TREES AND CLIFFS. Margaret River to Albany

Days 294 to 300

Our first stop after Margaret River was Pemberton.


Here we did the local tram tour through towering Karri and Marri forests. We stopped off to view the Cascades.

We also did the Karri Forest Explorer Drive.

We passed Big Brook Dam which is the water supply for Pemberton. The drive would not be complete without the requisite winery! Silkwood Winery was our choice and here we had a tasting platter complete with smoked trout from the local area. Very nice but not something I would choose to have again – bones!

Beedelup Falls was a highlight of this drive.
It drops for over 100m over a series of steep granite rocks.

We followed the Warren River
along the fire trail and viewed the Bicentennial Tree (one of three trees that can be climbed by the public).
Sheena had memories of climbing the Gloucester Tree in the 70s but chickened out on the climb this time!

We did the drive to the coast to Windy Harbour. It is an old fishing village complete with no real roads and holiday cottages. We got lost!

In the nearby National Park we did a coastal scenery drive – with lots of spectacular cliffs!


We moved on from Pemberton to The Valley Of The Giants near Walpole. We did the Tree Top Walk in the Valley of the Giants just outside Nornalup. The walk trail is suspended 38 metres above the forest floor! You can really appreciate the size of these towering trees!

We moved on and visited Elephant Rocks near Denmark.

They are huge granite boulders resting in the water that are very aptly named! The coast around this area is beautiful!

Albany was our next stop and we stayed a week. we made use of the time doing maintenance on the van – Peter was clever! Water pressure fixed, Aussie Traveller fixed!

Albany has a lot to do. We visited The Natural Bridge,

The Gap, The Blowhole (not blowing!) all in Torndirrup National Park just outside town. This area is the remains of an ancient mountain range.

We also visited a distillery (served a quite nice whiskey liqueur) and a couple of wineries (with wine purchased of course!).

Albany is situated at the base of two hills, both of which offer fantastic views.


One is the location of a major museum display which showcases the fortress that was built on the site and opened in 1893 to guard King George Sound.

Albany is home to Whale World which is on the site of Australia’s last whaling station.

Whaler


We were taken through the journey of Australian whaling and memories resurfaced of the Anti Whaling protests of the 70s!! The 3D animated whale movie was a highlight, as was the Giants of the Sea skeletal exhibit.




Did I mention the beautiful coastline that is found in this area of West Australia?

From Perth to Margaret River!

Days 281 to 293.

Our first stop after Perth was Mandurah. The main reason for this stop was The Cut golf course!! What a great course – even though Peter again complained about the occasional unsighted shots we had to play we both agreed it was one of the best courses we have played (even though we lost our way during the game – we ended up playing the 18th twice!

Mandurah’s marina precinct is something else. It has been very well designed and is dotted with cafes, restaurants and boardwalks.

We used Mandurah as a base to see the surrounding area. Harvey is the centre of an agricultural region. We did some historical stuff, did the obligatory Harvey Cheese tasting (yum), and visited the first of many wineries.

Did I mention the chocolate factory we visited in Mandurah?

Just down the road we went to see the thromolites (a close cousin of the stromatolites we saw at Hamelin Bay).

The Serpentine Falls National Park is another spot we visited!

Busselton was our next stop. Lots to do here as it was the beginning of the Margaret River wine region.

Our visit was made up of lots of wine tasting, some olive tastings, a lighthouse tour, caves and whale watching!!!

A typical day involved cheese, yoghurt, wine, nougat, chocolate AND chocolate liqueur!!(yum!).

A highlight was the Busselton Jetty.
(We travelled by train along the 1.8km wooden pier to an underwater observatory at the end! and…. we did this with Roger and Sue Macgibbon from Port Macquarie who we ‘bumped into’ as we were about to purchase our tickets!!! Talk about a small world.

The beginning of Sheena’s tree fascination began here with our attempt to find the Tuart trees. The world’s only tall Tuarts (a eucalyptus) grow in this area. They can grow to 40m tall!

We played golf at Dunsborough Lakes Golf Course. It had some great holes including the 18th! It jumps up on you. There is a water carry off the tee, then…… another unseen water carry into the green. It is rated index 1 and was definitely the hardest hole on the course!

