Fremantle to Pemberton

Well, our drive down to the Southern Coast wasn't the easiest of days. We set off at around 8:30am from Fremantle and I had only managed to grab 4 hours' sleep that night.... so to say I was tired was an understatement but I didn't want to lose half a day catching up on my sleep - too much to do ! We had wanted to try and swim with dolphins and were told the Dolphin Discovery Centre in Bunbury was the best place as they come to the shore and you can snorkel and interact with them - they even take the more experienced swimmers out to the sea. It was Janet's only option as she can get terribly sea sick on any boat/ship and this would have meant not having to board one at all. Unfortunately, we were also told that over the last 3 weeks they came in at 8am, and sometimes stayed till 10am.... which was just too early for us to get there on time. We were not able to get to the car hire place before 8am (when it opened - then we had to get a cab to get there) and it was a 90mns drive from Perth.

We went to the centre anyway, just in case, as they are wild dolphins and can sometimes come back later, but they didn't. Saying that, the write ups on the board indicated that only 4 males, a female and her calf came to the shore regularly when travel books had led us to believe that up to 100 bottle nosed dolphins came here. Plus the weather was pretty bad, colder than yesterday and the sea was too rough to go in. All in all not the picturesque shore featured in magazine and not the experience you'd dream of...

We therefore kept going all the way to Pemberton, which was about 5 hours away. It meant a lot of driving and very few places where to stop but it was the only way to see some of the parks in South Western Australia. The guide book we had bought recommended 2-3 weeks to take in this beautiful area, and we had only allowed 4 days ! AND, I may add, you waste 1/4 of your time getting there and back, but it was better than nothing. We keep saying that we can always come back one day and do it at a more leisurely pace... We passed many quaint 'villages' (one main street) that looked almost identical to the ones you'd see in the USA. I guess it's because both countries are fairly young and both have so much open space? Almost no houses here has 1 or 2 storeys, it's usually all one level with acrres of land around it.

We eventually reached Gloucester National Park which is famed for a tree that is 40m high. They have put a ladder next to it and there is a viewing platform at the top. This was not for the faint-hearted and we only got 1/5th of the way up and came down again... Even though it gets dark at 6:30pm here by 5:00pm the light can be too dull to take great shots if it's overcast but thankfully I had my flash gun as we saw lots of colourful birds, mainly the rosella 'something'(all colours of the rainbow) and others that were parrot like and very green with a yellow ring around their neck and even some dark purple cookatoos (spelling?). It is always a treat to see them fly in the wild and we actually saw more hanging around the car park than in the forest.

After that we had to look for a b&b as we had not booked anything for the night, as we didn't know where we'd end up. The one we had set our heart on was already fully booked but the lady was kind enough to let us admire the fairy wrens in her garden. We had been looking out for these stunning cobalt blue birds all day (famous in this area) but had not really succeeded till then. She called around for us and found her a great place up the road, the Kajamarri (after the many marri trees, very tall with white bark) which was very very spacious. We got a 'last minute deal' and got it half price and it had a studio on the ground floor and a large double bedroom upstairs with a balcony. The owners were also very nice and had the cutest little dog, Buster, who was like a crossed white poddle and wanted to be friends with everybody - double treat!

After a nice meal in town (they do have lots of great restaurants here, not not much choice for vegetarians, it has to be said), we retreated to our base and tried to get a good night's sleep. There were no shops open past 5pm so I couldn't log on at all....

Pemberton to Denmark

The next morning we thought we'd focus on exploring the region so that we would cut the driving hours in half. We were told to go to Beedleup NP to see the waterfall, but it was a bit disappointing as it didn't rain a lot lately so there wasn't as much water as there should have been. Wherever we went they had superb facilities, really well built tracks, sturdy bridges over water, etc. And they even had a local FM100 station that broadcasted pre recorded information on the park so that you'd know more about the flora and fauna and history of the place.

We then drove onto Warren NP which was our favourite for the day. Again, hundreds of these beautiful trees... they looked so atmospheric that they reminded me of paintings in chidren's fairy tale books. We saw some wild flowers in the forest but again, not as many as there would have been mid-August. We had arrived at the end of the Spring when I really thought we'd timed it to be early. The big thrill of the day is that we saw some emus ! We saw about 10 in a meadow and Janet assumed we'd found an emu farm till 3 suddenly crossed the road in front of us, about 10mns later, in the middle of the forest... we exchanged glances, wondering if they had managed to escape.... till someone told us later that no, there were wild emus, Australia's largest native birds. Emus are as high as ostriches but these ones had a blue beak and a different face, I had never seen any like that before. I tried to take a photo but my camera couldn't focus fast enough as they soon headed deep into the folliage and then we lost them as they were so well camouflaged.

