WA - The Great South (Quinninup)

We left Denmark rather sadly as it is just about the perfect place to be. At least until it gets too cold anyway! Seriously though, we loved the feel of the place and it ticks all the boxes for any future life of ours with the exception of its distance from family and friends.

Worth thinking about though! 

We trundled on down the road and ended up in Quinninup. This place is just south of Manjimup and east of Pemberton but is a township distinctly its own place. It has a poorly run caravan park and a pub and just a few houses, but it is in spectacularly beautiful country - the southern forests of WA.

Easter Thursday (Maundy Thursday) - We arrived, camped up and went into Manjimup to get a few groceries and check out the town. Nice country town really. Unlike many country towns, this seems to be doing OK as almost none of the shops or buildings were empty and there were lots of people in town and looking prosperous. 

We called into the pub (naturally) and were impressed with the place. No spit'n'sawdust here, but a fine building with decent furniture and decor. 

The number of farm gate fruit and veggie sales as we drove in and out impressed us too and we bought some fine fresh veggies and avocadoes to take back with us at very reasonable prices. Yum!

Good Friday - Today we spent following the tourist drives and checking out the attractions. Chief among these were the Diamond and Gloucester trees. These trees have a staircase built around them from steel bars that have been driven into the trees (see the pics) and at the top is a lookout platform that was used for forest fire spotting. Scary stuff really. 

Easter Saturday - The farmers market was on in Manjimup so off we trotted and picked up some more nice food as well as some intersting lins in cider and BBQ sauces etc. The trees along the road are all turning autumn colours and together with the bright blue sky it made a spectacular day out.

We decided to take a bit of a walk in the woods and headed out to a nat park with a section called One Tree Bridge which is where the (old and now replaced) bridge was constrcted of one tree laid across the river with a flat platform tacked on top.

I suppose it was an engineering feat at the time - damned big tree too!

From there we took a walk through the karri forest and were amazed by the trees there. They are huge, majestic and stunningly beautiful. Loved it!

We returned home with more food and then repaired to the Quinninup pub for a beer. 

Easter Sunday - Well if there is a group of people from a 4WD club (the Foothills 4WD Club) camped out near you what else do you do but tag along with them on one of their drives.

Di we have fun? You bet we did.  We headed out and into the Nat Park and drove some of the trackes there (including Moons Crossing) before we ended up on the Summertime Track. This has this name as it is only navigable in summer, but it proved little obstacle but of great interest as it wove from the forest through the heath and into the dune country behind the beach.

This pic of of Moons Crossing

Yep - we ended up on the beach where everyone lowered their tyre pressures. I dropped mine to 23psi as I have some relatively low profile tyres on the Pajero and off we went.

(Note - anyone not involved in 4WDing might want to skip the following)

Hmmm - I seemed to be fightng the 'jero all the way to get anywhere, but as everyone else was whistling along I stuck with it. At one point I stopped to turn off all the electronic aids, but while I could kill the VSC I couldn't kil the traction control unless I dropped the rear diff lock in. This was a mixed blessing as while I didn't need to worry about the TC or VSC cutting in and causing me to dig into the sand, it did try to force me to drive straight on any time I wanted to steer off to one side or the other. 

I think I will have to do some more experimentation to get a better understanding of how to drive this vehicle in these conditions.

This is what the beach looked like:

However, fighting the steering the whole way we ended up driving around to set up a photo opportunity next to a fresh water lagoon which required me to cross the lagoon and then trurn left in order to park up with the other guys. 

This was where I bogged the Pajero in the sand. The pic below shows me feverishly dropping tyre pressures to get out of the bog. Embarrassing as I was the only one to bog there.

 I dropped my tyre pressures to 18 psi and just drove out of the bog, but it was a lesson learned.

I then joined the others for the obligatory group shot.

The lower pressures helped me as we drove further down the beach and we soon enough reached the exit point which was basically the bottom of Callcup Hill near the Yeagerup dunes. Anyone from WA will aparently know this place, but it was new to me and, with a soft and silky sand track leading up to a peak maybe three times as high as Big Red in the Simpson Desert it was imposing. Our trip leader (a really gentlemanly guy called Doug) drove up it in his 200 Series without a problem, but the next guy (Jake in a well used and modified TD Rocky) needed a couple of goes and a big run up on the second go.

