Cape Le Grande

It poured raining all night.  Absolutely bucketed down.  What with the rain hammering the sides of the van, and the waves crashing onto the beach, it was a pretty noisy night.

Our awning is not very secure in strong wind, so we had it packed away.  Consequently, the chairs and table and other boxes of things that we had out against the sides of the van, or under the van, were pretty sodden.

In a break in the deluge this morning, we dashed out, threw all the paraphernalia into the van, then headed off towards Esperence.  The forecast is for rain and wind..I was hoping to see Esperence at it's best, but that's the way it is.

At first we continued east along the coast road, but it was clay and we were worried it would get boggy, particularly when we started driving through water.  So we turned around with some difficulty, and headed back to Hopetown to drive on the bitumen.

The fifty kilometres out to the south coast highway was coved in water in several spots, and there were brown torrents rushing through the trees on either side.

We were very glad to make it through to Ravensthorpe, where we found the toilet (Joseph was so happy to have a flushing toilet he sang us a little song) and the petrol station.  The gas pump for the BP was across a road in a little dirt patch, and the was a sign on the bowser that requested a collateral (security) before using the pump.  drivers' license or credit card.  Spouse or passenger were also acceptable. We thought it was pretty funny. (Rather than risk my credit card I left Vicki as Collateral – Grant ;) )

On a completely different note, a few days ago, when we were in Denmark at the market, we chatted with a lady who had a knitting stall.  I think it was Katie who asked her how long she'd been knitting for. She laughed and told us she'd been knitting since she was about seven, and she'd been caught knitting under her desk at school, and her teacher in the UK had taken the knitting off her until the end of term.  She went home and cried. She was not impressed.  I think knitters are born, not made!

After Ravensthorpe, we drove east for a few hours, stopping at Muglinup for lunch.  Everyone stayed in the car because it was still raining and cold.

Esperence is a bigger coastal town, built on the Bay of Isles.  They have lots of shops, but also a beautiful view.  We kept driving left around the bay and out to Cape Le Grande, where we are staying at Lucky Bay.  It's a beautiful spot, probably helped because the rain has eased off for now.  There are huge granite? rock lumps, similar to Stanthorpe, everywhere.  My Dad used to come to Esperence for holidays when he was a young boy, I wonder if he was ever out at Cape Le Grande?  He'd love the rocks!

 

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Vicki

Moving East

A short walk out to Norman's beach was very nice this morning.  It was very rough, but the shells and sand weren't dangerous, and I avoided the enormous blue bottles that must have been washed up overnight.

We dawdled around, crocheting and drawing, and slowly packing up.  It was nice to take it easy.

When we headed off, Grant investigated climbing Mt. Manypeaks but we couldn't find a road that was open to traffic, so we headed off to Jerramungup where we filled up with fuel, and had some lunch in the lions park across the road.

Driving east along the South Coast highway, we saw the Stirling Ranges in the distance on our left.   We'd decided not to go there but they looked very impressive as shadowy purple outlines in the distance.

At Ravensthorpe we turned right to Hopetoun on the coast.  The scenery was much drier and scrubby again, it looks like we've left the big tree forests behind.  We have seen several fields planted with silver leafed shrubs, and yesterday in Albany, a farmer we spoke to explained they were blue gum trees, planted as a crop.  He was unsure what the long term effect of the crop on the soil would be.  These fields were cleared a hundred years ago with bullocks and by hand, and now they are being planted with trees again!

Left at Hopetoun and out to 12 Mile Beach to camp, we drove through a bushy green stretch that looked just like a whole forest of broccoli!  Very tall broccoli.

Tonight we are camped next to Val and Tony from the Gold Coast.  Tony is a retired printer.  They left home 5 months ago, planning to be away for 12 weeks.

It is very windy out on the beach, but behind the dunes where we are is very sheltered.  There is a rock shelf about 10 metres off shore, and the waves crash over it, leaving the water closer in a bit more calm.  But the southern ocean freezing cold....not sure if I'll be swimming in it at all.

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Vicki

Albany

We packed up as fast as we could this morning and towed the van into Denmark.  We were aiming for the 9.30am service at the Family Church, but realised we were too late when we got there, so went to the 10am Baptist service across the road.

