Albany to Augusta

From Albany to Augusta, we’ve enjoyed many a delicious meal, climbed a number of ridiculously high trees, took in beautiful and varied scenery, spied on and ran from some local wildlife, and relaxed beside and floated along WA’s beautiful reflective rivers.

Fresh vege from a stall on the side of the road near Albany

We stayed for a couple nights next to Mutton bird Island, the only protected spot around as the wind was blowing quite a gale.

Mutton-bird beach

We stayed at Cosy Corner. I cooked my second meal (I'm getting quite into the whole cooking thing!) which Jack approved of even though it was vegetarian. Here there were no cute little brown bush mice. Here there were giant, large-toothed bush rats. At least one got in the car and after 3 hours of listening to it screech and carry on just on the other side of the fridge, we got out and turned the car on to scare it away. In the morning we found our soap a few metres away with bite marks.

My creamy spinach and roast tomato fettucine!

We stopped in at Denmark, near Walpole. It is an awesome hippy-like town, it reminded us of Maleny/Mapleton/Nimbin. We drove through the valley of the giants, where the famous tree top walk is. We had a massive picnic. The size of the trees is mind blowing and just driving through the forest is spectacular.

At Centre Road Crossing, just north of Walpole, we found a little cabin by the river we could stay at for free in the National Park. It was in this river which Jack caught his abundance of marron, nearly 20 in all! One in particular was a beast, weighing about 1.5 kg and looking more like a lobster than a marron. Bloody good eating according to Jack, poached and tossed with butter and salt and pepper, he had a rather epic breakfast of them the first morning (while I slept in), and then feasted on them again that night.

Pork spare ribs and mouth watering veges cooked in the camp oven over the cabin's pot belly stove

It was north of Northcliffe where we stumbled upon the first of three old fire lookouts built decades ago on top of giant Karri trees. This one, Diamond Tree, is 52m high, and we decided to climb it without shoes for some reason. It had a great view but by the time we got back down our hands and feet were quite sore.

We stayed at another crossing, called Moons Crossing. As we were packing up in the morning, Jack saw a snake near our car. He immediately jumped up on the table leaving me to pack up the car. It became clear any snake situation in the future will be dealt with by me.

On our way to the next town we found another of the fire towers, Gloucester Tree. This one is 61m and most popular; over a million people have climbed it. We added to the statistics, and this time we wore shoes.

 

Since the surrounding countryside is covered in the large Karri trees, which grow up to 85m, our solar panel was stuggling to find enough sun which displeased our fridge. So we stayed at a powered site at Pemberton Caravan Park. Numerous hot showers were also enjoyed as well as washing our clothes that are starting to turn red from the dirt.

Large karri trees cover most of the countryside around Pemberton

We found the final tree, Bicentenial tree. Highest at 68m, with a 4 stories high 'cubby' at the top. Bit of a brown undies climb to the top as the rungs were not evenly spaced and the wind had picked up so a soothing swaying motion added to the thrill. Our plan was so stay at Lake Jasper, which apparently is crystal clear and is rather spectacular but recent fires had wiped everything in its path making camping there impossible.

 

 -- Can you spot me in the picture above? --

Instead we stayed by the Blackwood River, which we enjoyed the company of two adorable possums at night, and lazed about in and on top of the river. Our blow up boat is turning out to be a good buy!

Jack lost his thong deep in the mud throwing out a yabbie pot

So after time in the bush we headed back to the coast, Augusta being our next destination. Augusta was a sleepy little coastal town but boasted some beautiful scenery and is where the Southern Ocean meets the Indian Ocean. I couldn’t see any difference in the water colour but apparently there is?

Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse

Historic Water wheel at Cape Leeuwin

And that brings us to Margaret River, where we are currently sitting in an internet café that plays sweet records and makes killer coffee. Marges is great! The weather may not be superb but the surf is big, there is a good vibe in the street and the coastal scenery lives up to expectations. The free fudge samples also go down a treat. We might try and find some work picking some of the grapes that makes the famous wine, but if not we could be moving on rather quickly as the downside to a place like this is living expenses and the lack of free camping. Also the weather will only get worse from now on so the warmth of the tropics is calling.

All about us we witnessed the aftermath of the November fires

Off to find a place to park the rig for the night.

Sarah and Jack.