The third vehicle was a totally unmodified Triton ute which needed about twenty attempts and finally a change of driver to get up to the top. 

Then it was our turn. We gave it two attempts, but bogged down on both of them so i dropped our tyre pressures down to 10 psi and had a third attempt which was successful. it is amazing the difference it makes! 

The above pic is me starting the climb up - it is much steeper than it looks you know!

This pic is from very near to the top.

The view from the top was all worth it though and we then drove down the inland side and worked our way through the maze of tracks back to the home camp site where a beer was a welcome end to the day.

I can't thank Doug and the Foothills 4WD guys enough for the day out - just brilliant.

Easter Monday - The camp site emptied out as people went home and I watched Geelong get thrashed by Hawtorn on the TV in the pub. NOT a good day, but we'll survive.

Off to Bunbury tomorrow! 

WA - The Great South (Denmark)

Well, I have said that I love WA before, but this place is the best of the best. Denmark is truly a wonderful place to be.

We arrived and (Easter cramping our free camping style) ended up booking a spot in a huge Big 4 caravan park. As expected, we are slotted into a small spot with a concrete slab and lots of all too close neighbours, but it is actually OK.

The park is at the end of Ocean Beach Drive and we are right on the ocean side of things.

Denmark is a great little place and it reminds us so very much of the way Byron Bay used to feel some decades ago. There are the usual new age faith healers, incense and tatty jewellery vendors but the heart of the place is a lovely small town ethic of just being nice to people and doing it in a beautiful location.

We took a walk down along the river (love the "Beware of the snakes" signs) which took us through some dense forest and then open out onto heathland on one side and housing on the other, before crossing the river (yep, they even have bridges here!) and walking back to town on the other bank.

A beer at the very friendly and comfortable local pub topped off the day. 

What a great place this is.

So, on our first whole day here we thought we'd drive out and see the tall trees that are so famous around here. So we headed straight for the aptly named Valley of the Giants. This is a Nat Park where a stand of the giant Tingle Trees ("Tingle" being a corruption of an aboriginal word that meant either red or medicine) is preserved. 

We spent a little time with one of the rangers who gave us a tour of the forest and introduced us to some of their most famous trees including Grandma Tingle and talked about how the trees survive the fires. It seems that their bark is fire resistant but the inner heart of the tree is not so many trees have large hollow sections where the heartwood has been burned out, but the tree survives anyway.

The Tingle Forest (above) is a beautiful place and is home to a number of small marsupials including quokkas which we thought were only fund on Rottnest Island. Looking like rather large rats they are not very prepossessing things, but cute enough.

The pic above shows a tingle tree that has had its interior (well, the bottom of it) burned out, but the tree survives anyway!

There is a treetop walk too which is pretty cool to walk around something like 50 metres up in the air. The walkway sways around which puts some people off, but we had fun.

The obligatory selfie!

And the view from the top! 

We left there, after lunch, and drove on to see the Giant Tingle - this is the largest eucalypt in the world and despite its base being almost burned out it is still alive and is a huge tree.

Now that is a big tree!

Back to the campsite via the pub - naturally.

The next day was Sunday so we went out for a walk along the banks of the river, meeting people doing the same thing and marvelling at how beautiful it all was. As we had partaken of a large cooked brekky we skipped lunch and went off to check out Greens Pool - this was featured in a number of the tourist blather you see and it seemed to be a nice place. Well, when we got there we found that it was just a stunning place and it was so pretty (and the weather was so nice) that for a change, we had to share the place with other people. The pool is actually just a lagoon that is protected by a reef of granite rocks (the waves crash over them so dramatically) and floored by white sand so it is all a brilliant turquoise and very safe to swim in.

The pics above and below show the pool itself together with the crowds we had to share it with.

Well, there were another couple of people around just out of camera shot, but you get the idea.

Yep - Karen just HAD to go paddling!

We sat for a while, just contemplating the beauty of the place when we spotted these crabs venturing out from under a rock slab. Cute little jiggers eh?

Elephant rocks - you can see where they got the name.

The pics below show the inlet itself and you wouldn't find a prettier and more peaceful place anywhere in the world. 

