Good Evening All :-)
From Freo we hooked up and travelled down to the Margaret River region for some surf, wine and gourmet produce.
We stayed at Yallingup Caravan Park = Best location. Right on the beach with some of the best views!
This is the view from the FREE BBQ's - Not bad for whoever is cooking the meat!. We would hang out here and sip on a veno or two.
We decided to base ourselves here as Margaret River the town is not on the beach and a lot of the wineries and more importantly cellar doors are on Caves Rd heading toward Margaret River.
Jack trying out his model pose at 3 Bears surf break
A pick of the 2 of us! Gosh we really do look to be in holiday mode.....
Whilst in Margret river we went to Vasse Felix winery purchased some red! Kiss chasey and swings and roundabouts winery. I really wanted to go to Xanadu but it was closed for a private Harley Davidson bikey convention!!!!! Must be trying to change their image?
Gee it is nice to drink red wine again. It has been pretty cool at night and even a couple of nights of light drizzle rain, so we are really enjoying some Vasse Felix theater red at the moment. We went halves in a case with our friends xx
Smiths Beach, literally around the corner from Yallingup beach.
Just a quick plug for a dear Darwin friend Megan and her Family
You should check these villa's out. They are in an awesome spot only a quick hop skip and jump from the beach. Really Meg's I don't know why you don't live down this way permanently.
Sophie being cute on Yall beach
Too handsome young Jack xx
Another view from the caravan park @ Yallingup
From Yallingup we drove a little south to Hamelin Bay. The day we left was when the prescribed burn was issued for the Leeuwin National Park between Gracetown and Prevally beach.
We noticed a plume of smoke as we were driving down caves road, but did not really think to much of it as the day was calm and not much wind but the forecast for the next 2 days was Temperatures of 35 degrees with big winds! Go figure.....
Anyway it looks like the DEC is in a world of worry now and many people have lost their homes, thankfully no lives where lost. There is so much fuel around this SW corner that I think it could happen just about anywhere with not much help.
Hamelin bay was ok but we have stayed in better spots and I sort of wish we had stayed in Augusta. It is a pretty little town on the surface and I think it might be underselling itself!
Below is the lighthouse at Augusta, we did not go in as kids under 5 are not allowed to climb and they wanted to charge us $20 each to go have a look! I like a lighthouse but.....
From Hamelin Bay we turned left and headed in land a little to the town of Pemberton and the Gloucester tree.
These huge Karri Trees were used for Fire lookouts. There are metal rungs all the way to the top I think this one is around 60 metres tall.
Jack desperately wanted to climb it, and tried and would have kept going but we stopped him. Paul was worried he would get vertigo. I am just too unfit and well Sophie nearly fell through trying to get up the first step!
Pretty bird at the lookout
From Pemberton we drove a short distance to Walpole and camped the night got up and drove on to the Valley of the giants tree top walk between Walpole and Denmark. I get the feeling Walpole and Denmark are fighting over ownership.
It was great fun.
Very high up!
Don't look down!
Within the same precinct is the Ancient Empire walk, which is a combination of Karri and Tingle tree's
This was really good as well
Karri Tree
Some of the Tingle Trees are over 400yrs old
They all have very shallow root systems and are hollow!
When we got to Denmark there was a fire about 14km's NE of the township in a national park. Yep from another prescribed burn this was 24hrs after the Margaret River fire.
These photo's where taken from the Ocean Beach Inlet. It was a really hot day and we went down here to cool of in the most crystal blue water hmmmm
Denmark is a great little town. We preferred Denmark than Albany, but the day we went to Albany it was raining and a bit miserable. We have stayed in Denmark for 4 days. There is a lot to do just out of Denmark visiting beaches, wineries, and toffee makers yummo.
We stayed at a Big4 Caravan park at Ocean beach just a short distance from the township but very close to the beach and the park has had some serious renovations. All the sites are grassy and most are shady. Very clean with brand new amenities and camp kitchen. Highly recommend
Greens pool
Greens Pool this was a popular spot on the day of the fire and the following day as the schools had been cancelled there were kids everywhere here.
So this next bit of info is for those considering travelling to the SW Corner around Denmark!
Parry's Beach! I really wish we had stayed here - see below
This is a quiet little camp with solar hot water showers, no power and I am not sure about fresh water. But it is cheap.. $7 a night and you are right on a beach which does get surf. You can drive on the beach, have camp fires! Anyway we found it too late as we are leaving tomorrow and our motto is that we don't go backwards
This is the caretakers house at Parry beach. Supposedly he does not get paid to caretake the campground but he gets free lodgings in this very quaint, humble cottage
Parry Beach = pretty nice and isolated, just what we like xx
We leave tomorrow heading toward Bremer Bay for a couple of days and then onto Esperence. We have heard that Cape Le Grand is a must not only from our old Darwin neighbours (John and Di Scott) but also many other travellers. I only hope the weather improves a little so we can really enjoy it. Keep you posted xx
Loving the detail in your posts! Will help us to plan our trip next year! How are the kids finding the traveling? Ours love seeing the photos of Jack and Sophie! Cheers Tracy
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