Everyone was very friendly and shook hands and introduced themselves.  The organist played very well and we sang all the old blue and brown book choruses.  They had a guest speaker, Andrew, from the challenge magazine, and Grant and the older three heard his message from Exodus 14:10-14 on keeping our eyes fixed on God, not our situation or our past. Nadine, Oskar, Cooper and I helped the Sunday school paint animals for their Christmas nativity.  It was lots of fun.

After the service, we headed off to Albany, where we had lunch, and walked around the historic buildings of this first WA British settlement. We looked over the exact replica boat of the Brig Amity, for which Amity Point at Stradbroke Island was named, but it's also the boat that brought the first convicts  and Captain Lockyer to Albany in 1826 to develop a settlement here.  It wasn't successful as a convict settlement, they moved everyone to Perth on the swan river, but it did remain a town and was opened to free settlers.  The oldest house in Western Australia is here, built in 1832.

We really enjoyed wandering all over the Amity, getting a feel for the size of the sleeping quarters and steering the ship.  It was not very big!  The replica was made by a third generation ship builder from Albany, who travelled to Europe to research shipbuilding techniques so that he could  accurately reproduce this old ship.  They even used the old tools  (which they made first) and you can see all the marks the axes etc made in shaping the huge timbers inside the hull.

After our walking tour, past the old churches and houses in Albany, smelling the roses that are all over the place, we drove up the hill that overlooks the three bays, King George Sound, Princess Royal Bay and Oyster Bay, to the Anzac memorial.  The first ships of Anzacs to Egypt left from this harbor on 1 November 1914.  There was a great view.  

We drove around Oyster bay to Emu Point, then on out of Albany and to nearby Mt Manypeaks to a little beach called Norman's beach in two person bay.  There is one other caravan here, and at first we thought it was just a melaleuca mangrove swamp, but Grant and the boys walked up and over a big sand dune to a beautiful beach, I will look at it in the morning. 

Clouds have come over this evening, but apart from that, the weather today was perfect. There are all these very noisy frogs here - I didn't know you got frogs in the beach.

Katie went to the drop toilet earlier, and came out declaring, 'that's the most disgusting toilet I've ever been to. When you sit down it wobbles all over the place, but I think it's a new hole, because it goes splat and not splosh.'

And I think that's quite enough for now...
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Vicki

Denmark

  We pulled ourselves together this morning, and drove into Denmark to be good tourists.  It certainly helped that the sun had come out and the sky was mostly blue.

We drove along more roads bordered by green fields of cows, and horses, and a few turn offs to wineries and berry farms, even one honey sign.  We didn't stop.  We're not that good as tourists!

Denmark is a lovely town on the south coast of Western Australia.  The guide book lists it as hippy central, but it had a lovely feel.  We discovered it was market day, one of four Saturdays a year when they hold a market down on the banks of the Denmark River.  There was good music, and lots of food stalls, and heaps of knitting stalls.  In fact, driving through the town later I noticed there were three shops selling wool and knitting supplies, quite a big percentage of the shops in the town!  Must be a big knitting population.

We spent a fun morning wandering through the stalls and chatting to stall holders.  It had a lovely feel, with very few iridology or fortune telling type stalls, just hand craft stalls, and they were very interesting.

Grant found a massage stall, and for the first time ever he sat down on the chair and asked for the cheapest massage he could get, a head and neck massage.  the little Chinese man got stuck into it, whacking away on Grant's neck.  After a bit, the little man oohed and aahed and told Grant it was all very tight, and should he continue to the shoulder and back massage.  Grant thought, 'oh well, it shouldn't be too much more, and it does feel very good' so said to go ahead. The little Chinese man got right onto digging his elbow into Grant's shoulders.  Same question again for the buttocks massage, but there Grant drew the line...the little Chinese man promptly pulled out these little pieces of sticky paper, wave them under Grant's nose, and said he'd put one on a pressure point for Grant, 'only $2 each', and Grant thought '$2 isn't much, I'll let him put one on,', but then mr massage started  sticking them everywhere, and Grant, when he realized what was happening, asked in a state of shock, 'how many are you going to use?' 'Fifteen...'

Grant got us out of that market quick smart!

We had lunch and washed our laundry at the laundromat, then headed home to Parry Beach.

