Southwest WA (1-14 September)

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We headed out of Perth with our hired Cavalier Camper Trailer in tow. It went well and made life easier, especially when the weather turned foul, which happened a lot!

Our first stop turned out to be Wellington National Park near Collie, where we stayed for two nights (first night was on our own) and allowed us to have a camp fire for warmth and a barbecue plus scones in the camp oven. It was also a great place to get used to setting up the camp site with the camper trailer. We also did a 10km walk.

On Wednesday we headed south again and by chance came across 'Gnomeville', a gnome hamlet situated at the roundabout in Wellington Mill. We must have spent at least an hour looking at all the gnomes and their inscriptions. We stopped for lunch in Bridgetown before making our way to Fonty's Pool near Manjimup for another two nights. While here we made trips to 'One Tree Bridge', 'Four Aces', 'Timber and Heritage Park' and the 500+ year old 'King Jarrah' tree. However, Thomas especially enjoyed climbing the 'Diamond Tree', one of three climbable Karri trees in the southern forests of WA. Apparently, the top of this 51m karri tree (platform at 46m) has the only wooden treetop tower in the world.

After Fonty's Pool, we headed across to the Stirling Ranges and camped at Moingup Springs. The awning and annexe on the camper came in handy here as showers came through quite a bit. The next day we climbed Bluff Knoll (1073m). Although it didn't rain and wasn't covered over in cloud, it was very cold and windy at the top, but the view was great. We also visited 'The Lily', an authentic five story 16th century replica Dutch Windmill. The next day, Father's Day, Thomas and Mark headed off early to climb Mt Trio while the girls packed up the camp site. We headed down to Porongurup Range and did the Hayward & Nancy Peak circuit plus the walk to Devil's Slide. Afterwards we drove to Albany and stayed for two nights at Happy Days caravan park. While in Albany we visited Whale World, the Blowholes, the Gap, Natural Bridge and Dog Rock.

From Albany we headed west along the coast, stopping at the Denmark visitor centre to see the Bert Bolle barometer, the world's largest water barometer. Thomas reckons he must have run up and down the stairs about “17 times”. We stopped off at Ocean Beach and drove along the sand to check how the camper trailer went on fairly soft sand (it was within the Landcruiser's track, which was good). As for the whole trip, the 'cruiser hardly noticed that the relatively light camper trailer was there. We then visited the Dinosaur and Wildlife Park, Bartholomews Meadery where we purchased some Karri and Native honey, and then did the Valley of the Giants Treetop Walk. We camped that night at Centre Road Crossing on the Deep River, 20km west of Walpole.

The next morning we stopped to look at Fernhook Falls (which had a very flash DEC camp ground), then continued on to Warren National Park where Thomas and Mark climbed the 'Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree', which was pegged in 1988 as part of Australia's bicentennial celebrations. At about 70m tall, it is the tallest fire lookout tower in the world. We had planned to camp at Warren NP, however the wet and muddy conditions made us decide to camp on the grass at Pemberton caravan park, where the kids enjoyed feeding bird seed to the twenty-eight parrots.

The next day Thomas and Mark climbed the popular, 60m tall, 'Gloucester Tree', thus completing the trio of climbing trees.

We then drove to Augusta and Cape Leeuwin where we were thinking of staying for a night or two. We were really disappointed to discover we were required to pay a substantial entry fee even to walk out to the cape, which we didn't have to last time we visited. So we took a photo from a distance, gave Augusta a miss and headed up to Margaret River. Here we stayed at Taunton Farm, located just north of Cowaramup, where Annelies and Thomas enjoyed feeding the farm animals, including two cows named Porterhouse and T-bone! It was centrally located so we decided to spend the rest of our SW WA trip here (4 nights) and make it our base.

Some of the places we visited were the Candy Cow where we saw 'honeycrunch' being made, Margaret River Chocolate Factory (anyone who knows Alex will know that this was a must), Margaret River Dairy Company, Olio Bello Olive Oil, Xanadu Winery, Cowaramup markets, as well as visiting Dunsborough, Yallingup, Canal Rocks, Gracetown, Prevelly Park, and strolling down the main street of Margaret River. We also went to Bunkers Bay, which had the only decent surf we saw due to the prevailing gale-force west-southwesterlies, and then to Cape Naturaliste only to discover that this also requires an entrance fee. So Thomas and Mark did the walking track around the cape hoping to spot migrating whales, but with no luck.

Probably the highlights of the Margaret River region were visiting Jewel Cave and the Yallingup Shearing Shed, the latter being a working sheep farm where we saw sheep being herded by a Border Collie and Kelpie and a sheep being sheared. Thomas and Annelies helped out and also fed the lambs.

It was a great two week trip around the southwest of WA despite the inclement weather. We successfully tested a camper trailer, saw lots, ate (and drank) well and Thomas proudly provides everyone with full details of his tree climbing achievements.

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Photos

Top of Bluff Knoll
Brrrrr!