Our Trip Around Australia: Albany, Denmark, Walpole and a few places along the way.

Firstly, apologises we haven’t update our blog recently, but due to lack of mobile reception where we’ve been it was difficult.

When we left Esperance our aim was to find a spot in or around Albany where we could camp over the Easter break to avoid being charged peak prices in the caravan parks. This meant finding a spot where we could camp for free. So with our trustee Camps 6 in hand (our bible of cheap places to camp around Australia) we said our goodbyes to Esperance and headed to our first destination.

Starvation Boat Harbour – 50Km’s east of Hopetoun, It was a small site close to the Ocean and as we didn’t bump in the National Park Ranger so it cost us nothing to stay. We made a fire that night and relaxed in front of it. Oh I almost forgot to mention that I tried to speak with my Parents that night via Skype and the only way I could manage to get a strong enough signal was to stand on back of our 4wd with one hand holding an iPhone and the other a mobile aerial as high as I could. It must of looked very strange to our fellow campers!.

(nearly run this fella over)

Next day we decided to head into Fitzgerald River National Park as read there was a nice spot called Hamersley Inlet. Unfortunately due to road closures we had to take a large detour to reach it. When finally arrived it was apparent we were the only two people crazy enough to travel that far out. We felt very isolated from everything in the middle of a national park with no mobile reception, 50Km’s from the nearest town. Few drinks later, we watched the sunset from the boat ramp and enjoyed the peacefulness.

Another day, another national park!. This time we stayed at Quaalup Homestead Wilderness Retreat (77km South West of Jerramugup) with a resident Emu called “ Edna” who is very friendly and inquisitive. So much so, that we had some issues setting up the tent until we manage to divert her attention to our blue tarpaulin. It can be very scary being followed “stalked” by a bird taller than you are , especially when you step outside the tent and she’s right there! or she’s looking through the window of the tent while your inside. In fact where-ever you went at the retreat Edna wasn’t far behind!. When we did escape the Emu we thought we would hire a kayak and go for a paddle for an hour or so. Finding the spot where the boats were kept was very tricky, and the tracks leading to the river were overgrown and very narrow so our 4wd took a bit of a beating. After searching different tracks, we finally worked out the first track we went to was the right one D’oh!. by this time we didn’t have much time on the water so we zig-zag( because I was paddling harder than Katrina) down the river for a bit and back. All we saw were trees and the river!, this might of been because we scared off most of the wildlife with our bickering in the boat.

Albany – We managed to find a spot between Albany and Denmark called Cost Corner (East) where we planned to stay for a week until the long Easter weekend was over. This gave us a chance to get our 4wd serviced (the manager of which, was from Braintree, Essex- small world!!) and see the sights. One of the drawbacks from free camping is the lack of Facilities such as running water and power. Which lead us to investing in an en-suite tent so we could have showers. Now it doesn’t look like much, but like the Dr Who’s Tardis it’s bigger inside than it looks outside. Our ensuite is pimped out with marble tiled floor, free standing bath with gold taps and a power shower. No way would it contain a solar powered water bag connected to a plastic hose and shower head!.

Over the week, we visited:

Whale World – One of the last places to hunt Whales

Blow Holes- nothing rude! – just cracks in the rocks where sea water hits underneath and is force up through gaps causing sea spray to shoot up.

The Gap- Sheer cliff face dropping straight into the ocean below

The Natural Bridge- erm!?.. natural bridge made out of rock! (Octopus found in rock pool near Natural Bridge)

Dog Rock- Rock that looks like a dog!

The Gaol- Place where Katrina would like to leave me locked up in when she wants to go shopping!.

Sunset from our tent

Waiting for the car in Albany Anzac Park.

We did some other stuff but if we tell you everything we’ll have nothing to talk about when we see you all next.

Denmark – we spent two nights in Denmark by Ocean Beach. We had a look around a discovered this is a great place for body boarding and snorkeling as well as having lots of places to do some tasting of sweets, chocolate and toffee. We started with a Swiss Chocolate Lounge, that had a fantastic triple choc brownie, then onto a toffee factory that also made cider. On our second day we decided we needed to work off the goodies from yesterday so we set off to Greens Pool which is a sheltered natural lagoon of clear blue water, we started of swimming but then decided to buy ourselves some snorkels and masks before going back and spending some time around the rocks between the lagoon and the sea looking at all the fish. From here we headed back to Ocean Beach to practise our body boarding for a couple of hours. Suffice to say we slept well that night.

Peaceful Bay – We stopped of here so we could do the Valley of the Giants tree top walk. The trees here are called Tingle trees that are very tall and straight and hardy. Like the name says you get to walk amongst the canopy of the trees and then through the valley of the giants where you get to see some trees that had been badly effected by bush fires many years ago but even though 80% (ish) of the tree had been burnt it still survived and continues to grow.

Coalmine Beach, Walpole – This is where we are presently. Yesterday we went to Circular Pool, Giant Tingle Tree walk, Swarbrick Art trail and climbed to the top of Mt Frankland which is 410 metres above sea level.