South west WA , the Karri trees, freemantle, rottnest and Penguin Is etc Dec 5th to pre xmas.

Travelling to the Karri tree area of south WA, the west coast 5^th of Dec to pre xmas.

Our first stop after leaving Perth was York, the first inland town in WA to be established. It is where Johns ex son in law, Martin, was staying and the town has many old buildings and cute antique type shops

We travelled through Brockton

To Wagin,

home of the big ram.

We stayed in the campgrounds of the showground, a experience with the inground sprinklers not to be forgotten. We parked on the grass where the sign said Rv s Park this side of the sign, plugged in to power and later when we had gone to bed, the sound of water blasting woke us up.

The stupid campground had their high blast sprinklers set to come on at 9:30 at night and the water was blasting into the caravan through all the open windows and over the electrical power outlet.

John has to get up and wind up the legs move the van to the other side of the sign while I mopped up all the water. Not impressed!!!!!

Next day we planned to travel to Walpol. But the high gusting winds preventing us travelling any further than Kojonup.

We stayed in a five dollar camp stop, next to a disused train line, visited the rose garden maze in town and played pool at the pub. A small gift shop in town was open and little presents brought for the kids xmas trees.

The next day was via Mt Barker were we stopped for a walk around town, and headed south through the wine country area.

Then next was Denmark which we had visited last year so after a lunch stop drove through to

Walpol.

The home of the karri trees and waterways.

The first afternoon we drove along a scenic peninsula near Coleman’s beach where we were staying in the caravan park for two nights.

The following day was a drive through the Karri trees, with walks in to see the giant trees , the Swarbrick Art trail, Mt Franklin lookout, the tree top walk and the Ancient empire walk. This was followed by a drive and walk to Conspicuous Cliffs.

driving through the trees

the giant trees

franklin river and mt franklin lookout

the swarsbrick art loop

the tree top walk

the empire ancient tree walk

conspicuous cliffs

we went on a wilderness cruise along the waterways to a deserted island.

The tour guide was manic and told many a story he was entertaining and informative.

NEXT…..Having left Walpol we headed west and then detoured south to Windy Harbour in the D’Entrecasteaux National Park, where the wind certainly lived up to the harbours name….windy.

another scenic drive was taken around the coastline

The park had some visitors that late evening

Our next stop was

Pemberton

More Karri trees and we undertook the 84 km scenic drive through the trees and National Park,

past Big Brook Dam

Then into Beedleup National Park and falls, including the walk over the swing bridge that really moved when crossing it, picture above.

The the Warren National park and river

And finally to the Dave Evans memorial tree which you could climb the pegs up 65 m to the fire lookout at the top , too scary for us to climb but John went a little way just for the photo.

In the late afternoon we stopped at a great craft brewery and winery place , loved one of their beers so we needed up buying a mixed carton for xmas. We are getting a stock up of wine and beer for xmas.

We had visited Manjimup but no photos were taken, we mainly just shopped and visited another Karri tree and our final morning in Pemberton we took the tram ride through the Warren forest to the Cascades.

After lunch we made our way through more Karri trees on our way to

Augusta , for the next two nights

We visited Jewel cave

Hamlin Bay

And Cape Leewin and the lighthouse.

This is the most southern western tip of WA and where the southern and Indian oceans met.

The old water wheel, below was used to provide water to the lighthouse keepers

The foreshores of Augusta were really pretty and we were pleasantly surprised how pretty the river mouth and foreshores were here in this town known for its windy weather, however we had two really nice days with hardly any wind at all. Spending the last afternoon enjoying a drink over looking the river mouth.

Bussellton

Here John and I met up with Julia, David and their kids, we had met them at Dampier and spent a few days in other areas further north before we went separate ways.

Our reason for returning to Bussellton which we had visited last year was to do the Under Water dive walk at the far end of the jetty. John and our xmas present to each other.

I was nervous but enjoyed the under water experience.

The helmets weigh 32 kilos and are placed on your head as you descend the ladder in to 8 metres of water , decompressing every second rung as you go down to the sea. The coral and flora around the jetty pilots very pretty and fish life fairly abundant, quiet the experience.

Pinjarra

We are now travelling back north towards Perth.

Here, at Pinjarra we caught up with Gayle and Rob for a free camp in the town, dinner at the pub and a morning walking around the shops in town.

Fremantle

We stopped here for three nights,visited the maritime museum a local craft brewery and the wharf and town areas.

Rottnest Island,

A half hour ferries trip from Fremantle, the island was previously an island for a Aboriginal prison and is now a tourist venue known for its beach’s and quokka’s. We took the on/ off bus around the island , swam at a few of the beaches and had a really lovely day. We watched the seals swimming but Only saw a few quokka but they are cute and very friendly.

The final day in Fremantle we had a rainy morning, the first time we have had rain in our 9 month trip other than a than a few specs of rain one or two evenings. So here I am finishing this blog before we go to the local brewery for lunch and then tomorrow it is off to Dawesville where we leave the van and head to Perth to have xmas with Di and Mick.

On our way to Perth we took a lovely trip to penguin Island which leaves from the foreshores of Rockingham. First was a boat cruise around the scattered Islands just of shore, one being the home for sea lions.