Sat 17 Sep 2011 Albany to Esperance

0920 (16782 km) Breakfast of toast and cereal. Left Albany.
0930 (16785 km) Filled up. The drive to Esperance were filled with canola fields. It was bright sunny yellow as far as the eye could see.
1230 (17051 km) Rest area. Stopped for lunch of Ritz, Cruskit and kransky.
1330 (17078 km) Ravensthorpe. Filled up.
1530 (17270 km) Esperance. Esperance Bay Holiday Park. Site 39. Had spiral bolognaise for dinner.
1930 (17273 km) Went fishing and caught four fish but one jumped away while at the fish cleaning station. Oh well, Sammy the Sea Lion, who lives unde the jetty, will have something to eat.
2100 (17275 km) Back at caravan park.

Fri 16 Sep 2011 Albany

1000 (16597 km) Breakfast of toast and cereal. Left caravan park. Filled up.

Greens Pool

1100 (16650 km) Denmark. Went to see the Visitor Centre. We were expecting to see the large barometer. However, apparently the donor had a disagreement with the shire and took it back. Oh well.

1130 (16671 km) Toffee factory. There were lots of toffee samples. The Chocolate Toffee was quite good. Then we tasted some apple and pear cider. Not really impressed. Could have been the toffee that we ate first. Next time, taste the cider first and then the toffee. There were also over 20 sauces/relishes to taste.

1215 (16676 km) Honey Meadery. First, we tasted the mead. The Honey Liqueur was very smooth and nice. Then we tasted the honey. The Moort honey was quite good. We found out that the "honey cappings" was unfiltered honey straight from the bees wax.

Waves don't bother us as we have no shoes on!

1230 (16682 km) Had lunch of sandwiches. Greens Pool. It was an amazing sight. There was a pool of clear calmer water. Just about 50 metres away was the mighty Southern Ocean crashing against a defensive row of rocks that protected the pool. Would have been great swimming and snorkeling if it wasn't so cold and windy. Went over to the Elephant Rock. We had to go through a narrow gap between two huge boulders and the waves intermittently washed into the gap. So we had to time our passage through the gap. We took some photos and it started to rain. We had to get back to the car quickly. Everyone was through the gap except CK and the waves filled the gap. Suddenly the water flowed out of the gap and CK rushed through without getting wet. But the rain had started so everyone ran back to the car and got wet anyway. Next time, CK should just take his sneakers off!

1430 (16759 km) Back in Albany. Went up to Mt Melville. Couldn't see much due to the rain except the wind farm. Had a look at the marina - there was a fishing jetty. Drove out to Emu Point and saw road signs with turtles! We didn't see any turtles crossing though. Then we saw Dog Rock. And the rock was quite large and really looked like a dog's head - and this is right in the middle of the town, right next to a main Rd

1800 (16782 km) Dinner of rice and tau yew bak. Played table tennis.

Thu 15 Sep 2011 Albany

0930 (16543 km) Had toast for breakfast. Left Albany.



With a 11m sperm whale skeleton



0945 (16566 km) Whaleworld. Went on a tour where we were shown the grisly whaling industry. The whaling station was closed in 1978. After the tour, we went around taking photos of the huge whale skeletons and watching the short movies. The Giants Exists was a 3-D movie with 3-D glasses about whales. The Sharks movie used props in the back of translucent screens to illustrate the story. The Whaling Industry movie had us standing on a high platform looking down. A Day of a Whaler had little projected people amongst whaling items. The movies were quite innovative in the use of technology and were quite enjoyable. After lunch of Ritz and Cruskits, we went on a Walk on Wild Side. It is an animal enclosure with nocturnal fauna such as possum, quoll, flying foxes, etc. There was also a very friendly kangaroo named Angus that gave MH a big cuddle. So cute!

On the shipCheynes IV

1420 (16566 km) Left Whaleworld.

1430 (10571 km) Blowhole. Walked down the path and the steps to the blowhole. MK and MH nearly got blown away by the blowhole. It was intermittently making loud noises and spraying mist into the air.

