Bussleton 23rd - 27th April 2013

Bussleton

 

Rolled into Peppermint Park, a park recommended by Kel and Patty. Lovely park with very clean facilities, mini golf and a few other amenities and also close to Geographe Bay. It was very busy as it is schools holidays and we got the last 2 sites in the place.

Ken and Noela joined us in their hired motorhome with no awning and a few other issues, this motorhome has seen better days. Noela seemed very relaxed with the Motorhome, maybe this is the start of more adventures.

We sat around demonstrating happy hour and also showing that there is no reason why happy should only go for an hour.

The next day we were Off for a drive to Cape Naturalist, dropped into sugarloaf rock, Yallingup where the weed had a certain fragrance and Eagle  bay.

 

We were told about Canal Rocks, it is a large natural

canal which has the seas surging through under a narrow footbridge.

Young girls were jumping from the footbridge into the surge of the waves, it was nuts but the parents didn't appear too concerned. 



Free as a Cow

Off to the wineries, Lawrence winery, Vasse Felix, followed by Margaret

Free as a Bird (Chick on a Stick)

 River Chocolate.

Off to the pub for a bit of dinner.

 

The following day we needed a bit of exercises we went canoeing in geographe bay and then played put put.

 

I put the caravan in today for a service, as I think there is something amiss with the brakes. Wonerup  House was established in 1858 by George Layman unfortunately George was to die a couple of years later after being speared by a native in his front yard. Over his time he had built school buildings for the local children of the area as well as accomodation for the teacher. 

 

Off to Bussleton Jetty and the Underwater Observatory, the jetty is 1.7 kilometres long so we caught the train out and back. Lunch at The Goose was a surprise, fish and chips for $38, Trice and I shared the one meal.

Got the van back, $572 for the service, wires were snapped on 2 of the 4 brakes, thought something was wrong.

Left for Potters Gorge and dropped into see friends from Denmark at Capel. Dropped in for a visit and stayed 4 hours, just lovely people.

 

Margaret River 13th - 22nd April 2013

Margaret River

Just had to clean, the car, it was a pig, the van is a pig, there is dust and dirt everywhere. We are staying in a beautifully clean park where the van and awning are situated on pavers. We are only a walk out of town and close to everything. Spent all day cleaning, vacuuming and washing.

Calgardup Caves, amazing and slightly bewildering all at the same time. These limestones caves we originally formed by limestone being dissolved by water and then large sections collapsing forming caves. Huge stalactites, stalagmites and walls of flowstone. You descend into the cave by large

stainless steel staircases and have wooden walkways with stainless steel handrails guiding you in the absolute blackness. You are given a helmet with headlight as well as a handheld torch. The handrails dip when you need to duck your head.

You can't help but wonder how these large caverns don't come crashing down. Roots from Kari trees hang down like wet hair hanging from the ceiling. The flowrock which is dissolved limestone looks like water frozen in time. Some parts of it are coloured by
We dropped into Swallows Welcome, a winery recommended to us by some people we met at Parry's Beach. The first thing I noticed was the wedding chapel, mud brick with stained glass windows, rough sawn timber floors, I just fell in love with it. Patricia is an illustrator who specialises in native plants and has produced many books for the West Australian government and other organisations. She is a fantastic person and just sat and chatted to us for ages in

the chapel. Patricia has taught herself how to do woodwork and has made the seating, tables and huge wooden doors for the chapel. Both Patricia and her husband have built everything on their property.

 

They have even sourced most of the materials from their property. We then met Tim, Patricia's husband. Tim is in his 70's loves loud operatic music, makes wine and loves a chat as well. He is very eccentric but this is what is so interesting. Other people dropped in while we were there and Tim just ignored them and kept chatting to us. He makes his wine in an open shed, it is known as the smallest winery in Margaret River. Tim had only just finished pressing some grapes so he was a little tired but it didn't slow his conservation down, mind you I was finding it hard to listen every time one of the music pieces was hitting a crescendo. The wine was ok, even Trice tried the port which as she said she tolerated. He tends to use about 30% Cabernet Franc in his Cabernet Sauvignon. I also tried his Merlot blend but preferred the Cabernet Sav/Franc blend. 