The caves in the area were great to visit! The Yallingup Cave was spectacular and the Lakes Cave with its 300+ steps and the reflections in its underground lake was amazing! We had a tour of 2!!! Very personalized.






We stayed a couple of nights at Margaret River and did a drive to the coast. We saw great beaches but NO waves in site.
A special winery visit was the Windance winery. It is owned by Drew who we played golf with. It had great wines and of course $ were spent.

We visited Margaret River Venison and indulged -our freezer became quite full!

We drove to Cape Leeuwen Lighthouse. It is the SW most point in Australia.

The Indian and Southern Oceans meet here.

Perth and Peter’s 60th

Days 255 to 280

Perth is a great city – very easy to get around. We stayed at a caravan park that had a bus stop outside – so……. onto the bus, 10 minutes to a train station, then we were in the city. Once there there are free buses that get you most places you would want to go.

A highlight of the city was Kings Park.

Tree top walk Kings Park

A wildflower spectacular was on when we were there.
All the wildflowers we had seen while on our trip were there plus many more! The park is also home to the WA Botanic Gardens which includes a treetop walk and spectacular views of Perth. <a A great afternoon!

The Perth coastline is amazing – with a scenic drive along the beachfront. Hillarys Boat Harbour is the home of the Aquarium of WA, Australia’s largest aquarium and underwater tunnel. A great place to visit! We also had our first experience of a Sushi Train Restaurant there. Something we will definitely be doing again.

Perth is centred around the Swan River and a visit is not complete with a River cruise. We combined it with wine tasting by doing the Swan Valley Wine Cruise!! This included visits to lots of wineries, beer tasting, cheeses AND chocolate!!!

We Began celebrating Peter’s 60th early with a lunch at Fremantle with Toni and Tony – at The Mussel Bar on the water!!!! The day was perfect! Fremantle on a sunny weekend is one of the places to be in the Perth area.

The birthday continued with Will flying in from Sydney. We had 3 nights in an apartment overlooking Scarborough Beach. Great location, great views!
A highlight was a V8 drive at Barbagello Raceway!!!! Peter and William both drove a race car (with a race driver in the passenger seat coaching them!). Sheena did 3 laps around the circuit as a passenger – hair raising! An experience we all want to do again.

Beer tasting was on our agenda as well – we visited the James Squire Brewery in Perth and the Little Creatures Brewery at Fremantle Harbour. At Little Creatures Sheena loved all of them! Most unusual?!

Will gave Sheena a bunker lesson at Burswood Golf Course. Hopefully it means the bunker play will improve – Good shots were being hit during the lesson. Will also helped Pete out with his driver swing. We are very proud of our young man – if he decides to be a teaching pro he will be an excellent one.

Perth is a golfer’s paradise – everywhere you go there is another immaculate looking course! Burswood is on the Swan River with dramatic views of the city skyline.

We played Sun City, Joondalup and Araluen. All are fantastic courses and are very different from each other.
Sun City is north of Perth and the course borders a national park and undulates its way through fantastic country side which abounds with native flora and fauna.

Sun City Fauna

The design demands a lot from the golfer with many long par 4’s, heavily undulating fairways, long and blind tee shots, big elevation, changes, double dog legs and slick greens. We were lucky enough to play in a competition there with a couple of members so got good directions as to where to hit off each tee.

We played at Joondalup GC with Will. What a great course!!! We all agreed it is spectacular and sublimely manicured. Built on a hilly site, part of which was a disused limestone quarry, the course is routed past and over rocky ravines, bordered by lush bushland and affording frequent sweeping vistas of the surrounding countryside and suburbs. The signature hole is called “The Moon Crater” and the photo shows why. Every hole was impressive with another challenge thrown at the golfer playing!
Araluen is a challenging 18 holes east of Perth in the hills bordered by state forest and the Canning River. It features large undulating greens, testing changes of elevation and strategically placed water hazards and bunkers. Sheena loved the course but Peter was not impressed with the large number of blind shots we had to play. It is a course that you need to play more than once!

We had our van serviced in Perth and the roof checked. A little resealing got done and guess what! On our last day in Perth we had rain and wind and NO LEAK!!!

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