See the fine mist upper left part (the fuzzy bit)

1530 (16576 km) Natural Bridge. It is amazing how the huge bridge was being held up by itself. It looked as if it could fall at any time. Apparently there has been quite a number of accidents in the area and people have been swept off. The Gap. It is a narrow gap where the wave rushes in and creates a huge splash. Don't want to be caught swimming in there.

1605 (16597 km) Back at caravan park. Played in the playground. Had dinner of steak. It rained.

Wed 14 Sep 2011 Busselton to Albany

0915 (16114 km) Had cereal for breakfast. Left Seventh Day Adventist camp. Went shopping.
0930 (16126 km) Filled up.
0945 (16126 km) Left Busselton.

Bicentennial Karri tree

1130 (16265 km) Pemberton. Bought some smoked produce from Holy Smoke. Looks and smells good.

1200 (16278 km) Bicentennial Tree. Had rolls for lunch. This tree was launched on the Bicentennial Year 1988. CK, MJ and MH climbed up to the middle platform.  It was already quite high. MK & HM chickened out after 7-8m. HM's lack of exercise meant that her thighs were already feeling the effort and didn't want to risk wobbly legs on the precarious steps! The steps were just pegs driven into the tree. The top platform is 75 metres from the ground and on windy days can sway 1.5 metres either side. It was supposed to be used as a lookout tower for fires. The view was very good but the climb was scary.

 

1500 (16431 km) Valley of the Giants. We went on the Tree Top Walk. This was much easier than the Bicentennial Tree. This walk was a gradual climb on metal spans amongst the giant Red Tingle trees. We almost had our heads in the clouds. It was quite interesting that we had recently listened to the Roald Dahl story Giraffe, Pelly and Me where the Giraffe only ate the flowers from the Tingle Tingle trees. When we came back down to Earth, literally, we went to the Ancient Empire walk. The walk took us through a forest of Tingle and other interesting trees. The old Tingle trees had their base hollowed out by insects, fungi and fire. Some trees were so big that we could go into the base of the tree. One tree just formed an arch and we could walk right through it. In the past, there was a tree so large that a Ford car could drive into it. There is now a life size picture of a car where the kids could jump into back and appear to drive it.

1630 (16431 km) Left Valley of the Giants.

 
 1745 (16543 km) Albany Gardens Holiday Resort. Site 39. Had dinner of crabs, lasagna and Indomie. Showed the kids how to eat crabs - messy but fun. The pliers came in handy.

Tue 13 Sep 2011 Busselton

0930 (16066 km) Breakfast of toast and cereal. Left camp.

Busselton Jetty

In the Underwater Observatory

0940 (16078 km) Busselton Jetty. Bought family tickets for Busselton Jetty Under Water Observatory. We went on a train to go along the 1.8 km jetty, the longest wooden pile jetty. Along the train ride, we got to see dolphins! There were also some people fishing and crabbing along the jetty. The train sure beats walking. At the end of the jetty was the Underwater Observatory. It had really good information about marine life. There was also explanation about how tides are formed and how the Leeuwin current influenced the marine life. We climbed the spiral staircase 8m down into the ocean. At each level, there was more information about the marine life at that depth level. There were barnacles and lots of corals on the piles that supported all types of fish and marine life. At the bottom, we also saw a sea star. Some of the marine life we saw included a school of Skippy Jack, Silver Trevally, Mosaic, Cuttlefish, Sea Combs and Puffer Fish. Apparently the corals become more colourful in summer when they 'bloom'. It is a fascinating place, could have spent hours there but because of the limited space, every group only gets about 45 mins. 

View from Underwater Observatory

1215 (16078 km) Left the jetty and went to the Busselton Visitor Centre.

1305 (16091 km) Went back to camp and made toasted sandwiches for lunch. Explored the beach since we were right on the beach.

1700 (16091 km) Early dinner of pasta carbonara, so that we can go crabbing.