 

Patricia's illustrative work is outstanding, one display  was a sea dragon that her grandson had found, she drew the sea dragon and then mounted it all in a frame, it looked she had taken a photo of the sea dragon. It was now too late to visit any other wineries so we headed back to the van.

 

We travelled the town looking for a hairdresser for Trice, starting price was $75. I looked at Patrice and she looked at me so I said I will have a go. Back to the van and out came the scissors, the bloody figure holes are too small for my fingers and Trice's hair is like horse hair. After much deliberation she allowed me to have a go with the clippers as I was adamant that I could do a better job with the clippers. Well after hair went everywhere I was very happy with the final result, now for Trice to have a look as mirrors were banned throughout the procedure. Believe it or not she was very happy. Since this event 2 hairdressers have seen it and did not believe that I had done it and certainly did not believe that I had used clippers. Signs and hairdressing could be my new found profession.

Kevin and Belinda arrived and after hugs and kisses we headed off to town and yes we ended up in the Margaret River Pub as the Rugby League test match was on.

The next day we headed off to see a bit of the sights including the Jewel Cave, spectacular, a bit different to the Calgardup Caves as this one was privately run and far more commercialised.

The lighting was fantastic as far more civilised that the National Park run caves. Onto Augusta,

Hamlin Bay to see the Stingrays and Cosey corner, we were exhausted after a pretty full day.

We organised Wine tour with Cheers which took us to Watershed and Evans and Tate Wineries, first class and very informative. The Venison farm followed by Knotting Hill winery and of course the Margaret

River Chocolate Factory. The Cheese factory preceded the slower pace of the Colonial brewery, what a day, I am exhausted once again.

It was great to see Kevin and Belinda who were fabulous, it made us realise that 6 months on the road had slowed us down a bit and this hectic pace tired us out.

Big Valley 6th - 13th April 2013

Big Valley

Dropped into Witchcliffe as they were having a market, interestingly there was a real 1950's theme in the town. I had trouble finding Patrice but found her chatting to the local witch.

Big Valley, what a great spot, Kevin and Shelly are the owners and are great country people and made us feel welcome. We originally paid for 3 nights but ended up staying for 7.

Bumped into Geoff and Judy again and ended up camping directly beside them. What more could you ask for satellite tv, phone and Internet and it is a sheep farm.

We got to experience sheep crotching, the is where they shear the sheep's crotch to stop the dags being fly blown, is this what they call giving a Brazilian in the bush. An interesting thing was that they also sheer the top of the head so you can pick which sheep have been done. The shearers

work bloody hard, they get 50c per sheep which takes less than a minute but it is tough.

Texas the pet goat was wandering around, apparently we were lucky that we kept our door closed as one van left it open only to have Texas pay a visit and make himself at home.

We decided to fuel up at The old store at Rosabrook, it is the original store and not much has changed. I filled the car and went in to pay and he asked me how much I had out in, he then wrote it down in an exercise book. On the shelves were old packets of Vincent's Headache powder, how old is this place? At the back if the shed is the old screen for the outdoor movies and on a stand was the original truck used for carting fuel, this is magic.

The berry farm was just down the road and was just nice to sit back with a gigantic scone, jam and cream with a nice coffee.

Just a lovely stay with great owners and made some signs as well.

Alexander Bridge 3rd to 6th April 2013

Alexander Bridge

Off to Alexander Bridge, we dropped in to One Tree Bridge, the remains of the original bridge which was a large Karri tree laid across the creek with planks attached was standing to demonstrate the harshness of conditions. the 4 Aces were 4 huge Karri trees which sprouted in a straight line from a burnt out tree about 400 or 500 years ago.

 

We found Alexander Bridge, a lovely spot this is but if you want to get close to the river, the sites are very uneven. Normally we are set up in 15 to 20 minutes, not here, over an hour later and I must say no raised voices we finally got set up. Trice was paranoid that the van was going to fall into the river so I fed her a few wines and she was ok, she was happy with the outlook.

