Blogs from Denmark, Western Australia, Australia, Oceania

Limping into Pemberton after walking 110km in five days on a left foot sporting multiple injuries, I was finally able to call a halt to proceedings to give my foot the time it needed to heal. And if this decision was initially cause for disappointment - understandable given that the prior section of the Bibbulmun Track had been my favourite so far, with a number of friends made along the way - then this soon dissipated once I saw the forecast for the coming week: seven days' worth of rain! But with the only budget accommodation in Pemberton consisting of a single dorm room at the local backpackers hostel - left open solely for the benefit of Bibbulmun Track walkers - I decided to take the coach a couple of hours southeast to the coastal town ... read more

Day 4 West Cape Howe to Denmark via Nullaki 27.1km Treated to a very pretty sky leaving WCH. I'm on a mission today as Geoff is going to meet me somewhere near Pelican Point to provide a ride into Denmark. Having a scheduled meeting always adds a little bit of stress to a days hiking, especially with our track record of getting lost, having no signal, not actually talking about the same place to meet despite both thinking it is the same place, etc, etc, etc. I also hate making time commitments as I tend not to plan how long 17km will take me to walk, to remedy this I generally give a time adding about 2 hours more than I calculate my speed to be- removes the angst... a bit. The trail from WCH to ... read more

Day 46 - 52 Walpole to Denmark (Semi-amusing cut and paste from my Facebook page version; long winded day-by-day version follows below plus lots and lots of photos) Walpole to Denmark via Peaceful Bay, aka Section 7 and a bit (of 8- eek), encompassing the karri, sheoak and giant tingle forests, the Frankland River, Conspicuous Cliffs, scaling and falling off Mt Hallowell, various inlets (open and closed creating another long track diversion), whales (!!!!), 74 kangaroos in 1 day, 100 000 sand hills (mostly going uphill), pristine white beaches and kilometre after kilometre after kilometre of rugged coastline. And 1 snake. Quite a different experience on this part of my trek, mainly due to one factor- my trekking party has doubled - one of my oldest and dearest friends, @Meg Pike, has joined me. And... at ... read more

….. its nearly the end of yet another year in human counting terms. Time is a strange thing indeed. Sometimes there seems oodles of it other times it appears like the seconds just run through our fingers at an amazing pace. But here we are looking back and looking forward and most importantly being right here, right now. Whilst travelling we have been bombarded with beauty and surprises continuously. The senses get overstretched at times and it happens that we get a bit blaze, desensitised about another beautiful vista, another breathtaking sunset. So it's good to stop somewhere for a while and contemplate, say over a blueberry, get back to the small things in life and find appreciation within. Hence we are now working at a pleasant vineyard near the hamlet of Mt Barker. Biiig Vineyard ... read more

http://www.travelblog.org/Admin/Blog/gmap-entry.php?map_id=60524 With two of Joan’s sisters living on farms near Denmark it was time for a change from all tourist activities to some family time. Christine has lived in the Esperance/Denmark area for 30 plus years and Yvonne in the Denmark area for 12 years. We have seen them very little during this time so a visit from us was well overdue. Armed with a scanty map we tackled the gravel road in the rain to find Christine’s farm. Both Chris and Yvonne live 25 – 30 kms out of town. Finding their farms was an interesting challenge. Our map omitted Denmark so we had to make a sudden exit from the highway when we came across Parker Road much earlier than we had anticipated. Fortunately the roads were well marked as we had a number ... read more