Grant had read bout the total lunar eclipse in the newspaper, so this evening we re preparing to stay up to 11pm to catch sight of the this event that won't happen again for another four years.  We did our Internet searches, and worked out the difference between a lunar eclipse, and the monthly phases of the moon (very interesting), and were pleased to see the sky was clear.

what we had forgotten is that WA is two hours behind the east coast, so when Nadine woke for the loo at 9.45pm, It was very fortunate, because it meant we noticed the moon was almost completely covered by the earth's shadow.

Joseph came and looked and decided it was more interesting in bed, I didn't bother to wake up Oskar and Cooper, but I thought Dominic would be interested so I persevered in dragging him out of bed and outside to look at the red moon.  I shouldn't have bothered.  He didn't remember anything in the morning.

Katie woke up, came outside, had a look, and agreed with Joseph.  So that left Grant, who thought it was just as fascinating as when he last saw it thirty years ago.  Same moon, I guess.

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Vicki

Parry Beach

It started off rainy and overcast today here at Parry Beach.  The sea was rough and grey.  Outside there were swarms of flies and mosquitoes.  I crawled back into bed.  We didn't really feel like staying here, but I couldn't summon up the energy to move!

In the end, at  $11 dollars a night, we decided to stop for another day, and we cleaned up (well, Grant cleaned up), read and posted the blog (that was me), and generally rested.

During the day the clouds shifted and the sun and the blue sky came out.  The bay suddenly looked blue and the world was a lovely place!  Isn't that amazing.  Now we think we'll stay a third night.

There are solar showers here, which are great when it is sunny, but it had been raining for a few days and they had run out of hot water.  After the sunny outburst this afternoon, though, I thought I would give it a go.  A march fly followed me in.  They have strange ones here, with a needle-like proboscis sticking out of their mouth.  They sting you on the leg and you whack them, only to find them hanging from your leg by their proboscis. Gross.

Anyway, my shower was being disturbed by one of these monsters, and I was very nervous, so I swung at him, knocked him into the ground, and he buzzed angrily and flew off.  'good,' I thought, 'that taught him a lesson'.  Very soon after, back he came, buzzing around, with two of his friends!  He brought reinforcements....

For dinner we made Tuna casserole.  This is normally the favourite meal for the family, but tonight they seemed to think it didn't taste right.  I put it down to the powdered milk we used, until Katie asked, 'is there any tuna in here?'. We'd left out the main ingredient!

Grant found a Radiosonde on the beach which he was very excited about.  They are attached to Weather balloons.  He has found launch sites for Australia and has emailed someone from the Bureau of Meteorology to ask them how far it has travelled.

Summary of the last eight days!

Sorry about posting everything from the last week together!  The summary for those who want the quick version is;
-we left Perth on Thursday 1 December,
-stayed a few nights at Wellington National Park, fixing van and visiting Gnomesville,
-drove through Busselton to see the ironman events and the jetty,
-south to Forest Grove National park for a few nights,
-visited Cape Leeuwin Lighthouse, Margaret River,
-drove east through Pemberton, climbed a few tall trees,
-stayed in Shannon National Park with the rain,
-Drove through Walpole, did the tree top walk,
-Camped at Parry's beach for the night of 8 December.

You are now up to date....

Walpole

Packing up again.  We headed off to Walpole, another little town near to the coast, where we visited the info centre, bought hot chips (it was freezing cold and raining) and filled up the car with fuel and the van with water.

It is a lovely area, with lots of trees and rolling hills, cows and sheep, and we enjoyed driving through the countryside.

We stopped for a walk at the Giant Tingle Tingle tree, another type of tree that grows very big around here.  Wasn't very impressed with the 'ancient forest 500million year old' signs, but the trees themselves were very cool.  They tend to get  hollowed out bases, through fire and fungi and insects, and these then widen out to support the weight above, so they can become quite wide around the bottom.  That's why they named one 'The Hollow Butt' tree.  Dom loved that one.

Next stop was the tree top walk.  A metal ramp through the trees, 40 metres above the forest floor, was more my style, and Cooper, Nadine and Oskar could come too.

We went around twice, and I was less scared by the swaying the second time!  Grant spoke to a man doing maintenance on the structure, and he said it was first constructed with the big posts, then two bolts attaching each bridge to the post.  They added a few more bolts when they took over the maintenance....

 

We have stopped for the night at Parry's beach, but it is very windy and rainy.  The solar showers are cold because it hasn't been sunny for a few days...We are very squished in the rain because most things have to stay inside.  Our house at home is going to feel huge when we get back.  Who needs an extension.

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Vicki