1830 (16102 km) Busselton Jetty. Under the lights of the jetty, we caught 2 trumpet fish in the crab net. And 5 legal sized crabs. We threw back a few that were under sized. It was fun to see the crabs swimming in the water and trying to catch it with a drop net. It wasn't easy. The drop net was quite effective in catching the crabs on the ocean floor. Highly recommended to go crabbing when in Busselton.

2035 (16114 km) Saw a possum on the drive back to camp.

Mon 12 Sep 2011 Busselton

1000 (15814 km) Left camp.



See the seals sunbaking? There's one in the middle sitting up



1030 (15842 km) Cape Naturaliste. Went for a walk. There was a place known as the Other Side of the Moon but it wasn't very interesting. Saw Western Shingleback Lizards, Humpback Whales and seals. Had sandwiches for lunch.

The waves were huge and very turbulent, gushing into the canal - you can see how high it is in the back

1320 (15874 km) Canal Rocks. It is quite interesting how the gneiss rocks (metamorphic rocks) have been formed with cracks and joints and then weathering created the canals. Water was being forced through various canals and gaps in the rocks so there were huge waves. At one of the gaps, the water build up is so great it looks like a horizontal waterfall. We crossed a bridge to go over to the 'other side' of the canal. The waves were surging under us, we were getting worried that the waves would wash the bridge out and we would be stuck on the other side.

1405 (15896 km) Margaret River Chocolate Company. Very nice new building with lots of yummy looking chocolate. We had our fill of very nice smooth chocolate samples- white, milk and dark chocolate. Fonti Farm Cheese Factory. Tried a whole series of cheeses. According to HM, the Emmental Swiss Cheese would have been sublime on her potato dauphinois. There was even some yogurt to try.
1515 (15907 km) Candy Cow Lolly Shop. There were a number of fudge flavours to try. Kids were allowed two flavours and adults were allowed five flavours. Of course, the kids had to try the bubblegum fudge. We bought 45 cm of pucker sucker sherbet. Quite a novel way to sell the sherbet. First buy a length of tube. Then fill it with whatever flavours.
1615 (15971 km) Cape Leeuwin. Saw the lighthouse and took some photos of the point where the Indian Ocean meets the Southern Ocean. Had a look at the old water wheel. It is now salt encrusted and so it is not spinning anymore but the structure is still there. The kids found some crabs hiding in the gaps.
1800 (16066 km) Back at camp. Had chicken fajitas for dinner.

Sun 11 Sep 2011 Perth to Busselton

1015 (15534 km) Had croissant and toast for breakfast. Left Perth.

A group of dolphins swam past

1130 (15627 km) Port Bouvard Marina. Went fishing. MH caught a herring but lost it. MK caught a large salmon. It was so large that it swam very quickly and broke the fishing line. There goes the hooks and new burley cage. If a salmon is found with hooks and a burley cage still stuck to it, it is MK's. Had to make up a new line for MK. Suddenly, we saw some dolphins right in front of us! They were jumping around and playing. We saw them leap out of the water and spun in the air. Just like in Seaworld. And all this right in front of us and for free. Had sausage rolls for lunch. In the morning, the tide was going to the left (into Peel Inlet) and by afternoon, the tide was going the right (to the sea).

1420 (15627 km) Left Port Bouvard.

1645 (15791 km) Busselton. Seventh Day Adventist Camp. Site V2. There was only one other couple staying there. We were right by the beach - fantastic location and so peaceful with the sound of waves lulling us to sleep. Dinner of spiral bolognaise.

One of the undersized crabs we caught

1945 (15802 km) Busselton Jetty. Went fishing, squidding and crabbing. MH's line somehow caught a flying sea gull. Tried to bring it to shore to free it but it broke free. Hope it is OK. We caught some crabs and threw them back since they were under legal size. There were lots of crabs swimming around - it's an amazing sight seeing crabs swimming, they don't seem to have the right shape for swimming around.

2145 (15802 km) Left the jetty.

2200 (15814 km) Back at camp.