Tracey & Bernie Gaffney

Trabern

Tracey & Bernie Gaffney

Tracey and I love to travel, but when at home, Golden Retrievers rule.



Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Dunsborough March 18th 2024

This morning, we drove back up to Busselton to visit the iconic Busselton Jetty. Stretching 1.841 kilometres into Geographe Bay it is the longest timber piled jetty in the Southern Hemisphere. Built in 1865 and extended several times the jetty played an important role in the early years of European settlement allowing ships to make port in Busselton to transport the grain, livestock and timber grown, raised and felled in the surrounding districts. Geographe Bay also became recognized as a bountiful source of whales and American whalers called regularly at the port. The jetty was used commercially for more than a century and serviced 5,000 vessels over that time. When the port officially closed in 1973 all shipping ceased, and government maintenance was withdrawn. In 1978 Cyclone Alby wreaked havoc on the jetty and it was ... read more
Busslton Pool
On the way out
Going down

Oceania » Australia March 17th 2024

Last night while we were out playing cards our Librarian/Researcher actually read one of the brochures we picked up somewhere along the way and noted that there is a National Trust property that we can visit today. As luck would have it, it is open Thursday to Sunday, and they run a tour on Sundays. Fortuitous indeed that Cathy advised us of this discovery about 8.00am this morning leaving us ample time to get organised to drive back down to Mokidup to join the 10.30am tour. Ellensbrook tells that story of the Wadandi people, the Bussel family and others who called the homestead home. Originally the summer camping spot for the Wadandi people it was a Wadandi guide who led Alfred Bussel to this sheltered valley with a permanent spring in 1857. Alfred and Ellen Bussel ... read more
Paperbark insulation
Ellensbrook
Ellensbrook

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Dunsborough March 16th 2024

This morning, we drove out to the other lighthouse on this ‘horny’ bit of south-western WA, the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse. When we checked opening times last night, we discovered that the lighthouse is currently closed for maintenance and that we would not be able to do the lighthouse tour. That was disappointing! But before we drove out the Cape Naturaliste Road, we pulled in at the beach almost opposite where we are staying (a few streets back from the beach) to check it out for possible swimming. It’s a bit confronting when you are walking onto the beach and there is a ‘Shark Watch’ sign on which can be recorded the date and time of the last shark sighting. Most shark attacks are in SA and here in WA after all. For the record there was ... read more
Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse
Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse
Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia March 15th 2024

Our first destination this morning was Eagles Heritage established in 1988 to meet an overwhelming need to protect and conserve birds of prey. The centre aims to educate the public and rehabilitate sick, injured and orphaned raptors. Millions of Wedge-tailed eagles were killed in Australia between 1920 and 1973, many because farmers blamed them for killing their newborn lambs. In fact, less than one percent of lambs eaten by Wedge-tailed eagles are alive when preyed upon, most are already dead or dying. So, they rarely, if ever, kill lambs BUT a pair of Wedge-tailed eagles can kill over 800 rabbits each and can help keep feral cat and fox populations down. Hundreds of birds of prey are still shot and killed each year in Australia with 99 percent dead before they are three years old. With ... read more
Black Breasted Buzzard
Barking Owls (Twisty & Woofer)
Osprey

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Augusta March 14th 2024

Our first stop today was at Jewell Cave arriving just in time to pay our $22.50/head to book onto the 9.30am tour. Jewell Cave is the largest show cave in Western Australia with lofty, cathedral-like proportions. Our guide, Georgia, led us through the cave’s three vast caverns pointing out the huge stalactites, flowstone and shawls adorning the caverns. She showed us the original entry to the cave which was discovered relatively recently in January 1957. The original explorers slithered down a twelve-metre, narrow hole in the earth suspended on the end of a rope! Wanting to share the cave with visitors unable, or just disinclined, to enter via a rope, efforts were then started to raise funds to make the cave accessible. At the end of 1958 the Government agreed to provide $10,000. With nine Augusta ... read more
Jewel Cave
Jewel Cave
Jewel Cave

Oceania » Australia March 13th 2024

This morning, we headed off on the Vasse Highway heading north-westerly through the tracts of national park we explored yesterday before the highway started heading in a more northerly direction. We turned west onto Stewart Road which proved to be a magnificent section of road linking the Vasse and Brockman Highways. Soon after turning off, we were amused to see on the map Pneumonia Road which takes you to the Snottigobble Loop. We didn’t take the time to explore that option! We continued to enjoy being surrounded by the trees in the Milyeannup National Park on our right and the Hilliger National Park on our left. Upon reaching the Brockman Highway we were driving alongside the Blackwood River National Park. There are so many national parks scattered through this southern part of Western Australia but interspersed ... read more
Southern and Indian Ocean meeting
View from the lighthouse
Lighthouse Lamp

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Pemberton March 12th 2024

This morning, we had a later start as we had decided that we would do the 10.30am Pemberton Tramway ride out to The Cascades. Bernie has been wanting his hair cut for the last few days, so our leisurely start today provided the perfect opportunity. He put his boxers on and went outside to sit on one of the outdoor chairs on our small verandah at the back of our room. Tracey proceeded to execute the No. 1 clipper cut on his head and the No. 2 clipper cut on his beard. All of this under the beady eye of the motel’s resident kookaburra. Luckily the kookaburra didn’t laugh at the old bloke having his hair clippered out on the verandah!! After breakfast we headed down to the Pemberton Tramway. We hadn’t booked ahead online but ... read more
Kooka
Pemberton Station
Pemberton Tramway

Oceania March 11th 2024

It was very quiet at the motel overnight and no hogs waking us this morning! It would seem that they do the bulk of their business over the weekends as there were only three guest vehicles in the car park overnight and our party of four accounted for two of those. After packing up all our gear again, we returned to the bakery to buy some morning tea and lunch supplies. They didn’t have quite as many sandwiches to choose from this morning and, when it came to the cakes, tragedy, the refrigerated display cabinet was playing up and it had frozen the vanilla slices!! The proprietor did not want to sell spoiled stock, but Bernie insisted that it would be fine as he didn’t want to eat it straight away and it would thaw out ... read more
Tea Pot tree
Mount Clare
Mount Clare

Oceania » Australia March 10th 2024

Gosh a bit of everything today. Beach, Giant Tree, Tree Top Walk, Art Trail and a mountain! We didn’t hear a peep out of the bikers overnight but come 7.00am they were warming up the hogs and it was noisy. We suspect one rider was having a little trouble with his bike as there was ignition, a lot of revving, then off and, upon peeking out the window, there were half a dozen of the bikers clustered around the one bike. Eventually a large contingent thundered off like the horsemen of the apocalypse, leaving us to appreciate the silence as we started making ready for the day! We started out down at the Walpole Visitor Centre once again to take advantage of the local knowledge. We said we were on our way to the Valley of ... read more
View from Knoll Drive
Shags
Channel Viewpoint

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia March 9th 2024

This morning it was time to bid farewell to the delightful Lottie’s Cottage in Albany. We really enjoyed our stay here in a beautiful house in an idyllic garden setting. As an added bonus we had access to a compost bin so didn’t have to feel guilty about how we were going to dispose of fruit and vegetable waste. For someone accustomed to worm farming this was a welcome feature of our stay! It was also very handy to be able to launder some clothing while we were in Albany for four nights. We drove the scenic route to Denmark on the Lower Denmark Road through Elleker, Torbay and Youngs Siding rather than taking the South Coast Highway. The road was fantastic and signposted at 110/kph so better than some of the sections of actual highway ... read more
Harewood Forest
Harewood Forest
Harewood Forest




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