Ctrl X-Ctrl V and move on: Part 1

Becky was the most sad to leave the apartment in Perth, as she has reached her tent limit and the rainy weather wasn’t helping. Normally at this point we have plotted out a route we wished to take, and highlighted things we want to see, but the car troubles and terrible weather had distracted us. Luckily, a few weeks earlier, our friends and regular commenters, Ric and Lorelle had been on a three-week holiday around this area and, at our request, sent us an outline of their itinerary. We decided to pretty much copy-paste that, but do it much faster as it was fucking cold in a tent. Although I don’t think they intended their helpful e-mail as a checklist of things for us to do, that’s how we used it. So here is an abridged version of Ric and Lorelle’s holiday on amphetamines. 

Rather than wasting energy on writing everything fresh (plus I have fallen behind somewhat on the blog and this is an easy way to catch up), I’ll go through Ric and Lorelle’s (R&L) list and check it off with comments and pictures.

Margaret River Area

We headed straight from Perth to Yallingup where we stayed 2 nights at the Yallingup Beach Holiday Park, which was small but was a good location.

We also headed straight for Yallingup, but didn’t stay as we were on a mission to get this region done ASAP.

We loved walking along the beaches south from the caravan park. (Didn't have time to walk north) We also had a lovely time exploring the gorgeous beaches around Bunker Bay and the Meelup Regional Park. We did a nice walk from Meelup Beach to Castle Rock Beach. Take your togs! And a picnic. There is a walking track from Dunsborough to Meelup Beach so anywhere you rock up along here, you can go for a little stroll. We also had a bit of a walk around the Cape Naturaliste lighthouse too. Canal rocks just south of Yallingup are also worth seeing and rock hopping over.

We visited most of these places and took photos to prove we were there. We certainly didn’t take togs, as it was too cold and windy to be out of trousers, but I did put my hand in the water. We weren’t there long enough for a picnic and only walked 20-30 metres from the car. It was an amazingly beautiful place, and it was well worth a visit, but as I think I have mentioned, it was fucking cold. We do want to come back, but next time it’ll either be during Jan-Feb when it is hot and dry, or maybe wait until after global warming has worked its magic.

BLUE SKY

But still cold

I touched the water, that counts

Pretend you're warm

Done pretending

We didn’t camp or stay in any of the places R&L mentioned, mainly as our turbo approach often meant we were in a different spot. The first night we spent at Glenbrook campground, just outside Margaret River. It was a conservation area, and was a really nice campground, it was just a shame it rained and was cold. There were lots of nice kangies about, and the rain held off long enough in the morning to get some shots.

It looks perfect

And it kind of was

but you can't feel cold from a picture

The many caves around the Margaret River area are meant to be great but we decided we weren't cave people this holiday and gave them a miss. I think Lake Cave and Jewel Cave might be the best.

If it’s not good enough for R&L, then it ain’t good enough for us. But seriously, we love a good cave, but we were on some sort of penny-pinching vibe after Perth and didn’t want to spend more money in WA parks. And besides the brochures didn’t look any better than Naracoorte Caves in SA, and we’ve been there, done that.

This part of our holiday was quite wet and cold so it affected where we camped and what we did a bit.

It was wet and cold almost everyday we were there, which wasn’t long, but long enough. After a week of shitty weather in Perth, we were longing for the sunshine. Hence why we smashed this out so fast.

…we didn't drive the Boranup drive through the Karri trees as we were going through our gravel avoidance stage,  but we wished we had.

We did, and it was nice but I think you would have seen as much from the main road anyway. I think one of the best views of the forest was from the road leading up to the turn off. So R&L you don’t need to regret it too much.

We went off script with this nice little drive

We went for a very fun rock hop on the coast walking north from the Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse. Great boulders to climb and beautiful wild coast. We wandered around the grounds of the lighthouse but didnt bother with a tour. We heard the fish and chips shop at Augusta had won some award so we went there for dinner and it was quite yum.

