Wine, Waves, Caves & Trees!

Saturday 25th April - Stayed at Frank Lipino Memorial rest area last night and on road early this morning. Heading towards Bunbury - did a U turn and took scenic route to Serpentine Dam - wonderful spot - nobody there except for us and lots of tame green parakeets. Bit further on came to a welcome café and viewing point. Very peaceful apart from lovely jazz music from café, Nat King Cole, Dave Brubeck etc. Took coastal route to Bunbury still very quiet bearing in mind that its Anzac Day (public holiday on Monday). Travelled through very dry stock country (still not a blade of grass to be seen). Arrived at Bunbury - long white beaches, some with basalt rocks. Also very busy port and harbour with strong Aboriginal links. Went and found our camping area for the night at Ironstone Gorge Falls.

Sunday 26th April - Sunny morning after a VERY cold night (must remember it’s now autumn over here). Moving on to next town today, Busselton. Turned off on dirt road towards Forest Beach for our lunch. White sands, aqua sea. A couple of 4x4’s on beach - beach fishing very popular. One family called us over to watch a large Stingray that had come in towards the shore. Had a quick sunbathe and then on to a Big4 campsite tonight to catch up on washing, hot showers etc.

Monday 27th April - Didn’t get away until 10.00 (made the most of all the facilities on the site!!). Popped into Dunsborough for shopping and to check out the beaches(!) before travelling down the Caves Road. Lots of wineries (vinyards) - about one every 400 metres. Called in at Vassa Felix which is SW Australia’s oldest winery which also had a fabulous art gallery and sculpture park. Had lunch and then took a side road down to Redgate Beach - cold wind but still sunny. This is a surfers paradise, huge waves, small bays and white sand. Back to the Caves Road (there must have been about a dozen caves down this road) and we turned into the Calgardup Cave - this was a self-guiding cave - no lights other than a hand torch and a helmet light. We climbed down 300metres of walkway and 27 metres deep underground Low headroom so had to crouch in places - wonderful stalactites and stalacmites plus flowstone. Lots of roots dangling from the roof of the cave from red-gum or Marri trees above. Fabulous especially as Tony and I were the only ones in the whole cave. Left the caves and drove through gorgeous Karri forest for our night’s stop at Sue’s Bridge campsite passing a whole herd of big reds (kangaroos). A wonderful day - wine, waves, caves and trees!!

Tuesday 28th April - Had a quick trip back to Busselton to walk along their famous Jetty. The far end of the jetty is an underwater observatory but sadly closed off for repair work! A really warm sunny day so decided to go and spend some time on Redgate Beach. Drove via Knee High Winery which we had seen yesterday - had a tasting and bought a bottle of red for tonight’s meal. Redgate beach was warm and beautiful so got our cossies on. Watched the surfers and spotted a pod of Dolphins not to far out - how much better can it get. Went right along to the end, climbed over some rocks and had our own ‘private’ little beach. Getting hot so into the sea and surf - huge waves with strong undertow but such good fun. Dried out sitting on the rocks - now the only people on the beach. Getting late so back to Sue’s Bridge for the night.

Wednesday 29th April - On to Pemberton to see the ‘climbing trees’ - these used to be used for fire lookouts and have iron steps around the tree all the way to the top. Came to Gloucester Tree first but quite a few people there so went on to the Bicentenial Tree which was 6Km down a very corrugated dirt track!! No-one there so Tony climbed up to the half-way point (40M high). Continued along dirt track to Nortchliffe, very old pioneer town and then onwards to Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk just outside Denmark. The treetop walk is 40M up in the forest canopy - so Lyn did well to manage that! Then took the Ancient Tree walk - WOW - these were fantastic Red Tingle Trees with huge trunks (some hollowed out by fire, insects etc) and big buttress root systems. They were truly magnificent. On to Parry Beach site for the night passing several wild emus en route.

Thursday 30th April - Lyn up early and took camera and trotted off to the beach - she is becoming a ‘David Bailey’ - will want a better camera soon!! Waited in bed for half an hour but she still hadn’t returned so got up and went to look for her! Another great beach with white sand, sand dunes and huge waves from the Southern Ocean. On the road towards Denmark and saw a sign off to the Greens Pool so followed this for 6Km towards the ocean. Wonderful sight, huge granite boulders stretching out into a turbulent sea. Climbed, walked over the boulders and round the headland more granite boulders and massive waves. Followed path down to a narrow opening between the boulders on to an isolated cove “Elephant Cove”. To reach the cove you had to time the waves coming in or your got soaked. Tony went first and got soaked, I followed after and made it! Stayed for a quite a while then back to the van. Our next stop is Albany - we need food, fuel, hot showers, laundry - so into another Big4 site for the night. Albany a lovely attractive town - tomorrow we hope to go 6K down the coast and see the Natural Bridge - watch this space!
Not sure if this got published or not so trying to publish again.

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