It is only when you review the map and realise how far we have come. That 15,000 kilometres has gone so quickly, we crossed the WA border on 8th December and have only now got to the corner.

A beautiful day, Met David and Dianne from the Gold Coast, they are travelling around Australia in a CamperTrailer similar to Jeff and Shell, off to Augusta today. Visited Cape Leeuwin lighthouse here the Southern Ocean and Indian Oceans meet. Flinders bay, Augusta for lunch, Lookout 8klms out of Augusta, pretty average. Cosy Corner at Cape Hamelin which was beautiful, rock formations, blue water and white sand. The coastline did not disappoint once again.

Hamelin Bay was a complete surprise, bumped into David & Dianne, beautiful sand and clear water and enormous Stingrays which are very tame and come in on the wave to let you stroke them.

Patrice was busy sneaking up on them continually telling me to be careful of the barb. While she was concentrating I brushed her leg, she let out an enormous scream which started all these other people screaming - weird. Checked out the camp area in the Leeuwin-Naturaliste National Park, Boranup Camp bumped into David and Dianne again, far too small for our set up. Back for a beer and a scotch, camp has filled up a bit while we were gone

Geoff and Dee, Steve and Maree, Craig and Maria, all from the Perth area. We went for another drive today to visit the surrounding camp sites. Sue's bridge was a great site with big sites and easy access. The same couldn't be said for the others. We travelled many kilometres of dirt road, some very rough. In the middle of nowhere we bumped into David and Dianne from Helensvale. The sites were often very small or the access was very narrow, the cruncher came when we found there was no phone service. Dropped into Margaret River, I don't know what I was expecting but it is a thriving big town with people everywhere. It is very modern and has everything you need to have a great time. We arrived back in camp late afternoon after doing nearly 200 klms, ready to start the camp oven for our roasted Silverside. It just became a natural thing to sit down around the camp fire and start a bit on banter. Craig is a New South Wales League follower and couldn't resist talking about State of Origin, could it have had something to do with the fact I was wearing my Qld State of Origin cap. He then appeared a little later with a NSW State Origin Jersey, so I put on my Qld State of Origin shirt. That is how the fight started......



Waterwheel at Cape Leeuwin

Decided to stay another day before heading over to Big Valley Campground in Margaret River. Decided to go for a paddle so I started undoing the straps on the kayak. The strap for the paddle got hooked up on the roof rack so I pushed the kayak back up to see what the problem was. Remember the sites are very uneven and as soon as I walked around the back of the car the kayak slide off the racks and and belted the side of the car. I now have a dent in the drivers side bumper and now on the top of the drivers side rear guard. I am not very happy with myself as both of the errors were just plain stupid.

I carried the kayak down to river and went for a paddle to settle down and see what is around the bend. Then to top it all off down came the rain, I may as well enjoy the view. It seems that the ducks are blind here as they must have thought I was a big duck and followed me into shore.

I was still cranky about damaging the car the next morning so we packed up to head to Big Valley.

Manjimup 19th March - 2nd April 2013

Manjimup

We used this as our base for 2 weeks, the caravan park was very quiet but was new and immaculate. initially only 1 other van besides ours, Mike and Janet. Mike was a pilot on contract for the fire bombing season. he had been here for 3 months and gets 2 days off per fortnight. The rest of the time he has to sit around his van waiting for calls. Every day at 6.15 he heads off to the airport to check the plane and start the motor. The only times we saw them was when they left their van to go to the toilet. He was not very social and kept to himself very much.

Day 1 and 2 were just admin stuff going to bank etc, new tyres being fitted tomorrow, went for Coopers. Spoke to Ken today wants to meet South of Perth around end of April, he will hire a campervan to try and convince Noela, I don't like his chances. Problems with TV reception, had booked a TV guy for $100 but managed to fix it myself, thank goodness

Ivan and Josie pulled in beside us and being Qldrs gave you a starting point. Originally from Gladstone but had recently packed up and moved- to Brackenridge, they have been on the road for 2 years and had another year to go, This seems to be the norm for travel. Another 5 vans pulled in over the 2 weeks and it is funny, some people just don't like to communicate or mix. We became friends with a couple from Adelaide and another from Perth. I have developed the habit of wandering around talking to everyone but some people just think I am weird.

