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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 When the port officially closed in 1973 all shipping ceased, and government maintenance was withdrawn.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 » 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 » 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 » 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

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia » Albany March 8th 2024

It was warm overnight, still warm this morning and continuing to warm up as we were getting ready to head down into town to see some of the sights closer to ‘home’. Since it was warm, and we were going to be in town rather than bush walking the gals put on their summer dresses. Our first stop was at the Visitor Information Centre to make sure they didn’t have anything else to add to our list for today! We were also after a map like our Esperance to Albany map that would take us from Walpole to the west coast. Unfortunately, they didn’t have anything like that in the series, but we did pick up the Dunsborough and Busselton street maps. It was very warm but howling a gale as we walked down to the ... read more
St John's
St John's
Silo Art

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia March 7th 2024

Another day, another national park. This morning, we headed into our fifth park, Torndirrup National Park, which is situated just 11 kilometres outside Albany. We had looked last night at the website and learnt that the access road to Bald Head is currently closed. That’s OK the Bald Head Walk Trail is a Class 4 bush walk that is 12.5 kilometres long. That would take all day so happy to give that one a miss. Shame not to be able to drive to the trail head to see what the view is like there, but if it’s closed, it’s closed. Instead, we set the SatNav for Stony Hill where we completed a short circuit walk with fabulous views. We then drove the short distance to the trail head for Peak Head Track. This is also a ... read more
Stony Hill
Stony Hill
Looking towards Albany

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia March 5th 2024

There has been so much discussion about the route we should take between Hopetoun and Albany. The notes on our original itinerary stated: ‘Drive to Albany via (Bremer Bay +120km), Cape Riche, Cheyne Beach and Gull Rock NP’. However, the staff at the Visitor Centre in Esperance advised against this route taking the South Coast Highway declaring it boring and recommending the Chester Pass Road through Stirling NP. Then one of Cathy’s friends extolled the virtues of the Killer Whale experience out of Bremer Bay. We looked that up and baulked at the price … and the amount of time that we would be out on a boat in the Southern Ocean. OK, we don’t feel compelled to go that way just for the Orca spotting potential. Yesterday, we mentioned to our friendly Community Paramedic, Gareth, ... read more
Farm Art
Farm Art
Farm Art

Oceania » Australia » Western Australia March 4th 2024

It turns out that if you are in the big bedroom at the Harbour Masters Quarters you can hear the bakers start work at 4.00am in the morning. However, that early start meant that the bread rolls were baked and ready for us to have fresh salad rolls made up at 8.00am before we set out to the national park! Finally, the weather was kind to us on the day we visited Fitzgerald River National Park with blue sky and sunshine all the way! We drove into the park along Hammersley Drive making our first stop at Culham Beach which is adjacent to Culham Inlet the land-locked estuary into which the Steere and Phillip Rivers drain. The views towards East Barren Mountain and Sepulcralis Hill were outstanding. After entering the park our first stop was down ... read more
Barrens Beach
Barrens Lookout
Sepulcralis Hill




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