as soon as we arrived we stopped at the coffee truck on the beach and there they were! We had another long chat and then drove our car on to the beach. It was technically closed due to a Great White Shark lurking about but as the water was so clear we decided we would see it coming and spent the morning swimming.

On the way back to Esperance we stopped at the Esperance Stonehenge. It is a full size replica of how Stonehenge would have looked when it was originally built. It was originally commissioned for a winery which went broke before the quarry had finished but then a local farmer bought the stone and completed the job. It had heated up to 41⁰C by this time with a hot howling wind, however we were amazed to discover that the wind totally stopped inside the stone circle. It was quite spectacular. We drove back to Esperance and later that day we went for drinks to the Esperance Yacht Club and watched the sun go down before having dinner at The Loose Goose which is reputedly the best restaurant in Esperance.

 

Day 18 – Esperance to Perth

We got up at 6:00am and had a long drive back to Perth. It was over 750km so we spent most of the day on the road. We stopped for about 1½ hours at Wave Rock. It was an impressive rock formation and interesting hike through the bush. We arrived at our hotel in Perth about 5:00pm with just enough energy for a swim in the pool and an early dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Day 19 - Perth to Brisbane.

Our flights back to Brisbane left very early and we had to be at the airport by 6:00am. Jess and I were flying Qantas and Matt and Katie flying Virgin as we had booked all the flights on frequent flyer points. Our flights were leaving ten minutes apart, Jess and I were supposed to leave ten minutes before Katie and Matt but our flight was delayed by twenty minutes and they won the race! We were all home by 3:00pm that afternoon.

Cheers,

Derek, Katie, Matt, Jessie & Molly