Australia Day dawned with absolutely perfect weather so in true Aussie style we made our way to Middleton Beach, Albany to celebrate. They had a family event happening at the beach with food trucks, stand-up paddleboards for hire, beach volleyball and more. The water was a beautiful clear blue and we were lucky enough to come across the Italian couple from our campsite a few nights earlier again, Rebekka and Fabian. We had some beers with them and spent the day in the sun between beach volleyball and on the SUP! Flume came in 1st for Triple J’s hottest 100 and so it was a good day all round!
We decided to check out Ocean Beach, a good surf break in the area, and it was perfect as it had a nice beginner wave for me, and a more advanced wave for Jamie. After our morning surf we headed over to the beautiful Green Pools and Elephant Rock to swim in the beautiful clear waters and in my case to jump off the 6m granite rock into the water!
Over the next few days we sampled the Southern Forest regions culinary delights including a cheese factory and winery and then over to The Elephant Rocks Cider Company for a tasting of some very alcoholic ciders. They also had some amazing toffee so we took full advantage of all the samples, whilst Jamie got drunk on the cider!
And then it was time to move on to Walpole, Pemberton and the giant Karri and Tingle tree forests. We did a long forest walk to get to a waterfall only to find the waterfall was completely dry when we finally arrived there. At least it was a beautiful walk though! From there we went to climb the trees that originally brought us to the area. They are old fire lookout trees that were used to spot when a bushfire started and give adequate warnings. There are 3 of these trees left that the public are allowed to climb, so we thought we would start with the tallest one, The Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree. The climb was 65m and involved metal pegs that had been hammered into the tree in an upward swirl. At the very top there is a little platform to stand and survey the view. Despite not having a fear of heights, both Jamie and I were a little nervous to start off with. But we soon got into the swing of it and reached the top proudly. We were the only ones up there and you could see the top of the tree canopy stretching out in all directions. Feeling bold after having conquered that tree we decided to do the next tree, The Gloucester. This tree was only a mere 58 metres high so we breezed to the top, and by that I mean went far too quickly as I was completely out of breath by the time we got up there. With 2 out of 3 trees conquered we decided it was time for some ice-cream, and after that felt too tired to do the 3rd tree. We had found a nice campsite set up on someone’s property and they had built toilet and shower blocks which was nice. Our English friends Ashley and Dan that we had met back in Esperance were passing through as well, so they joined us at this camp. The guy who owned the property was away and so his friend was looking after the campsites. He had walked all the way from Perth with his dog Prince, who became friends with Pumba.
As Ashley and Dan hadn’t done the tree climbs yet, we decided to climb them again the next day together and this time we took some beers to enjoy at the top. We only did the 65m tree and then headed to Beedelup Falls. It wasn’t the most impressive waterfall but at least there was water in this one. Jamie had a shower under the falls but the rest of us decided to wait for our swim. We took a walk instead over to Karri valley resort which was right on Lake Beedelup, so we jumped in for a swim surrounded by all different types of ducks. When we got out one of the resort workers sold us some birdseed and about 40 Port Lincoln ringneck parrots came and sat on our shoulders, hands and heads to get at the birdseed. It was so much fun having 4 parrots fighting over the seed.
The next day we headed off and decided to visit Hamelin Bay, a spot famous for the eagle rays that come right into shore. It did not disappoint, and we were able to feed the giant rays and touch them on the back. They felt surprisingly slippery but were so beautiful and graceful and incredibly friendly. We had found a camp spot nearby called Boogaloo Surf and Yoga camp, which offered both regular campsites and luxury tepee tents. Although we didn’t stay in the tepee’s I was able to do some yoga inside one, which was really just as good. The camp is a new start up business, and the wife takes yoga classes and offers remedial massage and her husband makes his own surfboards and does classes so you can make your own board too. The area is famous for some really amazing caves and so we decided to explore a few of them. We decided on one guided cave and one self-guided cave. Jewel cave was the guided and it was amazing inside. They had installed lights throughout to really showcase the amazing stalactites and stalagmites. It was a huge cave with boardwalks throughout and it was really quite stunning The self guided cave, Calgardup cave was a bit less impressive as we only had our two torches but we did see some impressive cave formations and some frogs as well.
From there it was off to Margaret River region. We started off in a free forest camp and stayed there a few nights. From there we could explore the area including the surf beaches, like the famous Surfers point where the Margaret River surfers pro is held. Jamie surfed there, but I decided to sit this one out, as it wasn’t the best weather. We also did some tastings at various breweries’, a distillery and a winery. After all, when in Margaret River you have to spend the majority of the time drinking. To compliment this we also did some cheese tastings. After discovering an abandoned tent in the forest we were staying at we decided it was suddenly a creepy camp spot and so packed everything up in the dark and found a new campsite right alongside the Margaret river.
We were lucky enough to catch up with some old friends that we worked with in Mt Buller, Kayleigh and George. They took us to a cool secluded beach and while Pumba tried to play with their dog Molly (a small Westie) we went and got us some abalone off the rocks. They also very kindly offered for us to stay at their house, which we very gratefully accepted. George is an amazing chef and they have their own very successful business. He made us an amazing pork ribs and chips for dinner which we had with beer. Unfortunately I am so used to camping life and going to bed early that I was out for the count by about 10pm.
We are in for some stormy weather for the next few days so we might just chill out inside for a nice change. Until next time peeps!