Warren National Park has got a lovely quiet river flowing through it and we really wanted to hike by its banks but it started to rain on & off which spoilt the fun. We'd sometimes get to gorgeous spot and would have to wait a good 10 minutes for the sun to come out again so I could take decent shots where all the different shades of greens would be highlighted in the trees. Though I also took some in low light with my tripod and I just hope they won't look too dull - one of the downside about not having switched to digital is that I cannot check results till I am back in the UK. Janet's digital is 5 years old and very basic and she's hardly taking any photos as she feels her camera cannot cope with most difficult light conditions and she cannot adjust her settings. We will try to make it to an internet cafe at some point and add some shots to this blog if we can... no guarantee.... we both have no clue how to do this so would need to ask for help !

We stopped back in Pemberton for lunch (having completed a loop) and I had a divine vegetable korma quiche. We always try to eat outside when we can as the temperature remains fairly warm, even in the rain. They also have lots of quaint craft shops that Janet loves so much...

After that we headed down to the coast and did a treetop walk up to 40m high in the air, above some 300 year old marri trees. Great views from the top.. but not many birds. Still, there was hardly anybody so we could take our time and really enjoy it. It was just a slow incline all the way up and then down again, very civilised, not scary at all though sometimes the sturdy structure swang a bit in the wind.

We also walked around the Alley of the Giants, The Ancient Empire walk I think it was called... just as nice in a different way as sometimes trees can actually look far more impressive when you look up at them instead of down on them. Again, the trails were beautiful done, with lots of board walks to stop people treading on the trees' roots as they felt it helped them recover more quickly. They even have some woylies in this park which ressemble quokkas but are usually nocturnal so we didn't see any. But they had a poster explaining that after 75 years of foxes and cats being introduced in the park, by 1975 only 3 populations of woylies remained. The biggest recovery project was then started as the woylies had to be put on the 'endangered species' list. In March 99 42 pairs of woylies were introduced here and as they can breed rapidly they are now off the list - success !

We really enjoyed spending an hour there, the smell of the forest alone was well worth stopping over for. It had a hint of peppermint and lemon, and fern and freshly cut grass. You just wished you could put the air in a bottle and breathe it back in polluted London. By the time we had finished, we realised we were very low on petrol. And believe me, you do not see petrol stations very often at all here... thankfully we were only 12kms away from one otherwise we had visions of sleeping in the car... Janet even considered jogging to the next village as she's a faster runner than I was. We had the 'no petrol soon' symbol flash up for a few miles, having no idea how far the car would go on 'empty' as we didn't know it at all. Thankfully, we found a station that was open... then could not work out at all HOW to open the petrol tank cap... it wasn't twist, nor turn, nor push and twist... the lady in the shop had to come to our rescue. Thank God she knew otherwise I am not sure what would have happened next... There was a button on the side that you had to push... why that, don't ask me, it was baffling ! We are still passing very few cars wherever we go... this is one place where I could drive. I haven't seen ONE round-about yet... amazing. Janet even gave me an 'emergency' driving lesson in using an automatic car because should she get bitten by a snake one day (perish the thought) I'd have to get going and get some help as we could waste a long time waiting by the side of the road till we could flag someone down.

We hadn't seen as many kangaroos as we expected considering they are hundreds of them (but then we also only saw about 15 quokkas on Rottnest Island -18kms long- and they have 12,000 !!!). I saw one live one, Janet saw4 dead ones - by the side of the road. We even heard the story of a guy who had been killed by one... He was driving past a car who had hit a kangaroo, the dead kangaroo was flown up the air, landed on his car boot, went through his windscreen and killed him with a whipslash. Geeee... so we are ultra careful because most roos have a death wish and can pretend to go back in the bush and then jump on the road again right under your wheels.

We eventually reached Denmark which we thought was a good base for the night. Again, we tried to get to a b&b that was recommended in our Lonely Planet book, but the lady had just taken the last booking on the phone. It was the most gorgeous b&b with a fabulous terrace overlooking majestic views of the forests... as we parked in her car park, right on her lawn were 15 wild kangaroos too ! Our first proper sighting of wild kangaroos - ever (Janet first wins at 'who spots the first wildlife' game). We had seen wallabies on our last trip, but kangaroos are much higher. We even saw a mother with a joey in her pouch - Janet was totally taken by it, her first sighting of one. There were also lots of kokaburras flying around (my fav Australian birds - very cute but vicious).