The view below is the one that we had as we walked back to the car.

The photos do not do it justice, but take my word for it - it is heaven on earth.

Right next to this pool, well just across a headland, is the Elephant Rocks pool. Smaller than Greens it is just as picturesque and to the west side of the pool are some large granite outcrops that look very much like elephants. Well they do if you squint a little! 

We needed to take a little time to absorb the beauty of this place so we ended up retiring to the pub (a different one) to contemplate just how lucky we are to experience this. 

On the way back we also picked up some cheap veggies from one of the organic farmers' farm gates. Great food and a great price too.

What do you do the next day after such experiences? Yep, you head off again in search of something else. This time we wandered around the farming areas, picking up a bargain or two in the way of tasty organic veggies and calling in at a winery and cheese factory where we tried out a few tasty things and bought cheese, pate, fudge, ice cream and wine enough to keep us happy for quite a while. The coffee and cake there were bloody good too. 

We drove on to Mt Lindesay Nat Park where we had a walk through the park, checking out the bottlebrushes and grass trees etc and walked off the food we had eaten. I can't say that this nat park had us absolutely smitten, but it was pleasant enough.

I think we may be checking out the real estate around here soon. It is that good.

WA - The Great South (Albany)

Having left the comfortable surroundings of Bremer Bay and taken away thoughts of perhaps returning there to live (only the wind would be an issue), we tooled off towards Albany, but we decided to spend the night at a place called Norman's Beach.

This is a free camp place (found through the good offices of WikiCamps on my phone) and it has turned out to be a superb choice. The small camping area is sheltered and is right on the shores of the calm and pretty inlet while there is a walkway (albeit with a lot of steep stairs) to the beach which is another one of these WA beaches of white sand and blue, blue water. This one has some serious surf pounding it, but it is just glorious and we have to share it with nobody else. 

Heavenly!

It took us about 90 minutes driving to get here so we have had plenty of time to explore and check things out before we head on to Albany tomorrow.

This is the view you get of the bar across the inlet at Norman's Beach. The high tide just gets over it, but a good king tide should wash it away some time.

 

This is looking up the beach to some shacks at the far end.

After descending the stairs we walked along the beach, taking the time to rest on some smoothed rocks that were poking out of the sand.

Albany - well, this is a beauty of a town. Population about 30,000 and we were (at first) a little surprised at having to share road space with other traffic, but we got used to it quickly enough and started to enjoy what it had to offer.

We spent a little time exploring the town and the bayside area, eventually finding out way into a beauty of a pub or wine bar called the Great South. They have Sierra Nevada beers on tap here as well as some very fine local wines so we stopped for a chat and to spend some time just gazing out at the harbour.

The next day we decided to head off to the Torndirrup NP and to have a wander through there. Like most WA parks, it is well maintained and has some lovely parts to see. Sadly the road to Natural Bridge was closed for repair so we missed out on that one, but we caught a few other spots.

One of the other spots was the Blowholes. Unfortunately, they weren't actually blowing the sheets of water that they can do when it is a large swell out on the ocean, but we could hear it breathing (sounds like a whale, but even louder) and every now and then we were treated to a couple of plumes of spray jetting up.

These are the actual blowholes themselves.

On our way back we drove up to the National ANZAC Memorial Centre. As all of the first couple of convoys of soldiers in 1914 had their last sight of Australia at Albany it was an appropriate place to build it.

It is quite an emotional place to visit though.

We went back the next day to visit the centre itself and walk around the place and we were treated to a saddening experience, but a beautiful day.

On Thursday we thought we'd take a drive down to West Cape Howe NP as this holds the southern most point of WA and I like the idea of visiting all these points.

As you can see, it is a lovely coastal view with some great beaches.

The beach below is easy to access and some enterprising young bloke has a coffee van down there. We bought a couple of coffees to go with our sandwiches and sat in the shade of some huge gum trees, just watching the ocean. 

We left there and continued on down to the southern most point and this pic is of the beach near there. You can see the car park and some people fishing on the beach - just beautiful. 

Below is the point itself.

The road in, and out, runs through an area of old forest that majors in karri trees.

That was the last thing we did at Albany though - the next day we were off to Denmark to check out their tall trees etc.