Pemberton to Esperance and a walk through the Ancient Empire - Valley of the Giants

Big Brook Arboretum at Pemberton where we camped

Charlie starting to climb the Gloucester Tree at Pemberton

Me at the highest point of the air walk in the Valley of the Giants - note load limit - I think I'm that on my own!!!

Charlie at the entrance of the Ancient Empire in the Valley of the Giants

Grandma Jane with the Grandma Tingle Tree in the Ancient Empire

Charlie standing in one of the huge red tingle trees

Elephant rocks at Denmark - wonder why they're called that?!!

Charlie and Trev launching the boat on the Kalgan River  - Charlie looks as though he's doing a dance of the fairies!!

We thought it was a big fish but it was a stingray - very big though

Charlie, Barb, Trev and Jane - friends we keep meeting up with the on the road

Charlie and Trev in the boat that went nowhere!!

Jane standing under Wave Rock at Hyden

Entrance to Mulka's Cave at Hyden

Aboriginal paintings in the cave

Large hand print

More hand prints

Charlie standing in the "Hippos Yawn' at Hyden

Hyden's first power station - the town that time forgot

Sunset from Wave Rock caravan park

Orb spider and web on one of our walks

A little friend

Entrance to Cape Le Grand National Park in Esperance

Section of Lucky Bay, Cape Le Grand

Charlie still trying his luck on the beach at Lucky Bay

Ma and Pa - not a care in the world!!

Kangaroos going for their early morning job on the beach

Lucky Bay

Starfish on the beach

Someone was lucky and caught an Australian salmon

Hellfire Bay in Cape Le Grand

Big bloody seagull!!!!

Frenchman's Peak, Cape Le Grand - the view from the top is sensational but its a 2 hour hard walk!!

Our neighbour at our campsite

Jane and Clarrie relaxing over lunch

Well, where to start.  If up north was all about rocks then down south is all about lush forests of tall karri pines, beautiful beaches again, and cooler weather.  We left Augusta and made our way to Pemberton through lots of national parks.  Instead of staying at the caravan park we camped at the Big Brook Arboretum which was just a forest with long drop toilets.  Lovely and peaceful and only about 3 other vans there.  We did the Karri Forest Explorer drive which winds through some of the south-west's most magnificant karri forest.  It is really good as there are a series of tourist radio stops when we tuned to 100 FM giving us all the information about the area.

We went and had a look at the Gloucester Tree which is a climb of 60 metres to the lookout but the view is breathtaking (or so I'm told!!).  It is still used as a fire lookout tree today.  Very impressive.  We learned also that the Karri tree grows up to 90 metres and is the tallest tree in WA and one of the tallest in the world.

I had another little accident at Big Brook Arboretum - out for a walk and slipped on the rolley stones and went down like a ton of bricks, twisting my right ankle this time, swelling, bad grazes, infected the lot and no I wasn't wearing walking shoes - just thongs!!  Will I learn?  I hope so!!

We left Pemberton and drove on through more national parks, forests passing through Walpole and did the Valley of the Giants drive and tree top walk. That was magnificent and awe inspiring to drive through these huge towering karri trees and then to walk metres over the top of them.  It was quite a windy day and the suspension bridge was swinging out quite a lot in some parts but I managed to not fall off - miracle really because if anyone was going to it would be me.  We also walked through the Ancient Empire where we walked through a grove of veteran red tingle trees and saw the amazing "Grandma Tingle" which is estimated to be about 400 years old  plus many others.

We drove on from here to Denmark into a caravan park right at the river mouth where we met up with Barb and Trev again.  Denmark is a pretty little town with quite spectacular coastline and beautiful beaches but unfortunately the weather turned cold and rainy for the 3 days we were there so I don't think we fully appreciated it.  We did the "must see" touristy things including Greens Pool which is a sheltered natural lagoon with emerald coloured water but not the day we were there!!  We also went and saw Elephant Rocks which are truly amazing because as you come round the corner on the board walk they really do look like elephants.  Night time we went over to the big bus and had another game of sequence and once again the boys were annihilated but they are such bad losers - whinge, whinge!!!  They did get their own back the next night and won but only by one game but did you hear us girls whinge?  No of course not!!

From Denmark we followed the coast around to Albany and found a great caravan park on the banks of the Kalgan River about 12 kms out from Albany.  Great place with kangaroos hopping around, good fishing and crabbing and yes you've guessed it, Barb and Trev were there as well..  That's what we like about this life, we meet great people, move on and then end up meeting them again.  Charlie and Trev went fishing late one afternoon and Charlie hooked on to something big which we hoped was a mulloway.  He took about 45 minutes to bring it in only to find it was a huge sting ray but it put up a good fight and was quite exhausted by the time it was cut free and let go.  Charlie was also exhausted and had sore arm muscles the next day.  But the wonderful thing was while this was happening, I was skyping with my daughter in law Abbie in England and I walked down to the river with my phone (hanging on to it for dear life as I didn't want to drown a 3rd one) and she and our gorgy porgy granddaughter Millie watched Charlie land the ray.  Technology is fantastic!!!

The next day the boys decided to launch Trev's tinnie and go fishing but the motor failed so Trev put the electric one on and off they went but that one also failed and at 8 pm that night there they were paddling for all they were worth back up the river - talk about The Griswalds go Fishing!!  Sore muscles again the next morning and no fish.

We decided to do a detour from Albany up to Wave Rock at Hyden so after another farewell to Barb and Trev we took off.    Drove through the magnificent Stirling Range National Park in the Golden Outback, Lake Grace with no lake and on to Wave Rock.    Wave Rock is amazing - its part of a huge granite outcrop called Hyden Rock and really does look like a wave.    It is over 100 metres long and over 15 metres high.  We also went to see Mulka's cave which has 452 aboriginal motifs in the 3 caverns with lots of handprints.  Legend has it that Mulka was the offspring of an aboriginal woman who married someone who was not approved of by the clan.  Mulka was a giant of a man and lived in this cave but used to eat children!!!  Some of the handprints were certainly big!!  We also saw another rocky outcrop called The Hippo's Yawn and that also was incredible how it looked so much like a hippo's head and mouth.

We then drove down through the Wheat Belt to Esperance.  What a beautiful place with lots of spectacular beaches.  We camped in Cape Le Grand National Park in a place called Lucky Bay and I consider we were very lucky to be able to camp there.  It is just stunning!!  It is unspoilt and the sand is so white and the sea just azure blue with white frothy waves hitting the sand - I should write a travel blog!!  Seriously it is beautiful, kangaroos hopping and lazing around on the beach and we saw salmon jumping in the waves but unfortunately Charlie only caught herring which we smoked - yummy!!!  Met some lovely people there as well and had lots of happy hours.  The camp hosts, Penny and Alan, lost their roast leg of lamb to a kangaroo who stole it from the cobb oven - we all had to be careful not to leave things lying around.

After 5 days there just relaxing, fishing, walking, drinking, eating, we packed up reluctantly and made our way back to Esperance and stayed in the caravan park for a couple of days so that we could once again clean the car, van and stock up on provisions ready for the next stage of our trip but that will be the subject of another blog.

We are having a ball and don't want it to end but I suppose we are free agents so who knows.........

Adieu from The Wandering 2s.