We stopped in Augusta for the fish and chips, only to find there were THREE fish and chip shops. Becky googled “award winning fish and chips augusta”, and we took the first one on the list, we have no idea if it was the same one, but it did taste very, very nice. At the lighthouse we didn’t want to pay the $8 entry fee, so took a photo from the gates and entertained ourselves for free, and even tried rock hopping… literally.

Deserves every award

Taking R&L's rock hopping too literally

As close as we could get for free

I'd look good with a comb-over

Southern Forests

There are so many National parks around the Pemberton and Walpole area that it got a bit confusing and we couldn't decide what to do, not helped by rainy weather.

There were loads and all sounded great, so as we were just copying R&L’s holiday we also got confused in the rainy weather.

We were originally keen to camp in one of the forests around Pemberton but we ended up heading to Walpole for the night...but not before we stopped in Pemberton to visit the Gloucester Tree, which you can climb....and so Ric did it, and reckoned it was a highlight. And Tom if you want to avoid some serious one-upmanship I suggest you climb it if you are in the vicinity...  Lorelle contented herself with a lovely stroll on firm ground through the Karri Forest. This feat is bolstered by the fact that it is the second highest fire lookout tree in the world.

I did the Gloucester tree, but as we were doing R&L’s holiday on fast-forward, I like to think I scaled it quicker than Ric too. At the top, two kids who’d started just before me (despite Becky loudly proclaiming at the bottom that children weren’t suppose to climb it) were talking about how it was much smaller than the other one. I later found out that the largest fire tree in the World, DaveEvans Bicentennial, is just down the road, like 10 km away… and at 65m is 12 metres higher. Had I known this I would have climbed this instead and conclusively won the contest over Ric!  

Don't look down... Ric wasn't scared, so nor can you be.

Where's Baldy

It was getting late at this point, so we decided to stop over at a campsite just outside of Northcliffe called Sid’s place. This turned out to be one of our favourite campsites of the trip so far. It was owned by a retiree, who charged $5pp ($10 for a powered site), and had set up a great place, on a beautiful bit of land as his hobby. The bird life and amenities were fantastic. If the weather had been 10 degrees warmer, I think we would have stayed here for much longer and spent our days exploring the many surrounding national parks. But we didn’t as it was fucking cold, and wasn’t likely to warm up until December. Besides, R&L didn’t do it.

Shitter and a shower

The next day we walked up Mt Frankland north of Walpole, which had great views from the top and then did the Valley of the Giants Treetop walk, which is all about the Tingle Trees.  We loved the Tingle trees so the fee was worth it for us. I think the walk on the ground is free.

For our next day, we drove towards Walpole, doing half the Great Forest Trees drive in Shannon NP and via Mt Frankland on the way. You can probably guess that, as we weren’t even willing to pay $8 each to see a lighthouse, we were unlikely to splurge on a treetop walk, no matter how tempting. We did walk among the giant tingle trees in Walpole-Nornalup NP, and they were very spectacular. 

More trees

Lots of rain means fast flowing waterfalls

Lovely lookout

Where's Baldy, two

Where's Baldy, three

Denmark

We loved the Green Pool and strolling along that beach, checking out Elephant Cove and Lights Beach.

At West Cape Howe NP we visited Shelley Beach but couldn't see anything else as it was 4WD only.

We also enjoyed this area, although we didn’t stroll much. The weather looked moody and we drove to all the sights. Under normal circumstances I think we would have visited West Cape Howe NP, but Becky was still feeling nervous about the car and didn’t want us testing it under rougher conditions just yet. Besides it was getting late so we headed for Albany.

Squint and you'll see a herd of elephants

Not an elephant

Feet wet

Waterfall on a beach

After two cold nights in a tent, we booked into a motel for the night. It was a bit of a highlight, and I enjoyed some delicious Margaret River red wine and we ate some Chinese food.

A new type of camping... indoors

The next part of our interpretation of R&L’s holiday to come soon… once I have written it.