Again, the lady who owned the gorgeous b&b offered to call around to find us a room (we had passed about 5 b&b with 'no vacancies' signs on. She found us The Grange up the road (opposite an alpaca farm ! They have many around here - more wildlife, I'm not complaining!). The lady who owns it is from Yorkshire (the nicest 'Australians' we have met on this trip have pretty much ALL been British). She recommended a nice restaurant just across the road, which was great as Janet could enjoy some wine without needing to drive again - plus we never like to drive at dusk in case we hit more wildlife as it's peak time for them to come out.

The guy at the car hire place had assumed we both liked wine and said we'll enjoy going round all the countless wineries with wine tasting facilities (this is the top area for vineyards)... Janet pointed out I never drink alcohol, so he said 'great, you can drink for two and she can drive then'... to which she had to point out that the flaw in the plan is that I don't drive either ! :) It is a bit of a shame I have to say... Having to do all the driving can make her mentally exhausted by the end of the day, though she does enjoy it at the time... since there is zero traffic 99% of the time the only worry is hitting wildlife...

Denmark to Green Pool & Stirling Range

The next day we decided to explore the coastline as we had been advised to take a look at some of the famed beaches... Our first stop was Ocean Beach which blew us both away. The beach was one thing (very white sand, very beautiful blue) but what seduced me the most was Wilson's Inlet which went out to the sea. The inlet was the width of a small blue river, crystal clear and pretty much the same colour than the rivers I snorkelled in, in Brazil and not much deeper than 1.5m. I was totally taken by it... the river then became gradually so shallow that it looked like a lagoon with soft green colours... and when a surfer used his board to cut across it, it looked like he was floating on air. I really wanted to swim in it as it looked SO inviting but time prevailed. We really wanted to go to the Stirling Range to see the wild flowers and we had also been advised to go to Green Pool further along the coast (a famous beach with natural rocks around it that formed a pool sheltered from waves).

On the way there we stopped at Light Beach which was even more beautiful. You could see that there would have been carpets of flowers a few weeks earlier, from pinks to purples to blues and yellows... and there were just enough of them left for us to realise how much we had missed out on by not planning our trip 2 months earlier --- saying that, who wants to go Australia in July/August when it's supposedly the hottest months in Europe? Seems a shame... but we were so taken by this that we kind of made a pact to come back in two years' time at the best time and explore a lot more of just Western Australia over 2-3 weeks (still a bit mad since the average person would do it in 2-3 months, but better than 3 days ! right ?).

I'm not a beach fan but I have to admit that the colours were truly mesmerising. Janet was just in her element... she "could have spent the whole day there with a book"... I could have spent the whole day there with a Notebook !

We then headed into the mountain range via Mt Barker (a boring place, but good enough to buy a sandwich as there were no coffee shops in the National Park). We were told that the trails could handle 2 wheel drives but it was a bit of an overstatement as we had to go real slow... It took us 1h30 to cross the 42kms range and we didn't even think it was worth it. Save for the ONE emu we saw who almost tried to commit suicide in front of us, and TWO large lizzards, that was it. Pretty much all the wild flowers had died already so the colours were all green with red soil tracks. They looked like the Scottish Highlands or Drakensberg in South Africa, or other similar landscapes... pretty enough, but not as spectacular as the coastline. We could not even be bothered to go for a hike ! I think I only took 2 photos, say no more...

We then got back to Denmark just on time to see the same colony of roos in the land nearest to our b&b. They live on this patch we were told (75 of them, though you usually only see groups of 15-20 max) so it was like going on a safari, at dusk with their heads and round ears sticking out of the tall grass. Tomorrow morning we will aim to see them again before our long drive back to Perth (well, 4h30 with the shortcut in the middle - dead boring route we were told, not much to see but rapeseed fields).

In the morning we will therefore try to explore the coastline around Albany, we were told that there are a few quokkas there... but mainly incredible scenery... All of this will depend on the weather though. You can get 4 seasons in one day here (just like the UK in that sense) and it can be overcast on & off... The moment the clouds come in, the whole sea colour becomes dull instead of striking and we both lose interest ! I managed to take 2 rolls of beach shots over the last 5 days and I'm not even a 'beach' fan as I said, so ... say no more. This is as beautifu as the Caribbeans... but without the palm trees (the ones they have in Western Australia are only about 1m high, with very black trunks and a fluffy head, as if it had had a bad hair day !).

Righteeo... gotta hit the sack now... LONG day tomorrow and even longer the day after (2 planes with 3 hours in between... leaving Perth at 10am, not getting to Kangaroo Island before 7pm). Some days are write-offs, it cannot be helped when you deal with such phenomenal distances...