Busselton

After our busy day in the Margaret River we had a quiet day yesterday. Today we took another country drive, this time east to Nannup, Balingup ( its those 'up' towns again) and Bridgetown. Glorious country with pine plantations , paddocks full of huge bales of hay, cattle fat and healthy. Very old towns,, we visited a cheese factory where we made friends with a nanny goat and her 2 kids, from there to a fruit winery where we purchased some peach and apricot wine, beautiful with cheese. The old cheese factory houses a craft shop like you would not believe, it goes from room to room with the most amazing goods, we were overwhelmed by it all. We stood and looked down on a mine site at Balingup before heading off to Bridgetown and a look at the jigsaw shop, some have over 9000 pieces, they are all framed and look awesome. Bridgetown is the only heritage listed town in South West Australia. We returned to Busselton via a gravel back road, a good choice the scenery didnt disappoint.

We left Busselton next morning after a very disturbing night, a very drunk couple decided to have a tiff right outside the van park about 10 feet from our van, we were too frightned to step outside and tell them off. Our journey took us through Dunsborough over to the Cape Naturaliste Lighthouse which you cant go through unless with a guide, as it was so early in the morning there was no one there so we continued on. On the drive on the Meelup road we met two fellows one on a Harley Davidson and the other on a Ducati, one had lost his keys so the other had to go back to Busselton for the spare set. Had a chat before continuing on our way. We took the Caves Road tourist drive and it was magnificent, past more wineries as we were still in the Margaret River region, some of the Wineries are state of the art, no wonder their wines are so expensive!! We took a detour through the Boranyup Karri forest, just fantastic, it was a slow drive with the van but worth it. We arrived in Augusta and set up camp, wind blowing a gale, surprise, surprise, went for a drive out to the Cape leeuwin Lighthouse, the most south westerly point in W.A. The Indian and Southern Oceans meet at this point. The old waterwheel was built in 1895 to carry water to the lighthouse cottages but is no longer in use and has calcified. We met up with Brett again whom we met in Busselton, he works for the mines in Newman and was taking some leave and driving around for a bit. We met him again at the park in Pemberton, hi Brett was nice talking to you, hope you enjoyed your time out.

Next morning saw us on the way again, the country was again magnificient, we have spent so much time following the coast and beaches it seem strange now following the forest trail. Arriving in Pemberton we did a bit of a drive around and saw the Glouchester tree, its a fire lookout and has 153 spiral pegs for those game enough to tackle it. With my leg still not 100% I was not game to try it. We had lunch at a King Trout farm, fresh Marron, smoked trout and crusted pan fried trout served on a platter with salad and dried fruits, great value at $52 and more than enough for two. Took the scenic road back which just happened to go past the Flamebird winery and we just had to buy a bottle didnt we.

Tuesday off we go again through the beautiful bush. Over to one tree bridge, 4 aces, which are 4 huge trees in a row, a King Jarrah over 600 years old, the Diamond tree lookout is 51 metres high only one of its kind on the world, it had a timber lookout tower at the top, I climbed about 10 rungs, that was enough. Called in at the Wine and Truffle Company, every wine we tasted was was divine, they are also a truffle farm and Tony couldnt resist buying a bottle of Truffle oil, a bargain at $20 for 100ml. Thanks to the gentleman who told us about the winery and farm, sorry we didnt get your name but you certainly know about your product and have such great enthusiam for it.

This morning we left Pemberton at 7am thinking we would need plenty of time to do the walks and things we wanted to do in Walpole. Unfortunately so many tourist places dont include those towing a van so we had to forgo a few things. However we did do the Valley of the Giants walk, out and over the treetops on a mass of suspension wires and cables, it was unbelievable to be walking at the treetops of these huge trees. Its difficult to do justice with photos but I hope you can grasp how gigantic these trees are. It was something I never thought would do and your knees go to jelly when you are right at the top. At $8 per person it was worth every cent. It was interesting to know that the Tingle tree is a soft hardwood and it has airpockets in it so renders it useless for manufacture. We walked through the forest and some are so huge you can walk through them, they can grow to 70 metres high and 20 metres around, think about it. Phil your dad would have been blown away at the size of the burls on the trees, he could have made some amazing things. We lunched at Peaceful bay before going onto Denmark where we will stay one night before going to Mt. Barker tomorrow. Its very windy again and we are still being plagues by flies, you cant imagine how bad they really are.