Manjimup is a nice town with a large Coles, Woolworths and country Target, 2 bottle shops, a visitor centre, cop shop and wood museum just to name a few. Had the Waeco fridge fixed, new tyres fitted to the car, was even able to print out some documents and send them back to Brisbane.

 

We visited the King Jarrah Tree, a tree that was preserved in 1921 against felling, it was due to be dropped the next day. The trees being Karri, Marri and Jarrah are just enormous and with the roads form beautiful hallways through the forests.

Bridgetown was a bit of a disappointment, it was smaller than Manjimup and very trendy. Not much was open when we were there but managed to have a walk through the puzzle and photo display behind the visitor centre, this was very interesting.

Pemberton is again smaller than Manjimup but has built it's tourism on the the timber mill, coffee shops and train/tram trip though the forests. We sampled everything we could and did enjoy the town. From the Karri Forest Explorer Drive, Beedelup Falls, Big Brook Arboretum, Big Brook Dam, Bicentennial Tree, Gloucester Tree and the Cascades we spent

2 full days exploring and could have spent more. The tram ride was great taking us through the giant Karri, Marri and Jarrah Forests, the track is the old line which used to go through Albany. The last bridge on the trip, the Warren Bridge, is now condemned and is the point where the driver goes to the other end and returns us back to Pemberton station. we crossed Eastbrook, Lefroy, Bob's, Redgum and Cascade's Bridges. The driver was a bundle of laughs and kept us all entertained. The trip was 1 3/4 hours after stopping at The Cascades and Warren River Bridge.

Just South of Manjimup is the Diamond Tree which like the other gives you the opportunity to climb. We gave it a good go but up about 10 metres I had a severe case of jelly legs and had to come down, just think another 52 metres to go to get to the lookout.

Fonty's Pool is a caravan park around 10 klms out of town, beautiful spot with a large lake. It seems that Fonty owns half the town with his name on things such as skip bins etc.

 Said goodbye to Jeff and Pauline from Perth, Geoff and Judy from Adelaide, ex Jayco man and Ivan and Josie Carr from Brisbane. drove through to Nannaup and had a beautiful lunch.

 We drove to Dingup to have a look at the historic church and the local community hall. Very old and run down, across the road was an old race track that was probably used for motorbikes, took the Prado for a spin but the trees were hanging over too much around the back straight. saw the old Pioneer cemetery with 18 graves, mostly the Giblet family with burials starting around the late 1800's. a little further on was the Bararup cemetary which is still used with the last burial happening only about 6 weeks ago. Many children and very old people, a large number of the residents lived until

their late 90's. Not many in the mid range. first burial was 1904.
Played golf at Manjimup Golf Club, glorious golf course with beautiful greens. Played with Ivan using Josie's clubs, first round of golf for many years and was very happy with the game. I probably should have given up then and there but decided to play another game which brought back memories of how frustrating this game can be. First hole topped the drive, second shot air swing, third shot straight across fairway into the trees, I took 9 on the first hole, this was going to be a long day.

This area is renowned for forestry and has a great forestry display, Trice and I went for a wander, I had found the wood turning the Sunday before which was an absolute delight chatting to the locals. This time we wandered into the blacksmith shop where we met George. A very interesting and spooky guy from country Russia, we chatted for over 2 hours about everything from the steel in car springs to the slitting of throughts back in his home town being a very small fishing village. The conversation was diverse and at times we were glad that there was a mesh wall between George and us especially when he was showing us knives that he had made from car springs.

We did enjoy Manjimup, it is a low socio-economic town with nothing to draw tourists into the town but we are glad we decided to stop.

Next stop Alexander Bridge.